Untouchable Folder

[kassis]

I have done my fair share of searching online for ways to fix this one, and I have had no luck. For the record, I am above average when it comes to my computer competency, so I know what I am doing for the most part. Let me lay down a description of the issue:

I was downloading an mp3 (spare me your moral objections), or what I thought was an mp3. Apparently the file was disguised as an mp3 and was in fact a virus. This virus, however, disrupts any action that comes near it. Let me give a few examples:

Actions that cause crashes by the infected file:

-hovering mouse over folder

-Clicking folder

-Selecting folder in any way

-Starting windows explorer

-using command "dir" in the dos prompt to look in the folder

-using command "del" on or in the folder

-trying to replace the folder itself with a new one

-using antivirus programs to search and destroy the file

The list goes on, and by the way, all these things happen in safe mode as well.

From what I can tell, trying to touch that folder is not an easy task, and I have tried everything under the sun from trying to outsmart it with a new folder or go through the dos command lines to delete it or move it, etc.

I am out of ideas at this point on how to delete the file or the folder itself that it resides. The best idea I have now is to find a way to disable the crashing of programs or error messages by windows explorer to force delete it somehow. I have no clue how to do that. As a final note, I do not want to reformat if at all possible; I no longer have my xp disk. Oh, and I am running XP Pro, if that helps at all. I look forward to your suggestions; BE CREATIVE!

Mike

[Idontwantspam]

Wow. That's one heck of an annoying problem!

I would recommend you try using a BartPE disk and using its file management utility to navigate to and attempt to destroy that folder. However, be forewarned that the system may be infected elsewhere. It might be a good idea to back up data and reinstall. Is this an OEM install? Some companies (Dell, HP, maybe others) provide a restore partition where you can press a special key and it'll reimage the whole disk to how it was when you first got the computer.

[bledd]

have you tried installing nod32 and letting that scan your pc

how can an mp3 file be excecuted as a virus anyway? was it a .mp3.exe file? if so, then you should know better

try putting the drive in another pc, or using a live boot disc, like a linux one

[kassis]

I will give the folder destruction idea a try and let you know how it goes. I could care less if I lose the 1000 or so songs in that folder; I just want to be able to use explore again. (one of my most used applications).

@bledd: As for the mp3 file, I was tired of finding the song I was looking for because I was getting a ton of fake mp3 files, so I selected a batch of 20 or so files and clicked download and apparently, one of those files was the villain to this story. I was careless and got what I deserved, no doubt. However, I learned my lesson and I'm hoping to get this problem resolved asap lol.

So ya, I'll give your suggestions a try, and in the mean time, anyone else who has creative ideas on this problem, feel free to post; I'm open to all suggestions. Peace guys.

Mike

P.S. I just tried BFU (Brute Force Uninstall), that was a no-go as well.

Edited November 9, 2007 by kassis

[kassis]

HAHAHA, I finally fixed it! I feel really smart lol. Anyways, let me give you a small walkthrough of what I went through and how I fixed it, hopefully this will help some people. BTW, you may find my fix very anticlimactic.

So, I went back to my old idea that I tried a while back to replace the contaminated folder. Except, each time I replaced the folder, all the files would transfer over, and I was never given the option to decline that transfer. I had the idea to make a new mp3 file and name it the same name as the contaminated file, but the problem was, I couldn't find out the name of it because just trying to view the contents of the folder would shut down my programs. This lead me in circles for a while until I had an epiphany! I decided to head back to the source of the evil itself, Frostwire (my download program). I knew from experience that I could open the program for a limited time and use it until I minimized it, which would cause it to close and not open until a reboot. So, deflated from hours of tangoing with this monkey, I rebooted my pc and used the dos box to use command lines to rename the folder from "shared" to "no open" so I would remember to stay away lol. Anyways, doing this allowed frostwire to work for a bit because it wasn't trying to access the folder. What I was planning on doing next was to re-route the download target to my "no open" folder just for a few seconds so I could get a peek at the file name (which I still didn't know). I changed the target name, went to my mp3 folder and viola! I saw the name of that bad a** mutha and copied it right away. Like expected, after about 10 seconds, the program encountered an error and closed...BUT I now had the name of the file saved to my clipboard! What I did next was went to my computer then to one file above the contaminated one, and made a new folder called "no open" and created an mp3 file inside with the same name as the contaminated file. All that was left was to drag and drop the new folder into the other folder and overwrite...IT WORKED! This just goes to show, sometimes the simplest fixes are the best. I really hope no one has to go through the issues I did, but if you do, just do a simple overwrite (assuming you have the file name on hand). Thank you for all your help guys. Peace.

Mike