Topic: wierdest glitch ever (Read 4385 times)

Clear_Runway · « **on:** September 16, 2009, 12:38:18 PM »

Okay, so I have vista. I tamed it, don't worry. Anyway, through a fairly long sequence of events I don't want to bother to explain, I obtained two useless .dll files that would not delete. I tried every trick in the book, tried taking ownership(the permissions said I could delete it),tried the command prompt, even the hidden admin account couldn't delete it. It always said I didn't have permission.

But here's the weird thing: I could move them. I could even edit them. I just couldn't delete them.

Weird, I know.

I finally got rid of them by moving them to a flash drive, then formatting it.

anyone hear of anything like this?

xolik · « **Reply #1 on:** September 16, 2009, 01:42:27 PM »

I had some files I couldn't delete no matter what once, and the move trick worked. It was something about a corruption in where the file was recorded in the FAT or something to that effect. I think chkdsk can fix it as well.

ivan · « **Reply #2 on:** September 16, 2009, 01:52:12 PM »

A quick googling revealed a slew of similar occurances, but no clear consensus on either the best method of removing undeletable files, nor what exactly makes them undeletable and why. The method I have employed in the past was almost the same -- I copied the files to a removable drive, removed it, placed it on a stump, and deleted the drive with a sledgehammer. Your method is not as noisy, but my method actually deletes the files. You may THINK you've deleted the files when you formatted your flash drive, but in reality they were copied to the MetaFolder, an inter-dimensional partition, where they will continue to reside for all eternity chewing up inter-dimensional disc space. If you use my method, wear goggles.

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #3 on:** September 16, 2009, 02:48:31 PM »

I'll do that. I considered it earlier, but then figured I could just format it.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #4 on:** September 16, 2009, 04:08:03 PM »

Quote from: ivan on September 16, 2009, 01:52:12 PM

A quick googling revealed a slew of similar occurances, but no clear consensus on either the best method of removing undeletable files, nor what exactly makes them undeletable and why. The method I have employed in the past was almost the same -- I copied the files to a removable drive, removed it, placed it on a stump, and deleted the drive with a sledgehammer. Your method is not as noisy, but my method actually deletes the files. You may THINK you've deleted the files when you formatted your flash drive, but in reality they were copied to the MetaFolder, an inter-dimensional partition, where they will continue to reside for all eternity chewing up inter-dimensional disc space. If you use my method, wear goggles.

Which is why sometimes in Windows you can get the frustrating and seemingly non-sensical error message "insufficient disk space" when you're trying to delete something...

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #5 on:** September 16, 2009, 04:33:26 PM »

Wait, was ivan serious about the "metafolder" thing? And could demosthenes please explain how such an error message could occur? I cant find anything about this.

ivan · « **Reply #6 on:** September 16, 2009, 04:59:18 PM »

The Second Law of Thermodynamics implies very strongly that files can't be erased, only transformed into a different state. The MetaFolder is a hypothetical construct. When people lament permanent deletions, like when they empty their Recycling Bins prematurely, I console them with the comforting thought that all good files go to the MetaFolder.

Demosthenes' Catch-22 of file deletions probably can't happen in any Windows after Windows-98. Nowadays we get the more reasonable message "Insufficient disk space to store file in Recycling Bin, deletion will be permanent" (or some-such). But yes, I seem to remember back in the Win 3.0 days having to pop out to DOS to delete files when the disk got too full.

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #7 on:** September 16, 2009, 05:00:49 PM »

ah. sorry for looking like an idiot. :p

Demosthenes · « **Reply #8 on:** September 16, 2009, 05:01:46 PM »

Quote from: ivan on September 16, 2009, 04:59:18 PM

Demosthenes' Catch-22 of file deletions probably can't happen in any Windows after Windows-98. Nowadays we get the more reasonable message "Insufficient disk space to store file in Recycling Bin, deletion will be permanent" (or some-such). But yes, I seem to remember back in the Win 3.0 days having to pop out to DOS to delete files when the disk got too full.

Bullshit. I've seen it numerous times on Windows Server 2003. It happens when you are at absolute ZERO bytes free on a disk and you tell it to delete a large number of files (and I don't mean just one or two, I mean like one or two thousand).

Windows, as a part of its deletion process dumps a list of what it's going to blow away to a temporary metafile and barfs when it has insufficient space to do that.

ivan · « **Reply #9 on:** September 16, 2009, 05:02:24 PM »

Well, there you go.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #10 on:** September 16, 2009, 05:07:46 PM »

I only bring it up because BizB asked me about it the other day when he got it at work, presumably on a machine newer than Windows 98.

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #11 on:** September 16, 2009, 05:56:28 PM »

how on earth do you fill up every single byte on a disk? doesnt windows stop working properly once you get too full?

Demosthenes · « **Reply #12 on:** September 16, 2009, 06:11:41 PM »

Quote from: Clear_Runway on September 16, 2009, 05:56:28 PM

how on earth do you fill up every single byte on a disk? doesnt windows stop working properly once you get too full?

Indeed it does. And that's one of the things that makes this particular stupid error so frustrating.

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #13 on:** October 02, 2009, 01:50:48 PM »

another wierd glitch, though this ones probably my own darn fault:

Quote

<html>
<head>
<title>Lottery</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3 style="text-align:center"> Like to Gamble?</h3>
<p>
"what should be he highest number to be drawn?"
<input type="text" id = "gamblebox" size = "10" value="" />
</p>
<p>
<input type="button" value = "draw!"
onclick="
N = document.getElementById('gamblebox').value;

N = N/10
N = N*10
A = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());
B = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());
C = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());
D = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());
document.getElementById('box1').value = A;
document.getElementById('box2').value = B;
document.getElementById('box3').value = C;
document.getElementById('box4').value = D;
"; />
</p>
<p>
<input type="text" id="box1" size = "10" value"" />
</p>
<p>
<input type="text" id="box2" size = "10" value"" />
</p>
<p>
<input type="text" id="box3" size = "10" value"" />
</p>
<p>
<input type="text" id="box4" size = "10" value"" />
</p>
</body>
</html>

now that that's over, please feel free to cut and paste it into notepad and see what it does in a browser
notice line 16 and 17. without them. the values in the output boxes are ten times what they should be. with just line 16, they are 1/10th of what they should be.

of course, I'm a terrible coder. please ignore the horrible crappiness that is my code and explain why it does this. sorry to bother you all but I was just wondering why it does this.

BizB · « **Reply #14 on:** October 02, 2009, 02:07:46 PM »

Need to subtract ZERO from the value of the input field when you assign the value of N.
N = document.getElementById('gamblebox').value - 0;
A = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());
B = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());
C = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());
D = Math.floor((N+1)*Math.random());

document.getElementById('box1').value = A;
document.getElementById('box2').value = B;
document.getElementById('box3').value = C;
document.getElementById('box4').value = D;

Otherwise, you're collecting a string and adding a "1" to it concatenates the "1" onto the string. So, you enter "10" in the input box and it changes it to "101".

Also, add "readonly" to your box1 -> box4 so that users can't think they're smrt and type in there.

<input type="text" id="box3" readonly size="10" value"" />

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #15 on:** October 02, 2009, 02:17:06 PM »

I may be pretty good with computers, but my code routinely lays eggs.

BizB · « **Reply #16 on:** October 02, 2009, 02:29:09 PM »

I'm not all that fantastic, either. I've just screwed up enough times that I know how to debug with the best. To debug your code, I...

Did an alert on the value of N. (Nothing wrong there)
Did an alert on the value of Math.floor(N+1) and saw that it was wrong.

That narrowed down the issue considerably.

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Author Topic: wierdest glitch ever (Read 4385 times)