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Removing the Folder having ASCII Character From the Drive
By Harshal.A.Chaudhari
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Most of the time ppl save there data & restrict access to there folder by simply adding some ASCII character in the name of folder.So that no one can either view there document nor modify or delete them.So then the question arises in mind how to view or delete such folders.Now without wasting anytime let's get started.
* There are 2 way's in which we can solve the problem ( as far as i can think )
1. U can go to Dos prompt and Note the ASCII character at the end of the folder name by simply typing a "dir /ad" command without " " and that will show u the ASCII character.
(e.g) as follows
Suppose the folder name is harsh on c Drive
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C:\>dir /ad
Volume in drive C is HARSHAL
Volume Serial Number is 3D40-0AEA
Directory of C:\
RECYCLED DIR 08-02-02 9:41a RECYCLED NCDTREE DIR 02-15-00 4:13a NCDTREE INDOWS DIR 02-15-01 3:41a INDOWS PROGRA~1 DIR 02-15-01 3:47a Program Files SBPCI DIR 02-14-00 4:29a SBPCI HARSH- DIR 09-09-02 12:08p harsh- <- Here it is!! MYDOCU~1 DIR 07-03-02 12:23p My Documents WINDOWS DIR 07-03-02 9:21p WINDOWS _RESTORE DIR 05-04-02 1:58p _Restore ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note the ASCII character - at the end of directory named
harsh.All u have to do is scroll through the ASCII Character
table searching for the ASCII character in the table,which in our
case is - and look for the corresponding numerical value. So as i
scroll through the ASCII table i got the numerical value 196(
this is in decimal ) for the ASCII character - in ur
case......... that's all Hey u have done it!! man. Now all u have
to do is just type "ren harsh- harsh" on DOS prompt
without " " and the folder is renamed to harsh .Now u
can view or delete the folder as u wish ;-)
Or
As u saw it may be a boring job to scroll through the ASCII character table searching for that end character so here is a nice idea .....In this method u can try to rename the folder by appending each ASCII character at the end of folder name ...make a simple c program use the system ( ) function & try to rename the folder which is locked by going in a loop.The folder won't be renamed untill the last ASCII character will match & as soon as it match's it will rename the folder & come out of the loop u can also save that ASCII character so that u can know which character it was.
* Second method *
2. This is a Bit Advanced Stuff . To understand this u must know how data is actually store on Hard Disk & detail's of
a) Master Boot Record (MBR)
b) Boot record
c) Root directory
I assume that u know the above things. Now as we all know that
each folder has it entry in Root Directory.I thought of editing
the Root Directory & eliminating the ASCII character at the
end of the name of folder.I know what u will be thinking why to
do such a tedious job if we can follow the first method......But
my friends some times we are not allowed to access the Dos prompt
by Sys-Administrator.Still u can do ur job by executing the c
program which i told u, But u should know the core hence i am
presenting this method. Ok let start we will take the same above
example say harsh is folder on C Drive which is locked. For this
u must reach the Root Directory ( that Sector ) the way would be
as follows
In Master Boot Record ( look in the Partition Table Entries for
starting sector )
|
Starting Sector ( Boot Sector )
|
Root Directory ( nothing but some Sector's,location
can be calculated from Boot Sector )
*The display of Root Directory is as follows
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NAME Ext Id Size Date Time Cluster Attribites ROOT Vol 0 2-14-00 5:27 am 0 A - - - - V RECYCLED Dir 0 8-02-02 9:41 am 2,566 - - S H D - NCDTREE Dir 0 2-15-00 4:13 am 122,503 - - - - D - BOOTLOG PRV File 26272 7-03-02 9:44 pm 385 A - - H - - SUHDLOG --- File 9145 2-15-01 3:50 am 16,510 - - - - - - DETLOG TXT File 73506 7-04-02 11:28 pm 182,813 A - S H - - MSDOS --- File 22 2-15-01 3:40 am 22,803 - - - H - - SETUPLOG TXT File 106656 7-03-02 9:33 pm 19,970 A - - H - - SETUPLOG OLD File 128338 7-03-02 1:00 pm 34,748 - - - H - - INDOWS Dir 0 2-15-01 3:41 am 14,369 A - - - D - SUHDLOG DAT File 9145 7-03-02 9:26 pm 218,824 - R - H - - SCANDISK LOG File 13781 9-05-02 6:15 pm 231,611 A - - - - - BOOTLOG TXT File 627 7-28-02 11:57 am 3,944 A - - H - - HARSH- Dir 0 9-09-02 12:08 pm 33,299 - - - - D - .................. ... .... .... ....... ..... ...... ...........
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Now see the entry for our folder harsh is also there along with
that ASCII character - All u have to do is read the sector
( Root Directory ) in buffer modify (remove ascii character ) the
location at which the ASCII character is located & then
write to the sector again. I suggest that u should write a
Program for that,infact i am writing one it's in finishing stage
i will post
it here as soon as i complete it , because i had taken a simple
example here,if the folder was in some other folder then the
story is bit different ;-). Anyway's I might add that afterwords.
Bye 4 now.Hope it was useful & u like it.
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CREDITS
1). I Thank Astalavista.com
for giving me an opportunity to write this Tutorial.
2). It goes to Rajesh.chaudhari ,
my Mom & Dad , Sagar.S , Nilesh.C ,Anirudha.B ,Mayur.S
& all friends whom i forgot to
mention here ,coz What i am today is because of them.
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U can Contact & Share ur view with me at
gj007_in@yahoo.com if i could be of any help
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