How to delete a "phantom" folder from pool?

[Zefiris]

Hi!

 

I managed to add a folder to the pool which consists of a space at the end.

Windows now doesn't recognize the folder correctly, which ends in the unability to move/rename/delete the folder or access contents of it.

 

If it was my work-PC I would just boot a Linux live-CD and delete the folder (folder-contens are unimportend). As far as I know the easiest solution.

 

But since the folder is part of the pool, how do I delete said "phantom" folder without risking pool integrity or dataloss?

 

Thx, Zefiris

[Alex]

The pool is simply a combined view of all the hidden "PoolPart..." folders on each drive that is part of the pool.

 

If you go into each hidden PoolPart... and delete the folder from there then StableBit DrivePool will have no issue with that.

 

However, if the folder contains files then you will want to perform a "Re-measure" task afterwards. That's available under pool options, and it will update the statistics.

 

But I'm curious how you managed to create a "phantom folder" in the first place?

[Zefiris]

Thanks for the fast reply.

 

But I'm curious how you managed to create a "phantom folder" in the first place?

 

Actually it was quite easy. I copied part of a text from a web-page I wanted to use as folder name and it still had a space at the end when I pasted it to the input field of Windows Explorer. Usually Explorer would automatically cut off that space at the end, but not this time. It might have included some kind of invisible control character or something like that.

 

When trying to move files to that folder short after creating, Windows Explorer said that the folder is not present on the drive anymore. After refreshing with F5 I suddenly had two folders with the same name, one with the space at the end and one without, and the moved files ended up in the folder without space at the end.

 

I think some windows libraries for file management just do not pass over or process the whole folder name with space. So they end up trying to move/rename/delete a folder with the same name just without the space at the end, which of cause is not present on the drive, since you can still create a new folder with the same name without space at the end and by right clicking and selecting delete on the folder with space at the end you end up deleting the one without space.