Observation about NTI Shadow
Lord Possum
I suppose NTI Shadow does a fine job, if you need that kind of backup.
I downloaded an went thru the process once or twice over a week or two,
but then decided that I wasn't going to use it that much, and went to
uninstall it.
Uh-Oh! It would not uninstall. May have been a faulty install in the
first place, I dunno. But, it only seemed to delete the main folder in
Program Files. Residue of registry entries were very much still intact.
Well, let's clean out the Registry manually. (This is not for the lay
user). I got rid of all the references to NTI Shadow in all the places
I could find. But, then I discovered ...
... NTI Shadow had manufactured a backup system TWENTY-SIX folder levels
deep in the Documents and Settings folder. And .. Windows could not or
would not delete them .. specifying there was something in the basement
of that stack that was undeletable, and thus, none of the levels above
it could be touched. And, some of the names of those folders in the
stack were in excess of 250 characters in length!!
OK .. we go to REAL DOS! Well .. remember now, REAL DOS cannot travel
below 7-8 levels, and could not delete any folders/files below that.
DELTREE, RM, DelAll .. all my favorite nuclear-powered DELETE helpmeets
could not touch anything in REAL DOS below the 7th level.
But, then I stumbled upon a nifty program (trial) called DelFXPFiles.
That trial would not delete a recursive stack in trial mode, but did
allow me to go down 26 flights of stairs and delete the penultimate
bottom of the stack, and then each folder/file behind me as I backed
up the stack one-at-a-time. The paid version would allow recursive
deletion of the whole stack.
Some freeware giveaways just ain't worth it. It's a good way to
hide stuff, though. Any software writer or virus/trojan artist
could put stuff waaaay down in the basement where neither you or
your antivirus can detect it... or get too tired of descending
that many steps.
Lord Possum
Franklin
> Uhhh .. where to start!?
>
> I suppose NTI Shadow does a fine job, if you need that kind of
> backup. I downloaded an went thru the process once or twice over
> a week or two, but then decided that I wasn't going to use it that
> much, and went to uninstall it.
>
> Uh-Oh! It would not uninstall. May have been a faulty install in
> the first place, I dunno. But, it only seemed to delete the main
> folder in Program Files. Residue of registry entries were very
> much still intact.
>
> Well, let's clean out the Registry manually. (This is not for the
> lay user). I got rid of all the references to NTI Shadow in all
> the places I could find. But, then I discovered ...
>
> ... NTI Shadow had manufactured a backup system TWENTY-SIX folder
> levels deep in the Documents and Settings folder. And .. Windows
> could not or would not delete them .. specifying there was
> something in the basement of that stack that was undeletable, and
> thus, none of the levels above it could be touched. And, some of
> the names of those folders in the stack were in excess of 250
> characters in length!!
>
That'sa bit of deliberately nasty work by NTI.
If I hit this sort of deep stacking with very long filenames then
sometimes XP's File Explorer lets me move the final few directories
to the root directory of the drive (and assuming that the total
path/folder name is below 256 characters).
If not then I reckon it's down to specialist deleters like the
DelFXPFiles you mentioned. I must add it to my list. I've had good
results with these two:
Delete Doctor http://www.diskcleaners.com/
Pocket Killbox http://www.killbox.net/
DelinvFile http://www.purgeie.com/delinv/
Somehave said Unlocker can delete obstinate files too
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
DelAny was once recommended in ACF but it's not one I've tried
http://seconfig.sytes.net/delany/
> OK .. we go to REAL DOS! Well .. remember now, REAL DOS cannot
> travel below 7-8 levels, and could not delete any folders/files
> below that. DELTREE, RM, DelAll .. all my favorite nuclear-powered
> DELETE helpmeets could not touch anything in REAL DOS below the
> 7th level.
>
> But, then I stumbled upon a nifty program (trial) called
> DelFXPFiles. That trial would not delete a recursive stack in
> trial mode, but did allow me to go down 26 flights of stairs and
> delete the penultimate bottom of the stack, and then each
> folder/file behind me as I backed up the stack one-at-a-time. The
> paid version would allow recursive deletion of the whole stack.
>
> Some freeware giveaways just ain't worth it. It's a good way to
> hide stuff, though. Any software writer or virus/trojan artist
> could put stuff waaaay down in the basement where neither you or
> your antivirus can detect it... or get too tired of descending
> that many steps.
>
> Lord Possum
>
Very unpleasant trick by NTI Shadow. Ughh! It would also prevent
you copying any parts of Documents And Settings which included NTI's
handiwork.
Mark Blain
127.0.0.1:
My sympathies: the built-in but little-used Windows "PAX" program once
clobbered me like that. The usual tricks are dragging a lower part of
the path higher in the directory tree as Franklin mentioned, or renaming
upper folders in the path to shorten the length.
(OFF-TOPIC: For command-line junkies only, there's a prefix \\?\ to
increase the usable path length from 256 to 32,000 characters documented
at... http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247.aspx )
Thomas Lauer
> ... NTI Shadow had manufactured a backup system TWENTY-SIX folder levels
> deep in the Documents and Settings folder. And .. Windows could not or
> would not delete them .. specifying there was something in the basement
> of that stack that was undeletable, and thus, none of the levels above
> it could be touched. And, some of the names of those folders in the
> stack were in excess of 250 characters in length!!
Two remarks. First, if you get yourself a decent command-line processor
(TCC/LE from http://jpsoft.com is freeware, so we have the right angle
here), such chores are not too bad. Even if used only in emergencies,
this sort of program should be in everyone's toolbox.
Second, there's system command called subst. Here's its help screen;-)
> 0 10:46 F:\ >subst /?
> Associates a path with a drive letter.
>
> SUBST [drive1: [drive2:]path]
> SUBST drive1: /D
>
> drive1: Specifies a virtual drive to which you want to assign a path.
> [drive2:]path Specifies a physical drive and path you want to assign to
> a virtual drive.
> /D Deletes a substituted (virtual) drive.
>
> Type SUBST with no parameters to display a list of current virtual drives.
subst can be used to shorten an overly long pathname by substituting a
(longish) part or even all of the path with a drive letter and using
that drive to refer to the path, like this:
subst u: c:\veryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryverylongpath1
del u:\veryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryverylongpath2\file
--
cheers thomasl
Ari
>>> Some freeware giveaways just ain't worth it. It's a good way to
>>> hide stuff, though. Any software writer or virus/trojan artist
>>> could put stuff waaaay down in the basement where neither you or
>>> your antivirus can detect it... or get too tired of descending
>>> that many steps.
>>>
>>> Lord Possum
>>>
>>
>> Very unpleasant trick by NTI Shadow. Ughh! It would also prevent
>> you copying any parts of Documents And Settings which included NTI's
>> handiwork.
>
> My sympathies: the built-in but little-used Windows "PAX" program once
> clobbered me like that. The usual tricks are dragging a lower part of
> the path higher in the directory tree as Franklin mentioned, or renaming
> upper folders in the path to shorten the length.
It is a complete piece of crap. After Barely Beetbutt tried to infest
the ACF group with a malicious download ("Er hack this hack this hack
thia...."), I'm not touching anything he posts without a V-box or dead
machine trial.
Same thing I got with NTI Shadow, as far as I am concerned, it's
purposefully written to be malware.
New category for shit-crap-worthless-freeware.
*Bottomware*.
--
http://www.bushflash.com/idiot.html
Lord Possum
thomas...@virgin.net says...
Ref: TCC-LE from http://jpsoft.com
Good one, Thomas! There are several similar commandline clients,
but this one is decent. A casual remark about the usage of
SUBST.EXE command .. this might not be for the timorous.
Lord Possum
Krazee Brenda
> It is a complete piece of crap. After Barely Beetbutt tried to infest
> the ACF group with a malicious download ("Er hack this hack this hack
> thia...."), I'm not touching anything he posts without a V-box or dead
> machine trial.
>
> Same thing I got with NTI Shadow, as far as I am concerned, it's
> purposefully written to be malware.
>
> New category for shit-crap-worthless-freeware.
>
> *Bottomware*.
Sweetums, I do the software funnies.
--
See Brenda's UniWorldWare
http://tinyurl.com/nm2yt
Anonymous Sender
> Sweetums, I do the software funnies.
So that's why they reek of Feta!
Krazee Brenda
Feta? I never said anything about being unkind to kittens, I loooove
kittens and when the PETA ppl come for a donation, Ari always......
<blink>
GOTOHELLANONYMOUSSENDER