Serious Help Needed!!

Okay so I pulled a prank on my friend (very bad idea, I know). I made a batch file that created randomly named empty folders on the desktop very fast. I've done this prank before and it just makes a ton of folders, usually stopping at about 32,000, and you can just go to C:\Users\"username"\Desktop and select all except the original icons and folders and delete them all. But my friend told me that her computer is very very slow, the desktop is completely blank, no folders, no recycle bin, nothing. I told her to go to her desktop through the windows explorer like I said above but she said that she can open explorer with the icon on the bottom bar but nothing will open. It just sits there and does nothing. She's restarted it several times, had to do several hard shutdowns, and tried starting it in safe mode but nothing is letting it open her data. I know I screwed up very badly, but please help me!! Is there anything I can do? Anyway to access her hard drive and delete the folders?

 

Boot into a recovery console (hold F8 while booting to get to that option, or boot from installation media), then navigate to the desktop folder from the command line, and delete the crap you created. Next time don't pull inane "pranks" like that, in particular when you are clearly somebody who has no clue what he is doing. There's people out there who might react very, very badly to stuff like that, and with good reason.

Given that your friend performed several hard shutdowns, her system might be hosed entirely by now, and require a reinstall. In that case your first order of business would be to save her data. And keep her from killing you.

P.S.: If she can still log in, you can access the command line from the start menu, and go from there.

 

Reboot the computer and before it hits the Windows splash screen, hit F8 until it gives you the option to boot Windows in safe mode (choose that). Safe mode only loads up essential drivers and system files, so the batch file will not execute. From there, delete the files using the method you mentioned.

 

While suggesting that you give yourself a good, hard slap upside your own head is a bit harsh, I rather think that might be what your friend is thinking right about now.

If she can't get into her files and folders herself, then you probably won't be able to get into it remotely. In the event that she in fact does have to reinstall the OS, as Pirx said, she should be sure NOT to format the new install over the old OS. That, in turn, should leave an "Old Windows" folder in the C Drive folder (that's what I remember it being called on XP; have no idea if it's called that in Windows 7, as I always reformat my disks when I reinstall the OS).

From there, she should be able to access the folders/files she currently can't get to. But frankly, this is all theoretical. And a very, very good argument in favor of making backups of your files, etc.

If this works... no more playing with dynamite. It has a nasty habit of blowing up in your face if you set it wrong.

 

She's tried starting it in safe mode but she says she still can't get to the files

 

Seems like you're almost at a point where you need to call a professional and have them fix it instead of risking making things worse.

 

How could folders being created have even caused this problem?

 

If safe mode doesn't work, try burning a Linux iso and using it as a livecd. By that, I mean that you boot up using the cd in the drive instead of windows. You should be able to see her files on the Windows drive, without having to reinstall Windows or anything.

 

I LOL when I read your question and saw Pitabred's avatar.

You never told us or maybe I missed your friends computer and OS?

 

Idk exactly what the computer is but it's got windows 7

 

I am pretty sure its safe to say that the number of folders you made is..


"Puts on glasses"


Over 9000 THOUSANDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!


YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

Try this , run Ubuntu straight from the CD without installing , this way you should be able to access the hdd and delete whatever you want

 

Filesystems are interesting. There are all kinds of things that could have been hosed in a mass-creation of folders, especially if your random names weren't totally random and started stomping on each other. Depending on how bad the batch file was coded, it could have caused a cascading of invalid commands that eventually hosed something.

Point is, an internet message board isn't going to get you the immediate, high-level help you need right now. If you have a corrupt MFT or something like that, you need to be doing data recovery on the drive and reinstalling, and that's not a task you can learn to do competently in 10 minutes. I would HIGHLY suggest you find a local, reputable computer repair shop and pay them to fix it because it is quite possible to make things worse when trying to fix it.

 

What he said.

 

you sure she's not playing prank on you now ? .. I mean them girls usually go with "I'm pregnant" .. but still

 

lmfao why would you possibly think this is a good idea?

I do as little as possible with people's computers because the instant something goes wrong it's gonna be pinned on you.

 

I agree with a linux live-cd. Ubuntu is fine. You need an external hard drive and a few minutes to research how to back up an entire hard drive with ubuntu.

Just to add a little bit and reiterate:
Although 32,000 folders is an acceptable amount of folders to have in a directory in general, it is absolutely possible that file system damage was done in a variety of ways. It was almost certainly a poorly coded batch file that could have broken once the system locked up and certainly once the hard shut downs were done. Even if the hard shut down was the sole cause of the problem, that would be entirely your fault.

If this costs her a significant amount of time / money / opportunity, she should probably sue you. My opinion. You should refer her here.