how to delete strange folders refering to my c partition

Question

I have some strange folders on my harddisk (they appeared in a subdirectory of a QT installation on my c partition, i am not sure, but i think those folders appeard after i deleted some temporary files on the command line with del /F /S /Q *.*).

those strange folders have the name "c:" and i cant delete them, because when i click delete, windows wants to remove all my files on the c partition.

has anyone any clue how i can get rid of those folders ?

i even can start the calculator with the path: C:\a\c:\a\c:\b\c:\a\c:\b\c:\a\c:\b\c:\a\c:\a\c:\Windows\system32\calc.exe

EDIT1: dir /Q results: Directory of C:\a

19.11.2010  07:59    <DIR>          MYCOMPUTER\MYUSER      .
19.11.2010  07:59    <DIR>          BUILTIN\Administrators ..
21.12.2009  20:04    <DIR>          ...                    c:
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  19.354.865.664 bytes free

EDIT2: running a full chkdsk /F /R during boot didnt change anything

Answer 1

I don't know how you ended in this state, but can you try the following:

• Check disks for errors, as per: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265
  • chkdsk might be able to repair it
• Check if it's a junction: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx
  • If so, you can try deleting it as described in the article

Answer 2

Since the odd folders appear to be stemming from folders in your root of C:, I would investigate doing a backup of your drive (on another machine) with a tool like Total Commander, but excluding those base folders (i.e. a, b, etc.).

I recommend TC because it can run in elevated mode, and copies user security without trying to take ownership of a folder.

Then format the drive, resync the folders back, and run a repair install off the XP CD.

Answer 3

i was able to easily delete those strange folders using a Linux-OS. Interestingly, on linux those folders looked quite different, and were not recursive at all. They just contained some emtpy subdirectories and nothing beside that:

-media
  -Windows_mount
    -a
      -c:
        -lib
          -QT4
            -plugins
              -designer
    -b
      -c:
        -lib
          -QT4
            -plugins
              -designer
   +bin
   +Documents and Settings
   ...
   +Program Files
   +Windows