Recently I have found that every time I copy a file to a floppy (3 1/2), a hidden file "EA DATA. SF" also appears on the floppy. What is this? Why is it happening? Should I be concerned?
James P. Cottingham
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity. [tab][tab]Albert Einstein explaining his Theory of Relativity to a group of journalists.
Thanks for the articles.
No partitions.
The most irritating thing about this file is...
it cannot be deleted. It is 'protected' even if I change the attributes. The file is typically 2K.
The only way I have been able to remove it from the floppy is to re-format.
In the intervening year since this thread was started, has anyone come up with an answer on this question. I too am getting copies of this file on diskettes, a 256MB USB memory key, Zip disks etc. I cannot remove it from any, I have not tried formatting diskettes etc. because at the moment they have data, but has anyone found if this file is necessary, or can it be deleted ?
For those of you unfamiliar with the "EA DATA.SF", it is a secret file that is normally hidden from the users view. Yet, it is incredibly important since it is used to record vital OS/2 "extended attributes" associated with all of the files on your FAT drive. In a nutshell, "extended attributes" represents data about data; it is a convenient way to store data about the programs and files on your computer. In its simplest form, "extended attributes" manages pointers, names, and other characteristics of your files. Unfortunately, the full power of "extended attributes" has never been fully exploited by vendors.
So i guess as long as the files on your zip and usb is not created with OS/2 it's safe to delete .(that is if it can be deleted)
Thanks SYAR, half the problem is I can't get rid of the little beggar, formatting must work, I will transfer the data elsewhere. From reading through this thread, and the associated links, I understand the link is between this file and OS/2. The baffling part is that I have never seen an OS/2 machine, let alone use the affected media in one.
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