My Windows 7 Enterprise computer has been crashing fairly frequently recently, so I decided to boot up in safe mode and run the TrendMicro client I have installed. It froze about 10 minutes into the full system scan, so in the spirit of http://whathaveyoutried.com, I started scanning each folder individually. When I got to ProgramData, the AV failed with an uncaught exception. I then went down a level and tried scanning Application Data, which failed as well. Imagine my surprise when I open the folder just to see the same folder again!

As far as I can tell, this folder loop continues indefinitely. (If you are trying to recreate this, keep in mind that ProgramData is a hidden folder.) I'm actually a bit concerned that these are system folders, as this is a brand-new computer with a clean installation.

I guess I have three questions:

1. Has anyone else seen/experienced this before? I'm running Win7 SP1.
2. How do I fix this? I've run CHKDSK \F with no success (although it was incredibly slow).
3. What are the ramifications of an infinitely recursive directory? Theoretically speaking, each link takes up memory, so shouldn't I have no space available on my hard drive? (I've got about 180GB left.) I noticed that the tree view on the left only shows the "linked folder" icon on the deeper folders--does this mean anything special? (I've circled the icons or lack thereof in red.) How can the OS even resolve this aberration? And above all, what would happen if I were to select "Expand all folders"??? :P

Matt