backslash plague: paths containing "\a" somewhere

[tim]

trying to work with a directory in windows, that has "\a" in the full 
pathname

this works:

 >>> c = string.replace('c:\content\ce\cw\cvd', '\\', '\\')
 >>> c
'c:\\content\\ce\\cw\\cvd'

this doesn't:

 >>> c = string.replace('c:\content\a\a\avd', '\\', '\\')
 >>> c
'c:\\content\x07\x07\x07vd'

same goes for paths containing "\b"

what's the workaround?

thank you!