I have a number of files on my Windows 2000 server that I
cannot delete. Some of them have names with strange
characters and some do not. This stems from a problem we
had about a year ago when our RAID controller went down.
We were able to reinstall the operating system on the C:
drive and recover the data from the D: and E: drives;
however, there were some files that were corrupted and I
am unable to erase them. I have tried running chkdsk /f
and that has not eliminated the files. I have also tried
to delete the files from the command prompt, but was
unsuccessful. One of the file names is 113?1D2?|wd.
Another file contains characters that don’t even exist on
the keyboard. How can I erase them?

You know, Google is a great tool.

Use the command prompt to browse to the files, then use DIR /X to get the
short file names and delete calling those names (e.g Window~1).

--
Andrei "Ndi" Dobrin
Brainbench MVP
www.Brainbench.com

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 00:18:49 +0300, "Ndi" <Ndi_at_Ndi_dot_ro> wrote:

|> You know, Google is a great tool.

Been there done that..

|> Use the command prompt to browse to the files, then use DIR /X to get the
|> short file names and delete calling those names (e.g Window~1).

Read it before, even tried it.

I have two files I have pretty much accepted as permanent at least until I
reformat.
one is:
nC(??+??.-?-
the other:
+??s)++?.?M$
Lower ascii just doesn't do them justice, the names actually show up as squares.
Even my news reader (Agent) is complaining about them <grin>not sure how they
will look when sent.
They are both 32k files, I figure it's something that chkdsk did somehow. Any
time chkdsk saves anything it's 32k, it could also explain why no 8.3 file names
are associated with them.

a ps is required here: there is an old Dos program that I used ages ago to
remove files with bad names. but I didn't want to screw with the long file name
structure; just wasn't that important.


o _ _ _
_o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_)
_< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/
(_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_
"Winxx - "Where do you want to crash today?"

> They are both 32k files, I figure it's something that chkdsk did somehow.
Any
> time chkdsk saves anything it's 32k, it could also explain why no 8.3 file
names
> are associated with them.

Unless you disabled short file name generation, you should have a short
name, regardless. If they are in the valid ascii-8 range and name is shorter
than 8+3, system does not generare a short name (catually it's blank)
because the file name IS short.

Did you disabled the short file name generation?

> a ps is required here: there is an old Dos program that I used ages ago to
> remove files with bad names. but I didn't want to screw with the long file
name
> structure; just wasn't that important.

That seems too radical. Anyhow, should I understand that you don't have
the files any more?

--
Andrei "Ndi" Dobrin
Brainbench MVP
www.Brainbench.com

maybe you can try in cmd type dir /x to see the 8.3 file name format
and use erase command like erase "name of file with a ~" ... or try a
soft called CIA commander.. it can acces NTFS volume in shell only...
or maybe if you can't delete it because it use try with you cd of
win2k ".../i386/winnt32.exe /cmdcon" it will install commande prompt!

Greenseed

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 02:57:03 +0300, "Ndi" <Ndi_at_Ndi_dot_ro> wrotecc sent
E-mail to author)

|> Did you disabled the short file name generation?
|>
Nope, everything else under dos shows the 8.3 file names with the /x switch

|> That seems too radical. Anyhow, should I understand that you don't have
|> the files any more?

Oh ya there still here, fact is I have a rock solid path due to them:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents
can't delete it, rename it, move it. and I'm darn sure not going to attempt to
copy it, it just might work
The files don't cause any problems and CHKDSK just ignores them (a creator
attitude ?).

* o/ o__ / __ __ \ | o/ *
* __| \/ \__o /\o |o /\ __| o\ / |__ *
* | | | \ \ | |o /o | | | *
STICK \'stik\ n. A boomerang that doesn't work.

> Nope, everything else under dos shows the 8.3 file names with the /x
switch

That can mean 2 things:

a) it IS short
b) POSIX?

If it really IS short there might be some sort of translation error,
still, it SHOULD delete unless you copy/paste the name. And Explorer
doesn't.

If it's POSIX ... well, I admit I tried to write you a helper app but
cought my eyeballs somewhere on the way. I think I can make it grow, but I
guess that isn't your best wish

> Oh ya there still here, fact is I have a rock solid path due to them:
> C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents
> can't delete it, rename it, move it. and I'm darn sure not going to
attempt to
> copy it, it just might work

I'm starting to envy you. Really, I'm sure I can whack them it's just too
complicated remotely.

The weird thing is that this never happens on FAT. I wish it would, I know
how to whack things on FAT :P

The names you copy/pasted got formatted to actual question marks, they are
ASCII 63, so no use there.

Any idea on how the file got there, I want one

--
Andrei "Ndi" Dobrin
Brainbench MVP
www.Brainbench.com

Hi, Ndi.

Back in MS-DOS days, some pranksters liked to create filenames with
valid-but-unprintable characters. A simple example:

md "te t"

That blank space replacing the "s" in "test" is not a hex 20 (ASCII 32), but
hex 255 (entered by holding down the Alt key while typing 255 on the numeric
keypad). It's unprintable, but it's there - and it's NOT a Space character.
Dir shows it as "te t". Dir /x shows "te t" in the LFN column, but "TET~1"
in the SFN column.

rd "te t" - using a space, gets me "The system cannot find the file
specified."

rd te* - using a wildcard, get "The filename, directory name, or volume
label syntax is incorrect."

rd tet~1 - removes the directory.

I'm not sure how this applies to your problem file, but it illustrates that
even "short" filenames, with no visible illegal characters, can still be
invalid 8.3 names. But dir /x should show a valid 8.3 name.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(E-Mail Removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP

"Ndi" <Ndi_at_Ndi_dot_ro> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Nope, everything else under dos shows the 8.3 file names with the /x
> switch
>
> That can mean 2 things:
>
> a) it IS short
> b) POSIX?
>
> If it really IS short there might be some sort of translation error,
> still, it SHOULD delete unless you copy/paste the name. And Explorer
> doesn't.
>
> If it's POSIX ... well, I admit I tried to write you a helper app but
> cought my eyeballs somewhere on the way. I think I can make it grow, but I
> guess that isn't your best wish
>
> > Oh ya there still here, fact is I have a rock solid path due to them:
> > C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents
> > can't delete it, rename it, move it. and I'm darn sure not going to
> attempt to
> > copy it, it just might work
>
> I'm starting to envy you. Really, I'm sure I can whack them it's just
too
> complicated remotely.
>
> The weird thing is that this never happens on FAT. I wish it would, I
know
> how to whack things on FAT :P
>
> The names you copy/pasted got formatted to actual question marks, they
are
> ASCII 63, so no use there.
>
> Any idea on how the file got there, I want one
>
> --
> Andrei "Ndi" Dobrin
> Brainbench MVP
> www.Brainbench.com

Can you highlight and Move the files to a floppy?
Then reformat the floppy......<EG>

Can you right click and rename the files to like trash.txt?
Can you right click and change the files to non s/h/a files?

Can you move everything else out of the directory and deltree it?

Can you use the command prompt to move the files *.* to \nul?

Back in the DOS days I used a util called Directory Master; still do
on occasion. I bring it up, highlight the file and delete it. The
util never seemed to care what the file was calling itself.
I trust the files aren't locked up or open by some other app or
association?

Admittedly the DOS days weren't that far back. When I finally left
the command prompt and DesqView behind and decided on Winders as an
OS, M$ was up to 98SE. I still keep the util around for just such an
occasion tho....

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 10:12:55 -0700, "Allen Heim"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a number of files on my Windows 2000 server that I
>cannot delete. Some of them have names with strange
>characters and some do not. This stems from a problem we
>had about a year ago when our RAID controller went down.
>We were able to reinstall the operating system on the C:
>drive and recover the data from the D: and E: drives;
>however, there were some files that were corrupted and I
>am unable to erase them. I have tried running chkdsk /f
>and that has not eliminated the files. I have also tried
>to delete the files from the command prompt, but was
>unsuccessful. One of the file names is 113?1D2?|wd.
>Another file contains characters that don’t even exist on
>the keyboard. How can I erase them?
~~~~~~
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BTW..... I download and burn Knoppix version of Linux on CDs.
It's really nice as the entire thing runs entirely in ram never
touches the hard drives unless you want to access them (unless you're
short on ram, then it begs for a swap file....).
It finds all the onboard whatevers and loads drivers for 'em.
Even loads drivers for my NIC and lets me access the net thru my cable
modem, all with no interaction from me at all.
Loads drivers for onboard sound, dual NICs (1 onboard gigabit, 1 PCI),
dual SCSI cards, USB, the works.
I take it to work sometimes when NT won't load from the HD because
it's lacking a file. Use it on other people's systems to DL drivers
for their NIC, because they can't get on the net, because they don't
have NIC drivers, because the can't...... uh, yeah.
Also, it's great for copying Winders over for backup as there are NO
open files on the hard drive. Beats the hell out of a 6.22 floppy
booting to a prompt that won't even see the NTFS drives without
another utility.

Anyway.... perhaps it would be more amenable to deleting files
especially since they CANNOT be open.

My 6 year old son dual boots ME and Linux for some of the games. I'm
happy because he can just shut the system off when he's done and it
can't corrupt files on the CD.

Might work....

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 10:12:55 -0700, "Allen Heim"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a number of files on my Windows 2000 server that I
>cannot delete. Some of them have names with strange
>characters and some do not. This stems from a problem we
>had about a year ago when our RAID controller went down.
>We were able to reinstall the operating system on the C:
>drive and recover the data from the D: and E: drives;
>however, there were some files that were corrupted and I
>am unable to erase them. I have tried running chkdsk /f
>and that has not eliminated the files. I have also tried
>to delete the files from the command prompt, but was
>unsuccessful. One of the file names is 113?1D2?|wd.
>Another file contains characters that don’t even exist on
>the keyboard. How can I erase them?
~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(E-Mail Removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.