hi all.
this is really an XP Home question but this looked like the best place to
post.
was recently cleaning up my HD after a reinstallation of WinXPH and was
deleting old documents & settings subdir. came across an old graphic file
that has a really long name (had used the pic caption) and a zero length.
Can't rename or delete it. It has a jpg ext but views as nothing... when i
try and overwrite the file i get 'filename.j' not filename.jpg and i think
that this filename may exceed permissible length...
presence of the file keeps me from delting the sub dir and when i try and
delete the file i get "cannot delete filename. cannpt find the specified
file..."
considered running chkdsk /f on the subdir (did it in r/o mode and showed an
error) but thought i would ask someone who actually might know what they
were doing before i trashed my HD).
thanks in advance, and i hope this makes sense...

Hi, Jon.

Click Start | Run and type cmd.exe and Enter. This will open a "DOS" window
with a C:\> prompt.

Navigate to the parent directory of this rogue file. Type dir /x and it
should produce a normal directory, except that it will have an extra column
showing the Short File Names (SFNs, also known as 8.3 filenames) before the
LFNs.

Using the SFN for that file, type Del <SFN>.

If that doesn't work, post back with exactly what you did and exactly what
results you saw.

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

"Jon Morris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> hi all.
> this is really an XP Home question but this looked like the best place to
> post.
> was recently cleaning up my HD after a reinstallation of WinXPH and was
> deleting old documents & settings subdir. came across an old graphic file
> that has a really long name (had used the pic caption) and a zero length.
> Can't rename or delete it. It has a jpg ext but views as nothing... when i
> try and overwrite the file i get 'filename.j' not filename.jpg and i think
> that this filename may exceed permissible length...
> presence of the file keeps me from delting the sub dir and when i try and
> delete the file i get "cannot delete filename. cannpt find the specified
> file..."
> considered running chkdsk /f on the subdir (did it in r/o mode and showed
an
> error) but thought i would ask someone who actually might know what they
> were doing before i trashed my HD).
> thanks in advance, and i hope this makes sense...

thanks.
had to change attribrute and rename owner's documents to owner to allow
access via cmd but that go it.
thanks again.........

"R. C. White" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%23CiC%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi, Jon.
>
> Click Start | Run and type cmd.exe and Enter. This will open a "DOS"
window
> with a C:\> prompt.
>
> Navigate to the parent directory of this rogue file. Type dir /x and it
> should produce a normal directory, except that it will have an extra
column
> showing the Short File Names (SFNs, also known as 8.3 filenames) before
the
> LFNs.
>
> Using the SFN for that file, type Del <SFN>.
>
> If that doesn't work, post back with exactly what you did and exactly what
> results you saw.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> (E-Mail Removed)
> Microsoft Windows MVP
>
> "Jon Morris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> > hi all.
> > this is really an XP Home question but this looked like the best place
to
> > post.
> > was recently cleaning up my HD after a reinstallation of WinXPH and was
> > deleting old documents & settings subdir. came across an old graphic
file
> > that has a really long name (had used the pic caption) and a zero
length.
> > Can't rename or delete it. It has a jpg ext but views as nothing... when
i
> > try and overwrite the file i get 'filename.j' not filename.jpg and i
think
> > that this filename may exceed permissible length...
> > presence of the file keeps me from delting the sub dir and when i try
and
> > delete the file i get "cannot delete filename. cannpt find the specified
> > file..."
> > considered running chkdsk /f on the subdir (did it in r/o mode and
showed
> an
> > error) but thought i would ask someone who actually might know what they
> > were doing before i trashed my HD).
> > thanks in advance, and i hope this makes sense...
>
>