Cannot delete a folder

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Guest

Hi everyone,

I have a folder cannot be deleted, rename, read, cut or copy. How can I
delete it? There is a message when I delete it (check the excess cycle).

Thankyou in advance!
 
Nelson, look at the properties of the folder and also the location is very
important. Can you please supply me with this information? I know how to
solve this problem.
I just need more information, thanks.

Alan
 
Hi Alan,
Thankyou for your reply. It is a common folder I created before and located
in my additional hard disk. It is a empty folder after I used "Get data back"
and no response when I press "right click". When I double click the folder,
the computer appears a message to fomat hard disk. Please state your method.
Nelson
 
Hi Nelson,

When you right click on the folder what exactly does it say about the
properties of the folder? Next thing, have you tried to go into safe mode and
do a deletion there.
If that does not work , have you tried a clean boot by unchecking 1,2,4 and
checking selective startup. After that go to services and push disable all
services after checking hide all microsoft services. See if you can do a
delete there if safety mode does not do this for you. Please send all the
information in the properties area from location to just everything and push
advance there and see if it is archived and indexed. Uncheck both and you
should not have a problem thereafter, but if you do there are other things
you can try. Please write to me and let me know how it works out.

Alan
 
Hi Alan,

I tried the clean boot as your method and it doesn't work. I can go into the
content when I press right click the folder and find the "Read only" is
chosen of the properties area. I tried to delete after applied with and
without "Read only". It's seem that finished applying but it appears the
message "check excess cycle" or "cannot read the source file or disk" When I
deleted it. So, I applied again and found that it cannot be changed the
properties. Please let me know if you need more information.

Nelson
 
Can you create and delete files on that disk (but obviously not in
that folder)?

When you look at the properties of the folder, (right click, select
properties) does the "read only" box have a green square in it, or a
green check mark?

Do you see a "security" tab? If so, what are the users and permissions
shown?

Cheers,

Cliff
 
Hi Cliff,

Thanks for your reply. I used safe mode and clean boot but not work.

I think that it is ok to create and delete files on that disk. Let's assume
that works
because I am not using that computer now. The "read only" box have a green
square in it. I have not seem any "security" tab. I checked the properties
and it was no change when I failed to delete the folder. The folder's name is
"My Pictures". Is it related to the deletion failed?

I found a method to change the properties of folder with "attrib" command in
command prompt. Unfortunately, it is in chinese. It is used to the error
"cannot read or change folder's read only or system properties". Can you
explain the command "attrib -r +s c:\test" and "attrib -r -s c:\test"? Thanks!

Nelson
 
OK, the green square merely means that the attribute has been
inherited from a higher directory. If it were "read only" there would
be a green or black tick in the box. So you directory is *not* read
only.

Was your error message translated? Did it by any chance say "Access
Denied"?

Is your file system FAT on NTFS?

Incidentally the "My Pictures" folder, if it is a sub-directory of "My
Documents" is a System File and should not really be deleted. In fact,
this might be the reason that it cannot be deleted. Why do you want to
get rid of it?

Cheers,

Cliff
 
Hi Nelson,

Here you are working with the Dos Command attributes. The -r is read/write
only , +s is a system command for dos-only commnad files but can be used by
programmers it turns on the switch and the -s turns it off. the C:\test is a
path that you designate after to what you want to do with the directory or
files if you designate that. Please be advised that your folder is set on +r
which is read only, so you need to turn that off and you can use -r to do
this.

The next thing you do if you are not successful is to post to this board
what happened when you did try. Hope this helps you out. So you are saying
the name of your folder is "common".

Alan
 
Hi Cliff and Alan,

Firstly, the folder is in my additional hard disk and it is not a child
folder of "My Document". I can rename the parent folder and also cannot
change the properties even I do it in the administrator of safe mode. I think
the error message is the same as the "access denied" and the folder is a
system FAT on NTFS.

By the way, it does not work about the method from Ricky and the Dos
Command attributes.

Nelson
 
Hi Nelson, the folder will be *either* FAT *or* NTFS.

If you don't have a Security Tab it is likely that it is on a FAT
partition.

Try this. Go to the DOS prompt and navigate to the parent folder.

Do a "dir" and post the results here if you can..

Cheers,

Cliff
 
Hi Cliff,

Now I sured that is NTFS.

When I go to the DOS prompt and navigate to the parent folder, there is in
normal and appears nothing special. There is a message "cannot find the file
and path if I use the "rd /q d:\erase\my pictures" command. When I use "dir"
in the parent folder, there are 3 lines of findings. 1) . 2) .. 3) My
Pictures. Then I use "cd my pictures" and appears "check excess cycle".

Nelson
 
Hi everyone,

I fixed the problem of "cannot delete a folder". Please check the reply from
Mark for the problem "Folder Problems". Thanks.

Nelson
 
We are having a similar problem. I cannot delete a new folder even when the
administrator created the new folder. The story goes like this:

"I" drive is a physical drive in the Windows 2003 server box and was created
by a person that is no longer with us. "I" drive is also mirrored. The
Administrator can create the new folder from explorer but cannot move, rename
or delete it. You can copy it to another folder but after that you cannot
rename, move or delete the now copied folder. The standard message is:
"Cannot delete <folder>: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full
or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."

The attributes for the folder is a greyed out check mark in the Read only
box and cannot be changed. I have gone to the dos prompt and tried rd and
rmdir and attrib -r with no luck. I have rebooted the server and tried the
same things with no luck. Under Disk Management the drive has no file system
where you would expect to see FAT32 or NTFS (C:\ is a mirrored NTFS healthy
system), the I: is a mirrored Dynamic [no file system listed] healthy drive.
There is at least 83gb of free space too.

We have tried to do this from terminal services and locallaly too.

We do have one user that could possibly delete the folder but the
administrator should be able to do this and not rely on an end user.

I hope I have given enough information to answer questions that could lead
up to a fix.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Scottr
 
We are having a similar problem. I cannot delete a new folder even when the
administrator created the new folder. The story goes like this:

"I" drive is a physical drive in the Windows 2003 server box and was created
by a person that is no longer with us. "I" drive is also mirrored. The
Administrator can create the new folder from explorer but cannot move, rename
or delete it. You can copy it to another folder but after that you cannot
rename, move or delete the now copied folder. The standard message is:
"Cannot delete <folder>: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full
or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."

The attributes for the folder is a greyed out check mark in the Read only
box and cannot be changed. I have gone to the dos prompt and tried rd and
rmdir and attrib -r with no luck. I have rebooted the server and tried the
same things with no luck. Under Disk Management the drive has no file system
where you would expect to see FAT32 or NTFS (C:\ is a mirrored NTFS healthy
system), the I: is a mirrored Dynamic [no file system listed] healthy drive.
There is at least 83gb of free space too.

We have tried to do this from terminal services and locallaly too.

We do have one user that could possibly delete the folder but the
administrator should be able to do this and not rely on an end user.

I hope I have given enough information to answer questions that could lead
up to a fix.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Scottr
 
We are having a similar problem. I cannot delete a new folder even when the
administrator created the new folder. The story goes like this:

"I" drive is a physical drive in the Windows 2003 server box and was created
by a person that is no longer with us. "I" drive is also mirrored. The
Administrator can create the new folder from explorer but cannot move, rename
or delete it. You can copy it to another folder but after that you cannot
rename, move or delete the now copied folder. The standard message is:
"Cannot delete <folder>: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full
or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."

The attributes for the folder is a greyed out check mark in the Read only
box and cannot be changed. I have gone to the dos prompt and tried rd and
rmdir and attrib -r with no luck. I have rebooted the server and tried the
same things with no luck. Under Disk Management the drive has no file system
where you would expect to see FAT32 or NTFS (C:\ is a mirrored NTFS healthy
system), the I: is a mirrored Dynamic [no file system listed] healthy drive.
There is at least 83gb of free space too.

We have tried to do this from terminal services and locallaly too.

We do have one user that could possibly delete the folder but the
administrator should be able to do this and not rely on an end user.

I hope I have given enough information to answer questions that could lead
up to a fix.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Scottr
 
We are having a similar problem. I cannot delete a new folder even when the
administrator created the new folder. The story goes like this:

"I" drive is a physical drive in the Windows 2003 server box and was created
by a person that is no longer with us. "I" drive is also mirrored. The
Administrator can create the new folder from explorer but cannot move, rename
or delete it. You can copy it to another folder but after that you cannot
rename, move or delete the now copied folder. The standard message is:
"Cannot delete <folder>: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full
or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."

The attributes for the folder is a greyed out check mark in the Read only
box and cannot be changed. I have gone to the dos prompt and tried rd and
rmdir and attrib -r with no luck. I have rebooted the server and tried the
same things with no luck. Under Disk Management the drive has no file system
where you would expect to see FAT32 or NTFS (C:\ is a mirrored NTFS healthy
system), the I: is a mirrored Dynamic [no file system listed] healthy drive.
There is at least 83gb of free space too.

We have tried to do this from terminal services and locallaly too.

We do have one user that could possibly delete the folder but the
administrator should be able to do this and not rely on an end user.

I hope I have given enough information to answer questions that could lead
up to a fix.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Scottr
 
We are having a similar problem. I cannot delete a new folder even when the
administrator created the new folder. The story goes like this:

"I" drive is a physical drive in the Windows 2003 server box and was created
by a person that is no longer with us. "I" drive is also mirrored. The
Administrator can create the new folder from explorer but cannot move, rename
or delete it. You can copy it to another folder but after that you cannot
rename, move or delete the now copied folder. The standard message is:
"Cannot delete <folder>: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full
or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."

The attributes for the folder is a greyed out check mark in the Read only
box and cannot be changed. I have gone to the dos prompt and tried rd and
rmdir and attrib -r with no luck. I have rebooted the server and tried the
same things with no luck. Under Disk Management the drive has no file system
where you would expect to see FAT32 or NTFS (C:\ is a mirrored NTFS healthy
system), the I: is a mirrored Dynamic [no file system listed] healthy drive.
There is at least 83gb of free space too.

We have tried to do this from terminal services and locallaly too.

We do have one user that could possibly delete the folder but the
administrator should be able to do this and not rely on an end user.

I hope I have given enough information to answer questions that could lead
up to a fix.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Scottr
 
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