Cannot Delete Certain Folders From Hard Drive

[Bill Jackson]

I am running WindowsXP Home Edition with all of the updates on my PC.
Currently, I have ten folders on my E:\ drive that have folders with names
like: 3cfbf30bc149800adae3acc104; 06f3dd7e7bcf0ae618733623a4b86c;
8c9723bcd02cc3e050397ffe81; 9c79e1708d8c9d8485758828f3; etc.

The size on each of these folders is 0 bytes. Inside these folders are other
folder with names like Common, SP1, and SP2, or Update. When I attempt to
open any of these sub folders, I get an error message that says the folder
(by name) is not accessible and access is denied.

The primary folders have Read Only attributes which I cannot remove. I
suspect that these folder are remnants from a time when I had my operating
system installed on this physical hard drive. Now my operating system is
installed on my C:\ drive, and I want to clean these folder off the E:\
drive.

How can I remove these folders and their contents from my E:\ drive.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

Bill,

To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take
ownership of the folder: 1. Turn off Simple File Sharing: a. Click Start,
and then click My Computer.
b. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
c. Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing
(Recommended) check box, and then click OK.

2. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
3. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one
appears.
4. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
5. In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged
in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.

If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to
select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
6. Click OK.

You may receive the following error message, where Folder is the name of the
folder that you want to take ownership of:
You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do you
want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full
Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
7. Click Yes.
8. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you
want for the folder and the folder contents.

This information is included in the following Microsoft KB Article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881/en-us

I hope this helps!

 

[djs0302]

I am running WindowsXP Home Edition with all of the updates on my PC.
Currently, I have ten folders on my E:\ drive that have folders with names
like: 3cfbf30bc149800adae3acc104; 06f3dd7e7bcf0ae618733623a4b86c;
8c9723bcd02cc3e050397ffe81; 9c79e1708d8c9d8485758828f3; etc.

The size on each of these folders is 0 bytes. Inside these folders are other
folder with names like Common, SP1, and SP2, or Update. When I attempt to
open any of these sub folders, I get an error message that says the folder
(by name) is not accessible and access is denied.

The primary folders have Read Only attributes which I cannot remove. I
suspect that these folder are remnants from a time when I had my operating
system installed on this physical hard drive. Now my operating system is
installed on my C:\ drive, and I want to clean these folder off the E:\
drive.

How can I remove these folders and their contents from my E:\ drive.

Thanks for your help.

Start your computer in Safe Mode by hitting the F8 key when it starts
to boot up. Boot into the Administrator account and navigate to the
folder(s) in question. Right click on the folder and select
Properties. Click on the Security tab. From there you can give or
deny ownership of the folder to any user account on your computer.
After you've taken ownership of the folder you can do whatever you wish
with the folder.

 

[Bill Jackson]

jlm:

Thanks for your response.

On my computer there is nol Use simple file sharing (Recommended) option
under Start/My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/View/Advanced settings.
I looked for the Security tab on the offending folder anyway to see if I
could make a change, but lo and behold, I did not have a Security tab
either.
Do you have any other suggestions.

(e-mail address removed))

 

[Bill Jackson]

djs:

I appreciate your help. The system I am using is rather old. As such, it has
a Microsoft Intellimouse connected to the serial port which does not load
whenever you go to safe mode. Therefore, I have no mouse activity whenever I
am in safe mode. I inquired a while back on how I could get my mouse to load
in safe mode, and I was told to get a PS2 mouse. The problem with that is
there is no PS2 connection for a mouse on this computer. Therefore, I'm
stuck. Again, thanks for your help.

 

[djs0302]

djs:

I appreciate your help. The system I am using is rather old. As such, it has
a Microsoft Intellimouse connected to the serial port which does not load
whenever you go to safe mode. Therefore, I have no mouse activity whenever I
am in safe mode. I inquired a while back on how I could get my mouse to load
in safe mode, and I was told to get a PS2 mouse. The problem with that is
there is no PS2 connection for a mouse on this computer. Therefore, I'm
stuck. Again, thanks for your help.

Have you tried using the keyboard to navigate through Safe Mode? I'm
not at my XP computer right now but you should be able to use the
Windows Key and the ALT, TAB, and ENTER keys to navigate through Safe
Mode.

 

[Bill Jackson]

I will be leaving town for three weeks starting tomorrow. Hope to give that
approach a shot when I return. Thanks so much!

 

[djs0302]

I will be leaving town for three weeks starting tomorrow. Hope to give that
approach a shot when I return. Thanks so much!

I just tried changing permissions on my XP computer using just the
keyboard. It can be done but it's a pain.

 

[Jeff]

Try this instead.

1) Restart computer
2) when screen says push F8 for advanced options then push F8
3) Pick "Safe Mode" from the menu
4) Choose the administrator account
5) Delete the folders
6) Click Start - Shutdown - Restart

If you don't have any troubles with your pc after a couple of days, then
clear them out of the recycle bin. If you have trouble emptying them out of
the recycle bin, then just follow the above procedure and in step 5 empty
the bin.

Hope this helps.