cannot delete files - "label syntax is incorrect"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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G

Guest

was cleaning out my hard drive and i stumbled across a bunch of rogue files
in my content.ie5 folder within temporary internet folders. the file names
are filled with illegal/ascii characters and a few of them are 500mb - they
add up to over 2 gig, that's why i want them gone!

i've tried just about everything under the sun to delete them but no luck as
of yet. from spy removal programs (spybot, spy sweeper, adaware) to Killbox
to disk cleaners (cleanup). no luck. tried to delete in Explorer but i get
the "label syntax is incorrect", i get the same in Delete FXP. i also ran
chkdsk /f but it didn't find the files.

tried renaming the files, no luck. tried delete with a wildcard (del *.*),
no luck. tried 'em all in safe mode as well. i could change the folder names
within content.ie5 where the files are but doesn't seem to matter much.

just wondering if anyone has been able to successfully nab this problem. it
doesn't seem to be affecting performace, just hogs 2gig on my hard drive
which now only has 1gig left free. who knows what else.

cheers.

many thanks.
 
Use dir /x in the command window to get the short file names of the
illegal files. Then use the del command with those names.

del [short file name]
 
Try this
In Internet Explorer, click the tools menu, then click Interne
Options. Click the button labeled delete files, make sure all wil
be deleted, and OK. This should clear your browsing temp files

Stev
 
thanks, but tried all the above. no love.

spoke to a microsoft rep, and after 90 minutes or so of testing and poking
around he said the files cannot be deleted without a re-format.

just fyi for future folks with this same problem. where the files came from
or how they got there is anyone's guess - could have been leftovers from my
upgrade from 98 to XP, who knows.

cheers.
 
=?Utf-8?B?c2hha2Vmb28=?= said:
thanks, but tried all the above. no love.

spoke to a microsoft rep, and after 90 minutes or so of testing and poking
around he said the files cannot be deleted without a re-format.
Click to expand...

Since they have "illegal" filenames, that may be the case. But, have you
tried booting to dos if in fat32 and using the ? wildcard? Or, if in
NTFS try booting to dos with an NTFS dos bootdisk and then try the ?
wildcard on that folder? Just some things to try.
 
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