cannot delete folder on NTFS drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter tonj
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tonj

Using 3rd party software I did a disc backup of a Windows XP hard (C) drive to an image file. Later I needed some data from the
backup so I restored the whole image into a folder on a different hard drive which is my D drive in my PC. The OS on my PC is
Windows XP. Now I need to delete the folder as I've finished with it but it will not delete. I get 'Access denied'. I've tried so
many ways to delete this folder but it won't delete.
I've tried overwriting the folder with an empty one but the new folder still has the same contents.
I've tried overwriting the folder using the backup/restore software but it won't overwrite it.
If tried booting into safe mode as Administrator but can't delete the folder from there.
I can't change any permissions in the folder.
I've tried booting with an NTFS DOS floppy disc and I can't delete the folder with that.
I've even tried several Linux eval CD's and they can't delete the bloody folder either. This is driving me nuts. I know one
solution would be to save everything on the drive, format the drive and then restore everything but the folder but its 140Gb of
data and I don't want to do that unless I have to. There's surely gotta be a way to delete this folder?
Thanks for any help.
 
tonj said:
Using 3rd party software I did a disc backup of a Windows XP hard (C)
drive to an image file. Later I needed some data from the
backup so I restored the whole image into a folder on a different hard
drive which is my D drive in my PC. The OS on my PC is
Windows XP. Now I need to delete the folder as I've finished with it but
it will not delete. I get 'Access denied'. I've tried so
many ways to delete this folder but it won't delete.
I've tried overwriting the folder with an empty one but the new folder still has the same contents.
I've tried overwriting the folder using the backup/restore software but it won't overwrite it.
If tried booting into safe mode as Administrator but can't delete the folder from there.
I can't change any permissions in the folder.
I've tried booting with an NTFS DOS floppy disc and I can't delete the folder with that.
I've even tried several Linux eval CD's and they can't delete the bloody
folder either. This is driving me nuts. I know one
solution would be to save everything on the drive, format the drive and
then restore everything but the folder but its 140Gb of
data and I don't want to do that unless I have to. There's surely gotta be a way to delete this folder?
Thanks for any help.

You need to seize ownershipt of this folder.
 
Detlev Dreyer said:
"You Cannot Delete a File or a Folder"
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320081

"How to set, view, change, or remove file and folder permissions in
Windows XP" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308418/en-us

"How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421/en-us

thanks for your response. I read the articles you gave and managed to labour my way through scores of folders and files, removing
permissions everytime I got a blockage. It took me a while but eventually I deleted the whole rogue folder. My God what a job. This
is a lesson learnt. I will never ever again restore unknown material into a folder from a backup. Ugh!
 
tonj said:
thanks for your response. I read the articles you gave and managed to
labour my way through scores of folders and files, removing
permissions everytime I got a blockage. It took me a while but eventually
I deleted the whole rogue folder. My God what a job. This
is a lesson learnt. I will never ever again restore unknown material into a folder from a backup. Ugh!

You may have missed the most important point. After you
seize ownership of a certain folder and tick the appropriate
box to include subfolders then you can modify/delete any
folder tree in one fell swoop. It takes less than a minute!
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
labour my way through scores of folders and files, removing
I deleted the whole rogue folder. My God what a job. This

You may have missed the most important point. After you
seize ownership of a certain folder and tick the appropriate
box to include subfolders then you can modify/delete any
folder tree in one fell swoop. It takes less than a minute!

that didn't work for me. Ticking the box to include subfolders still gave me some foilders and files that would not delete unless I
navigated down to them and changed their permissions. I would have thought the same as you but it didn't work for me that way.
 
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