Can't Delete (Orphaned?) Folder

[Bruce]

Hi,

My daugheter has a Dell Inspiron 8600 running XPHome.

Weeks ago, she created a folder in My Documents named Monsters, Inc. I
believe she created it when moving files from a CD to her hard drive.
The folder is empty, but now she can't delete it.

When she tries to log on to it, she gets:

My Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\HerName\My Documents\Monsters, Inc. refers to a
location that is unavailable. it could be on a hard drive on this
computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly
inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, and
then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might
ahve been moved to a different location.
OK

If try to rename it, or delete it, I get:

Cannot read from the source file or disk

I've been here:

http://tinyurl.com/5j3xt

but this is for XPPro, and it says not to use the hot fix unless you are
severely affected by this problem. Microsoft is still testing this
hotfix.

Any other ideas as to what can be done to delete this folder? She's used
Safe Mode to delete programs that she couldn't delete while in XP, since
the processes were running, but I'm not sure Safe Mode will held in this
case.

Thanks much,
Bruce

 

[sendem]

Hi,

My daugheter has a Dell Inspiron 8600 running XPHome.

Weeks ago, she created a folder in My Documents named Monsters, Inc. I
believe she created it when moving files from a CD to her hard drive. The
folder is empty, but now she can't delete it.

When she tries to log on to it, she gets:

can you rename it? change the name to a simpler one and then see if it can
be deleted. While commas are legal in filenames, I have never used one
and would not recommend using one.
are the attributes set for read only? If so, change them.
in worst case, reboot in command mode and delete it. This usually works
for any file that cannot be deleted under the GUI.

 

[Bruce]

can you rename it? change the name to a simpler one and then see if it
can be deleted. While commas are legal in filenames, I have never used
one and would not recommend using one.
are the attributes set for read only? If so, change them.
in worst case, reboot in command mode and delete it. This usually
works for any file that cannot be deleted under the GUI.

Afraid none of those procedures works.

 

[Ricky]

| |
| > On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:01:28 +0000, Bruce wrote:
| >
| >> Hi,
| >>
| >> My daugheter has a Dell Inspiron 8600 running XPHome.
| >>
| >> Weeks ago, she created a folder in My Documents named Monsters, Inc.
| >> I believe she created it when moving files from a CD to her hard
| >> drive. The folder is empty, but now she can't delete it.
| >>
| >> When she tries to log on to it, she gets:
| >>
| >
| > can you rename it? change the name to a simpler one and then see if it
| > can be deleted. While commas are legal in filenames, I have never used
| > one and would not recommend using one.
| > are the attributes set for read only? If so, change them.
| > in worst case, reboot in command mode and delete it. This usually
| > works for any file that cannot be deleted under the GUI.
| >
|
| Afraid none of those procedures works.

A program here called Move on Boot might help..
http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/bin/moveonb.exe

 

[John L. Kemmis]

I tried that program but when trying browsing for the files I wanted to
delete, I get this error: cannot find file.

This is in regards to a temporary internet files folder which somehow was in
the \user
local settings\temp directory

We moved the temporary internet files to a new directory, which worked ok.
But that didn't change this directory. It has a content.ie5 directory with
twenty or so other sub directories which each contain about 1025 files.
about twenty or so of those files cannot be found, deleted, or renamed.

doing an error-checking on boot does not fix this error.

running XP pro sp1, etc, administrator privileges on this user

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
John L. Kemmis
Sandstrom Products Company

 

[Bruce]

I tried that program but when trying browsing for the files I wanted
to delete, I get this error: cannot find file.

This is in regards to a temporary internet files folder which somehow
was in the \user
local settings\temp directory

We moved the temporary internet files to a new directory, which worked
ok. But that didn't change this directory. It has a content.ie5
directory with twenty or so other sub directories which each contain
about 1025 files. about twenty or so of those files cannot be found,
deleted, or renamed.

doing an error-checking on boot does not fix this error.

running XP pro sp1, etc, administrator privileges on this user

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
John L. Kemmis
Sandstrom Products Company

Hi, John,

Our IT department here suggested that I install winfile.exe (the old
version of file manager, circa Win95) on my XPHome, SP1 machine and try
that.

I got winfile.exe from line 71 of this (this is a great site):
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

But, it didn't work, either.

Bruce

 

[John L. Kemmis]

Bruce, try this, it worked for me, especially in safe mode:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_undeletable_file.htm

<cite>
How do I delete an "undeletable" file?

Thanks to MS-MVP Kelly Theriot for this tip.

Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open. Close all open programs.
Click Start, Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE Go to the Processes tab and End
Process on Explorer.exe. Leave Task Manager open. Go back to the Command
Prompt window and change to the directory the AVI (or other undeletable
file) is located in. At the command prompt type DEL <filename> where
<filename> is the file you wish to delete. Go back to Task Manager, click
File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell. Close Task
Manager.

See more good Windows XP information on Kelly's Windows XP from A-Z web
site.

This page last updated 02/10/2004 00:21
All material © 2002 - Doug Knox
</cite>

John L. Kemmis
Sandstrom Products Company

 

[David Candy]

You can't have a trailing period in a filename (without an extension). An extention or name cannot have trailing spaces. Therefore as your folder has no extension (while they don't normally there is no reason they can't) it cannot have a period in it.

Try for Fat32

rd mon?????????????? (get the right number of ? to characters)

or for NTFS

rd \\?\c:\monster inc.

Windows allows programs to create illegal filenames (because they may be for use on other operating systems and XP [the NT operating system] in the past supported three operating systems - Windows, OS/2, and Posix), but the program is responsible for deleting any such files it creates.

 

[C.Joseph Drayton]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Bruce,

Have you tried a BartPE disk? When I run into directories or files that won't delete, I use BartPE and it has always been
successful at removing the file or directory.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
~ He esteems too lightly


Bruce wrote:
| Hi, John,
|
| Our IT department here suggested that I install winfile.exe (the old
| version of file manager, circa Win95) on my XPHome, SP1 machine and try
| that.
|
| I got winfile.exe from line 71 of this (this is a great site):
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| But, it didn't work, either.
|
| Bruce
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=Nq9l
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

 

[Bruce]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Bruce,

Have you tried a BartPE disk? When I run into directories or files
that won't delete, I use BartPE and it has always been successful at
removing the file or directory.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
~ He esteems too lightly


Bruce wrote:
| Hi, John,
|
| Our IT department here suggested that I install winfile.exe (the old
| version of file manager, circa Win95) on my XPHome, SP1 machine and
| try that.
|
| I got winfile.exe from line 71 of this (this is a great site):
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| But, it didn't work, either.
|
| Bruce
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=Nq9l
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I'm going to try that out. Looks like it would be a handy utility to
have around for all purposes. Thanks for the suggestion.
Bruce

 

[Bruce]

You can't have a trailing period in a filename (without an extension).
An extention or name cannot have trailing spaces. Therefore as your
folder has no extension (while they don't normally there is no reason
they can't) it cannot have a period in it.

Try for Fat32

rd mon?????????????? (get the right number of ? to characters)

or for NTFS

rd \\?\c:\monster inc.

Windows allows programs to create illegal filenames (because they may
be for use on other operating systems and XP [the NT operating system]
in the past supported three operating systems - Windows, OS/2, and
Posix), but the program is responsible for deleting any such files it
creates.

I tried, but no go. I also tried by calling this folder "Monster~",
thinking there would be a problem with long file names using cmd, but
still no go. No matter what I do, I get some form of 'can't find ...',
or 'invalid path'.

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[David Candy]

See if the posix tools in W2K can delete it.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
'Not happy John! Defending our democracy',
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/29/1088392635123.html

You can't have a trailing period in a filename (without an extension).
An extention or name cannot have trailing spaces. Therefore as your
folder has no extension (while they don't normally there is no reason
they can't) it cannot have a period in it.

Try for Fat32

rd mon?????????????? (get the right number of ? to characters)

or for NTFS

rd \\?\c:\monster inc.

Windows allows programs to create illegal filenames (because they may
be for use on other operating systems and XP [the NT operating system]
in the past supported three operating systems - Windows, OS/2, and
Posix), but the program is responsible for deleting any such files it
creates.

I tried, but no go. I also tried by calling this folder "Monster~",
thinking there would be a problem with long file names using cmd, but
still no go. No matter what I do, I get some form of 'can't find ....',
or 'invalid path'.

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[Bruce]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Bruce,

Have you tried a BartPE disk? When I run into directories or files
that won't delete, I use BartPE and it has always been successful at
removing the file or directory.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
~ He esteems too lightly


Bruce wrote:
| Hi, John,
|
| Our IT department here suggested that I install winfile.exe (the old
| version of file manager, circa Win95) on my XPHome, SP1 machine and
| try that.
|
| I got winfile.exe from line 71 of this (this is a great site):
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| But, it didn't work, either.
|
| Bruce
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (MingW32)

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zmUGZqiFcBgn2te7Z/nIf/U=
=Nq9l
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

I made a PE disk, but still no luck. If I use the PE file explorer and
try to delete
C:\Documents and Settings\Shanny\My Documents\Monsters, Inc.
I get Cannot delete file: Cannot read from source file of disk.

Still in PE file explorer, I can open and close the folder Monsters,
Inc., that is, the folder icon will open and close, and I can select it
to rename it. When I finish typing a new name and hit enter, the old
name reappears. (In XP, I couldn't open/close the folder; XP wold tell
me can't find path.)

If I try from cmd.exe (still in PE), and log on to
C:\Documents and Settings\Shanny\My Documents
and type del Monsters, Inc.
or del Monster~
I get Cannot find C:\Documents and Settings\Shanny\My Documents
\Monsters, Inc.

So, I'm now at a loss. I'll try "posix" from W2K, as suggested by David
Candy.