Deleting the undeletable?

[glenwood]

I have Googled, asked Symantec, searched Windows Inside Out, used a variety
of file crushers/destroyers and yet I still have 2 folders of junk taking up
around 50MB of space that I cannot delete.

Obviously they would be destroyed by formatting but they don't want to be
moved to a partition which I can conveniently format such as a USB RAM
drive. One is on my desktop and the other is in my E:\ drive recycler.

Are there any moves that I have missed in trying to remove these folders
which say they are not there so can't be removed?

Please advise as it is driving me mad. It must be possible although not life
threatening they have got to go.

TIA

Ray

 

[relic]

I have Googled, asked Symantec, searched Windows Inside Out, used a
variety of file crushers/destroyers and yet I still have 2 folders of
junk taking up around 50MB of space that I cannot delete.

Obviously they would be destroyed by formatting but they don't want
to be moved to a partition which I can conveniently format such as a
USB RAM drive. One is on my desktop and the other is in my E:\ drive
recycler.

Are there any moves that I have missed in trying to remove these
folders which say they are not there so can't be removed?

Please advise as it is driving me mad. It must be possible although
not life threatening they have got to go.

TIA

Ray

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_undeletable_file.htm

 

[glenwood]

Thank you kind Sir Relic,

How do you manage to recall answers like this to seemingly impossible
problems?

There had to be a way but I would never have come up with this solution.

I must be asking the wrong questions on Google etc.

Ray

 

[relic]

Thank you kind Sir Relic,

How do you manage to recall answers like this to seemingly impossible
problems?

There had to be a way but I would never have come up with this
solution.

I must be asking the wrong questions on Google etc.

Any time. It's actually been a pretty frequent post, just not lately. In
Google, it might (??) have been found by searching Google Groups instead of
the web. Google archives all the newsgroups.

 

[d2003xx]

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_undeletable_file.htm

WRONG!!

The correct method is this:

1.Get process explorer (free) from
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

2.Launch it, find the file name (as handle), then close the handle(s),
or kill the program which holds the handle.

3.Delete the file.

 

[glenwood]

Thanks to all contributors. Unfortunately I still have these pesky folders.

I have two undeletable folders one each on C: and E: drives which I have
named "junk". They contain a large number of files all with an 8 digit
number dot (xxxxxxxx.), no extension. Every method That I have tried and
there have been many returns an error message "file cannot be found" after
each file as they scroll down the screen. I have Process explorer but my
techno expertise is not savvy enough to enable me to follow your brief
instructions. Could you kindly expand so that I can finally be rid of these
pesky folders?

Thanks for your help

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have Googled, asked Symantec, searched Windows Inside Out, used a variety
of file crushers/destroyers and yet I still have 2 folders of junk taking up
around 50MB of space that I cannot delete.

Obviously they would be destroyed by formatting but they don't want to be
moved to a partition which I can conveniently format such as a USB RAM
drive. One is on my desktop and the other is in my E:\ drive recycler.

For the desktop one, you probably are not the owner entitled to delete
them. Seel Help and Support on Ownership,.

The E:\RECYCLER is the recycle bin on E:, if that is formatted with
NTFS. This has a folder in it for each user to hold files that *he* has
deleted, and is not allowed write or modify access except by the System
and by administrators. Even the user is not allowed to modify it direct
- he should use Empty Recycle Bin to clear it out.

 

[d2003xx]

Thanks to all contributors. Unfortunately I still have these pesky folders.

I have two undeletable folders one each on C: and E: drives which I have
named "junk". They contain a large number of files all with an 8 digit
number dot (xxxxxxxx.), no extension. Every method That I have tried and
there have been many returns an error message "file cannot be found" after
each file as they scroll down the screen.

So.. You can see them in file manager, right?

1.What if you rename them? Or move those "xxxxxxxx" files to other
directories? Or move/renams the two folders? Or open them with hex
editor or notepad?

2.Or run cmd.exe, then type "dir C:\junk" + ENTER (or "dir E:\junk")..
Assume the two undeletable folders are just them.

If you can see them there, type "del /F C:\junk" + ENTER, to see what
will happen

BTW, could you give the entire path of the folder "junk"? Does the
path name contain special characters?

I have Process explorer but my
techno expertise is not savvy enough to enable me to follow your brief
instructions. Could you kindly expand so that I can finally be rid of these
pesky folders?

Your problem is different. It can't be solved by process explorer.

 

[glenwood]

Thank you for this info.

The appear as normal folders as C:\junk and E:\junk but the folders can only
be moved around within its own partition. If I could move them to a spare
partition I could format and lose them that way but the drives concerned are
full of my most used programmes and data.

They can be renamed to virtually anything but so far I have not found that
to be of any benefit. It is not possible to move the files out of the
folders because it causes an error message which basically says that there
are no files in the folder.

They do not open into notepad or a hex editor because the same error message
appears suggesting that they are zero content but the folder size on disk is
50MB+ and 80MB+.

I have tried all of the methods suggested plus the procedure in Microsoft
KB315226 none work. So far no method involving the command prompt in normal
or safe mode has worked.

There are no special characters visible and I have got show hidden files
enabled. If I use RD junk the message is folder not empty.

I tried del /F C:\junk and the file scrolled down each with the message "The
system cannot find the file specified". dir E:\junk gets me a normal listing
of the folder contents.

I am beginning to believe that it is insoluble.

Ray

 

[Keyser Soze]

<snip>

Download VoptXP [30day trial].
http://www.vopt.com/VoptXP.htm

Once installed/started run a global defrag.

Then establish from each of the squares representing
clusters/sectors for each of the drives where these
[problem] files reside and double click on them in turn.

Once you have identified the problem files listed by VoptXP,
simply right click on each and select delete.

Run defrag when finished.

 

[glenwood]

Thanks

NTFS and you are probably right. Not worth wasting any more time.

Ray

 

[Bill H.]

| Thanks to all contributors. Unfortunately I still have these pesky folders.
|
| I have two undeletable folders one each on C: and E: drives which I have
| named "junk". They contain a large number of files all with an 8 digit
| number dot (xxxxxxxx.), no extension. Every method That I have tried and
| there have been many returns an error message "file cannot be found" after
| each file as they scroll down the screen. I have Process explorer but my
| techno expertise is not savvy enough to enable me to follow your brief
| instructions. Could you kindly expand so that I can finally be rid of these
| pesky folders?
|
| Thanks for your help
|


Try taking ownership of the folder. I think relic suggested it once.
In explorer select Folder options under Tools. In that window click
on the View tab, and take the check mark out of "Use simple file
sharing". Apply and close the window with OK. Then, you can right
click on the folder and, under properties, you can set permissions on
the Security Tab. After giving the correct permissions, maybe you can
delete the folder.

Regards, Bill H.

 

[Kelly]

Hi Glenwood,

Can't Delete a File or Folder in XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_d.htm#del

/top10faqs.htm