Embedded folders won't delete in XP

[Dena]

I am trying to delete a number of folders that are embedded within one
another on my C drive. They are in My Documents and there are about 60 or
so...all empty one within another. When I try to delete them I get the
message "The folder my documents contains items whose name is too long for
the recycle bin. Do you want to permanently delete it?" When I say yes, I
get the message "Cannot delete My Documents the file name you specified is
not valid or too long. Specify a different file name."
I have tried renaming the file but that does no good. I have tried going to
the last file in the group and deleting it from there and that has not
worked. Can anyone give me an idea of where to go from here?
I have run AdAware, SpyBot and Anti-virus software and the machine is clean.

Thanks in advance for help.

DS

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Have you tried deleting the folders either from a command prompt of Safe
Mode?

 

[Dena]

I have tried to delete using safe mode and from the command prompt both.
Neither worked.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Path Too Long

To work around this problem, reduce the length of the path to less than 256
characters.

In Windows Explorer, select the folder one level above the folder that
returns the error. Right-click the folder returning the error and then click
Rename. Rename the folder to reduce the number of characters used in the
folder name.

Rename the folder so that the target files that are deeper than the MAX_PATH
no longer exist. If you do this, start at the root folder (or any other
convenient place), and then rename folders so that they have shorter names.

Rename subfolders in the path to a file so that the total path or file name
is less than the max_path setting or 256 characters. Start with subfolders
that are closer to the root so that you are always working with less than
256 characters.


You cannot delete a file or a folder on an NTFS file system volume
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320081

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Dena]

I have tried that too. I get the message "cannot rename My Documents. Access
is denied or the file is in use." I am in Administrator mode and I am not
using the folder I am trying to delete. I am stumped!