Unable to delete folders and files on backup to external hard driv

[Guest]

Windows XP-Profession, Dell Inspiron 8600, Maxtor 120 GB Onetouch.

I did a retrospective backup in 2003 and left it on this HD. Now I need the
HD and all it's space so I have been deleting or moving everything. This
until I began receiving an error message that two "files" could not be
deleted.

The two "files" named cgi.shockwave.com and greetingcards and none of
the usual Windows commands work on these. I've tried to move, copy, delete,
rename them and the error message is always cannot file or folder not a valid
file name or too long a filename or extension. They are supposed to be in a
directory named Donald.don that I tried delete in many different ways,
including using CMD and DOS commands, but without success.

Using a directory printing program I found, according to the program, that
the directory I need to delete really has 157 directories; 1,034 files;
211,234,832 bytes, I f I understand the printout.

Please, any information to get rid of all this stuff would be a help. I am
sure I am missing something here. Thanks.


..

 

[Poprivet]

Windows XP-Profession, Dell Inspiron 8600, Maxtor 120 GB Onetouch.

I did a retrospective backup in 2003 and left it on this HD. Now I
need the HD and all it's space so I have been deleting or moving
everything. This until I began receiving an error message that two
"files" could not be deleted.

The two "files" named cgi.shockwave.com and greetingcards and
none of the usual Windows commands work on these. I've tried to move,
copy, delete, rename them and the error message is always cannot file
or folder not a valid file name or too long a filename or extension.
They are supposed to be in a directory named Donald.don that I tried
delete in many different ways, including using CMD and DOS commands,
but without success.

Using a directory printing program I found, according to the program,
that the directory I need to delete really has 157 directories; 1,034
files; 211,234,832 bytes, I f I understand the printout.

Please, any information to get rid of all this stuff would be a help.
I am sure I am missing something here. Thanks.


.

 

[Poprivet]

Windows XP-Profession, Dell Inspiron 8600, Maxtor 120 GB Onetouch.

I did a retrospective backup in 2003 and left it on this HD. Now I
need the HD and all it's space so I have been deleting or moving
everything. This until I began receiving an error message that two
"files" could not be deleted.

The two "files" named cgi.shockwave.com and greetingcards and
none of the usual Windows commands work on these. I've tried to move,
copy, delete, rename them and the error message is always cannot file
or folder not a valid file name or too long a filename or extension.
They are supposed to be in a directory named Donald.don that I tried
delete in many different ways, including using CMD and DOS commands,
but without success.

Using a directory printing program I found, according to the program,
that the directory I need to delete really has 157 directories; 1,034
files; 211,234,832 bytes, I f I understand the printout.

You can "unhide" those files so Explorer will see them. Go to your Control
Panel and open Folder Options. Select the View tab, and look thru ALL the
entries for anything about showing hidden files, and set them accordingly.
Then windows explorer should be able to see them.

Please, any information to get rid of all this stuff would be a help.
I am sure I am missing something here. Thanks.

Have you tried deleting them from Safe Mode? Press F8 repeatedly as soon as
the POST completes and it'll come up as a boot choice.

What application created those files? And is the application still
installed on the computer? If so, those files might be considered "in use"
and thus not be deleteable. Safe Mode might get around that since it
doesn't load everything.

The DOS mode (Command Prompt) in XP is NOT the DOS mode your'e familar with
in past versions of windows, so it isn't surprising that might not have let
you delete them if they are "in use".

If none of that helps, something is fishy and you should respond with a lot
more detail, step by step, that you used to try to delete them and the exact
error messages you get when the delete fails.

Also, what AV, firewall and malware-protection software are you running? Is
it updated as of today? What do they say exactly?

HTH

Pop`

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I will take your suggestions and try again.

 

[Guest]

Hi Again,

Thanks for the information you sent I was able to take care of this
situation. I saw that my previous methods were not going to work and looked
over yours. That reminded me that I did have the manual and install disc for
the Maxtor HD. What I did with that was to move the few remaining "good"
directories and files back to my internal local hard drive. Then, I formatted
the Maxtor to erease everything on it. Afterwards, with the install disc, I
installed the Maxtor backup applications.

This worked and I was able to backup my internal hard drive to the Maxtor
without any further problems.

While doing this I realized that at one time when my computer did crash I
had to reinstall Windows XP and most applications. One that was wiped out was
the Uninstall Program for the Maxtor software. Using that could have helped
in the process, I suppose, but it was not available until I reinstalled the
Maxtor software.

Thanks again

George