Undeletable files

[Robert Clark]

I'm sorry to bring up this problem again, but I have tried all suggestions
found on Microsoft and the net. I have two 0(General Tab) byte or 82(Detail
tab) byte files, depending on what tab of properties is chosen. The files
are not found in DOS or renameable, deletable, shredable, and no program or
method suggested in a 1.5 hour discussion with Dell has worked. DOS says the
file does not exist, and any operation on the file in Vista can't find the
file to change, delete, rename, etc. It is not "running" and us not used by
any other process. They only show up on the desktop. Every type of method
tried(Many), the message is always the same. File not found. I have SP1
installed. My Windows Explorer is up to date. Is there some way to fix this
by way of the registry(Stupid question I know). HELLLP

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

The filename probably has an unprintable first character or two.
When in the desktop folder with the cmd prompt:
del ?showingfilename.*
or
del ??showingfilename.*

--
Was this helpful? Then click the Ratings button. Voting helps the web
interface.
http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales/help/help_en-us.htm#RateAPostAsAnswer
Mark L. Ferguson
..

 

[Robert Clark]

Thank you for the tip. I tried both ways. The command was accepted, but the
files remain. The two files are identical and one each resides as the only
file in a named folder. Both of those folders reside in a folder called
pictures. The full name of the file is ".2002" There is no "filename" in
the file, just that extention.

With dir command three entries are noted
DIR .
DIR ..
DIR 2002

When I try to access the 2002 file/DIR it can't be found
Thank you for your expertise

 

[Mikep]

I'm sorry to bring up this problem again, but I have tried all suggestions
found on Microsoft and the net. I have two 0(General Tab) byte or
82(Detail
tab) byte files, depending on what tab of properties is chosen. The files
are not found in DOS or renameable, deletable, shredable, and no program
or
method suggested in a 1.5 hour discussion with Dell has worked. DOS says
the
file does not exist, and any operation on the file in Vista can't find the
file to change, delete, rename, etc. It is not "running" and us not used
by
any other process. They only show up on the desktop. Every type of method
tried(Many), the message is always the same. File not found. I have SP1
installed. My Windows Explorer is up to date. Is there some way to fix
this
by way of the registry(Stupid question I know). HELLLP

Was deleting the parent folder one of the many methods tried?

Mike

 

[Robert Clark]

Yes. The complete message I get on trying to delete the parent folder is
"Could not find this item. This is no longer located in
C:\Users\rclark\Desktop. Verify the item's location and try again.
Pictures, Created 2/13/2008". The folder is seen by win explorer and can be
opened as can each of the two sub folders. I get essentially the same
message when trying to delete each subfolder and each of the problem files.

 

[gls858]

Yes. The complete message I get on trying to delete the parent folder is
"Could not find this item. This is no longer located in
C:\Users\rclark\Desktop. Verify the item's location and try again.
Pictures, Created 2/13/2008". The folder is seen by win explorer and can be
opened as can each of the two sub folders. I get essentially the same
message when trying to delete each subfolder and each of the problem files.

I had a problem similar to this and it turned out that the file name was
being held in the index. The file was actually gone. Re-indexing made
them go away.

gls858

 

[Robert Clark]

Thank you. I reindexed what was shown on "Indexing Options". It included
offline files, start menu and OS C. I seem to be unable to add the desktop
to the indexing. I performed the task twice re-booting each time, but the
files and the folders containing them stii show up. Actually, that sounded
like it should have been a perfect solution to the problem. Did I re-index
correcrly, I wonder. Can the desktop be reindexed on its own? Or, is that
already included in OS C?

Thank you

 

[Robert Clark]

I also tried to create a new user profile, and was mostly successful, but a
few programs required new activation codes. I thought that by diong this, if
I deleted the first user rclark from the second rclrak user, that would solve
the issue. Unfortunately, my e-mail client would not allow me to use the
data in all my amilboxes, despite the fact the mailboxes do contain the data
from the rclark user. All mailboxes are empty and my custom mailboxes do not
show up. If I open the mailbox from the program file, it does display the
data, but I am unable to transfer any of it to the new program installation.
I was wondering, if I did that and deleted the rclark user, would all the
data then be available in the new user account rclark3, especially if I
remamed the new account rclark.

Thanks

 

[Dave]

The Desktop is located under your login user folder. The \Users folder is
indexed by default.
To check, open Indexing Options, click on "Modify", "Show all locations".
Open C: and see if \Users is checked.

 

[Robert Clark]

I solved the problem using brute force. I created a new user profile in
Vista as administrator and deleted the old admin user. I took a hit with
some programs, but did find some workarounds, so the data loss was minimal.
The undeletable files are gone.

I do have a small glitch though. When renaming my new profile, rclark3, to
the old name, rclark, I notice that many paths still use the rclark3 name,
and there is a full folder in appdata under rclark3.

I think I will just live with it.

Thanks all for your help.