Very weird screw up with naming files.

[Mike Sorge]

Hello, my name is Mike and I have a problem with some
files on my computer.

In my computer I have some files that are songs that will
not do anything. When I try to play them, they just
say "File not found... Please verify the correct filename
was given."

This is what I think may have something to do with it:
Whenever you try to rename a file and you are typing too
long of a filename, it will not let you go past a certain
length of characters. But a few files on my computer
must have allowed OVER the character limit accidentally,
and now I can't do anything with these files! I can't
rename them, open them, play them, OR even delete them
when I right-click on them or use the keyboard!

The only choices that come up are: Play/Open/Queue-It-
Up/Add to Playlist.../Copy to CD or Device/Open With...
and Send To.

I can't scan them, cut or copy, create shortcut, delete,
rename, or even go to properties.


I'm hoping someone has come across this problem before,
and knows what to do to get these files renamed or even
deleted.

I have Windows XP Professional if this info helps.

Thank you very much for your time,
Mike Sorge
E-Mail me at (e-mail address removed)

 

[Paul]

Type "dir /X" into a command prompt and it will display
the DOS 8.3 filename delete the file using that name.

 

[Mike Sorge]

This did not work because the filename of the screwed up
files doesn't even appear in the command prompt listing.

Any other suggestions?

Mike Sorge

 

[Lemon Jelly]

If you get access denied, you need to try to take ownership if the files
(NTFS only). Perhaps problems can arise with long files being moved or
copied to a deeper folder location, though I'd expect some warning. You
could try running chkdsk 1st, or open a command prompt window, go to
Task Manager (Crl+Alt+Del), Processes tab, then right click on
explorer.exe - End Process. If the files are visible, try renaming
(ren/? will give further info) the files from the previously opened CP
window. When done, C+A+D, Applications tab, New Task, explorer.exe will
reload it. You may loose some Notification Area (System Tray) icons
until you reboot. Have you run defrag recently?

If you are using FAT32 you can boot from a DOS disc & rename etc
instead. The important point is not have explorer.exe running as it
might be locking the files & hopefully the OS kernel isn't. If this
doesn't work - I'm out of ideas & would presume the files are corrupted
beyond recall but the del command should at least be able to delete them
if it can see them that is.

Just found this MS KB article (for NTFS) :
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320081
You may need to temporarily move stuff out of the folder & delete the
folder, though you may find you can't - it's a long time since I've
tried & I'm not sure it will work with a non-empty folder, especially if
it contains files where the name is corrupted.



Mike Sorge - typed:

 

[Malke]

If you get access denied, you need to try to take ownership if the
files (NTFS only). Perhaps problems can arise with long files being
moved or copied to a deeper folder location, though I'd expect some
warning. You could try running chkdsk 1st, or open a command prompt
window, go to Task Manager (Crl+Alt+Del), Processes tab, then right
click on explorer.exe - End Process. If the files are visible, try
renaming (ren/? will give further info) the files from the previously
opened CP window. When done, C+A+D, Applications tab, New Task,
explorer.exe will reload it. You may loose some Notification Area
(System Tray) icons until you reboot. Have you run defrag recently?

If you are using FAT32 you can boot from a DOS disc & rename etc
instead. The important point is not have explorer.exe running as it
might be locking the files & hopefully the OS kernel isn't. If this
doesn't work - I'm out of ideas & would presume the files are
corrupted beyond recall but the del command should at least be able to
delete them if it can see them that is.

Just found this MS KB article (for NTFS) :
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320081
You may need to temporarily move stuff out of the folder & delete the
folder, though you may find you can't - it's a long time since I've
tried & I'm not sure it will work with a non-empty folder, especially
if it contains files where the name is corrupted.



Mike Sorge - typed:

Mike, another idea - because I've mostly seen these long names on music
files that were downloaded with Kazaa or a similar p2p program (WinMX,
Limewire, etc.) you may have picked up a virus. Does scanning with your
current av show the machine is clean?

Malke