Can't Delete Folder-WinVista Says Not There

When I try to delete a particular empty folder, call it Folder X, I get an error message that says, “Could not find this item. This is no longer located in C:\Users\John Doe\Videos. Verify the item’s location and try again.”

Apparently, Windows Vista can’t find the folder X in its own directory, even though I am looking at the folder icon and name as clear as the nose on my face.

I am the administrator and I am logged on as such. The folder properties are not read-only. There is no open program that has the folder in use. There are no files in the folder.

I have refreshed, restarted, and I have gone to the C drive properties and used Tools to check the drive for errors.

I just can’t seem to get rid of this thing.

I’m running WinVista Home Premium (Service Pack 2, 64-bit, RAID 2*500GB, Intel Core i7 CPU) on a new dell Studio XPS 435MT with 4 GB RAM.

Please help.

billmanhart--How are you trying to delete this folder? Right click and then Delete? (If so, did you reboot after that message?)
Can you drag and drop that icon into Recycle Bin?
From what you say, this is not a locked Folder (in use by other processes) but you still could try these programs
http://www.emco.is/products/move-on-boot/features.php
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
If no help, please supply exact wording of the error message if changes to what you have posted are needed.

Just in case.

The old XP user folders are now Junctions, which means they simply point to
the new folder that is used in Vista. They are there for compatibility
purposes for old programs that are not compatible with Vista. When an older
program tries to access one of these folders, they are automatically
redirected to the new user folder in Vista.

You can see a list of these folders using a command prompt.

Go to Start and type cmd and press Enter.

In the command window, type:

dir /aL

Press Enter.

The results will be a list of all the Junctions for the user folders. These
will show the name of the old XP user folder and the name of the new folder
that replaces it in Brackets.

A typical line will look like this:

12/13/2006 04:15 PM <JUNCTION> My Documents [C:\Users\user
name\Documents]

Thks, Welshjim, I tried what you said but no good. The folder is not locked. It is just "not there" according to Windows Vista, yet the icon remains there annoyingly.

This folder is not a leftover from WinXP, either. It was created by me on Vista.

I guess I'll just do a restore after all.

Thx for your help.

Here is virtually everything there is to be known about moving, or removing recalcitrant files or folders:

You cannot delete a file or folder

Or here is a nice utility that can delete files that defy all other attempts:

Move on boot

Thank you.

I already restored with Norton Ghost, but I will keep the helpful e-mail saved for future reference.

email ??

Yes.

The e-mail notification has the text of the recent repsonse and a hyperlink to that particular thread.

Hi Bill,

Was there a solution other than restoring from a diskimage?
That seems like a radical cure for a "simple" issue like an "orphaned" folder.

Well, I have been wrestling numerious hours with this pesky folder that won't delete myself!!!

Any input is appreciated.

Peter
Chino, CA

There were some suggestions, but all involved a lot of reading.

I back up my PC once a week and the My Documents folder daily to a 1-terabyte USB backup drive, so doing a disk restore wasn't actually that big a deal.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2012/05/2.png

Did you try that "Move on boot" that I linked to above? It's usually quite effective.

billmanhart--

Quote:

---

The e-mail notification has the text of the recent repsonse and a hyperlink to that particular thread.

---

Is that link part of this thread so we all can see?