Can't delete a few files...

I have some Word docs on my system that were pulled over from a client machine for backup while I reinstalled the OS.

Simply put, I can't delete them... get an error that they can't be found. These are not mapped locations...

Have pretty much tried everything... from Win, from command line in safe mode blah blah.... Can't touch them in any way. No open, rename, delete nada...!

Even tried some program that was supposed to handle these types of files and you tell it to delete on reboot... no go on that either.... files just happily sit there.

Any bright ideas?????????

You probably have to take "ownership" of the files. Search here and or at MS knowledgebase for instructions on how to do that.

Sorry Steve... not an ownership issue. Have tried that and everything I know of... and have searched (and know how to do so) far and wide!

Thus I had to ask the question...

Find yourself an older (free) copy of NTFSdos and see if you can delete it with that. There are a few companies that make different versions of it but there are still a few freebies kicking around.

Try the following:

1. Open a CMD
2. Ctrl+alt+delete and shut down explorer.exe
3. In the command line, delete the file (hope it works)
4. re-start explorer.exe

No go for either of those options... nice tries though! Appreciate the effort...

See is anything in this article helps:

You cannot delete a file or folder

Were you able to at least access it with NTFSdos? Did you try changing the file attributes? or renaming or even moving it?

ntfsdos said it couldn't find any valid partitions... or I was running it incorrectly which could happen!

Here's the error I get when I try to delete it... or similar message depending upon the manipulation attempted.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/abhoth/cannotfind.jpg

Try running error checking and defrag on the drive.

These are the files below... notice the odd naming structure...

con. math.doc
con. read.doc
con. s.s.doc
con. writting.doc

All I can figure is that these puppies were manipulated in some manner while on this other persons machine. Virus problem or who knows what..... no virus present at this time.

No errors on drive scan, defragging now simply to eliminate that from the equation.

Try this:

START | RUN | CMD
CD drive:\pathtothefiles
then use DIR /X /A which will give you the short file names.
then DEL every file one by one using it's short file name.

If it's not working try to delete the whole folder.
Make sure there are no files left in the folder you want to keep.
RD drive:\pathtothefiles

Been there, done that.... "cannot find specified file"

All defragged and still no go... Really more of an annoyance than anything else. It's not like they are taking up space .... not enough to count anyway.

Just an annoying little thing that drives me......

The RD command tells me the dir is not empty.... is there a switch to force it?

We want to see a screen shot of these files in Explorer!?!?!?!?!?!

Like so...???

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/abhoth/explorer.jpg

and for good measure...

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/abhoth/command.jpg

Can you zap the mydoc and or zzz folder?

Nope..... good one eh? ;-)


http://mywebpages.comcast.net/abhoth/command2.jpg

Try Del "D:\zzz\mydoc\con. math.doc"

Get a syntax error on that one.......

All right. Whats your address. I'm coming over:eek:

Try to play around with the needed " " since there's a space in the file name. OR

D:\>DELTREE D:\ZZZ\MyDoc

I hear ya... this damn thing is driving me too!!!

Have tried various "" configs, same result... no such animal deltree in the world of WinXP... But RD would do the same and I've tried as you can see and no go..........

Have resigned myself to the fact that the shotgun approach may be the only way. But have a huge amount of data on the disk and no place to move it to...

So, there the files will sit... mocking me for time infinitum!

Try Del D:\zzz\mydoc\"con. math.doc"

Can't RD till the folders empty....

Yeah, tried that with the quotes on the doc only... nope.

Used the RD with the /S which should do it, but as the command line shows it tried with a negative result.....

Word 2002 won't let me create a file name like these. Can't even rename it with the con.


I'm heading out for a beer!!!!!

Have one for me too!!! Damn 'puters!

I've deduced thus far that the filename thing is the problem. But no way to change it... Need true DOS for WinXP

I got my company's main developer on it toooooooo.

Yes... we loves to drive developers crazy!!!

Must be some low level thing/utility that could help. Difficult to say...

They are just ghosts!

What is the short file name?
dir /x /a

Windows won't let me make a file starting with con.
con. is a reserved name for console.

Here ya be...

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/abhoth/shortname.jpg

hmm... :mad:

Yeah, just ain't right is it!!!??? Not sure if the corruption took place before I pulled them over from the client machine or during the transfer. Or some other place in time....

maybe this program will do the trick.

Well now.... that may just do it! Now for a reboot and make sure it's really gone!

brb

Beers are on me...!!!

Thanks XOR, that did the trick... nice little program and didn't even have to buy it. The unreg version killed 'em fine.

Glad it worked.

I'll have one on you, thank you!

Glad you got it sorted :)

I managed to hunt down the explanation, if it will help anyone else in future. "con" is a reserved keyword in Windows (for Console). Versions of Windows up to XP would accept mutipart filenames like that (I presume converting it internally to an 8.3 filename), but MS changed the behaviour of how WinXP handles those files, which is why it gave you so much trouble.

That makes sense SS... these files came off a Win98 machine. And of course MS has no legacy support, such is life.

Much thanks to all...!!!

As we say down South-> Yeeee Haaaa