can't delete files - totally frustrated

Greetings. I am trying to delete folders I recovered using a data recovery program. I want to delete all I have recovered in order to do the recovery again. I cannot remove some files listed under temp internet files. Crazy - I just want them gone. There is other data in on the partition I cannot lose or I would format.

I get the Access Denied: message when trying. I've played with permissions, setup different users, tried safe mode. Nothing is working.

Any help would be most appreciated.

The folders are large, 30 GB or bigger, going dir by dir is not an option.

HELP!!

Thanks in advance.

Have you tried putting it into another computer as a secondary drive and using that computer to delete them? I have a few of those U.S.B. to I.D.E. converters so I can do this without using the I.D.E. bus. But it should do the job either way. Good luck!

Have you tried going in to safe mode and changing command names to delete them??

I have tried both suggestions. The drive in question is a 300 GB drive and can't be recognized by my older home system. And I have tried safe mode command prompt - no luck.

I'm stuck and need to get this cleaned up NOW.

Thanks for the suggestions.

What commands have you tried from the prompt in safemode?

Using commands like DEL and RD, you may be prevented from deleting because a file or folder has an attribute like system or read-only.

If you haven't already done so, you could try using ATTRIB with the /s switch to remove attributes from all files in the tree, and the /d switch if necessary to remove attributes from folders(directories) if they are the problem.

You could then use RMDIR (RD) with the /s switch to try to remove the entire tree (specified directory with all sub-directories and the files they contain).

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

When you tried playing with permissions, did you also try taking ownership of the files in safe mode?

It's possible to create files with invalid file names that are impossible to delete. When i ran into this problem, it was my battle with removing securom, i had to use two programs:

unlocker

This handy little utility can delete pretty much anything. Securom had locked the file by adding into the registry "pending rename" for the file, causing the OS to lock it at all times.

Though unrelated, the other app i ended up finding was "trashreg" (sorry no link handy), this removed "undeletable" reg entries.. i like the one called "SECUROM - CANNOT DELETE ME". It got toasted :flames: :flames:

Thanks Mat, I knew there was a utility for that and couldn't think of it.

Thanks for all the posts. I have tired all above and there are these particular files I cannot remove, rename, delete or copy. They exist in the Temporary Internet Files directory and the file name looks like this:
click,zAIAANveAgCHQAQJOBAAIAUAEAAAAqWVtJJJ1WeSSS%2 Es45%alkjuklsajfooGHSJDGFH%creat[1].htm - it's actually longer than posted - just an example......

Because of the length of the file name, the file is invalid, I cannot rename, delete, or use a utility to delete as it gives me a file too long error message - no kidding.

I've tired unlock, and the file delete utility Delinvfile. No luck.

This is a small file causing BIG problems. If anybody has any idea how to remove this crap, it would be most appreciated.

You may be able to delete them by using the 8.3 format filename alias.

This is included among the suggestions for handling undeletable files here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320081

If it's only in the temp internet files, move the location of temp internet files...then you should be able to get at the file because it's no longer enmeshed with ie. You should also see if that file is not deleting because it is in use.

If worse came to worse, you could always mount the NTFS partition on a linux box and then remove the files that way. Probably sounds difficult but it's pretty easy if you have a linux box readily available.

as root

# mkdir /windata

Where /dev/hda5 represents the NTFS slice
# mount /dev/hda5 /windata/ -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222

# cd /windata

# rm -rf <name-of-dir-or-files>

:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WebHead

If worse came to worse, you could always mount the NTFS partition on a linux box and then remove the files that way. Probably sounds difficult but it's pretty easy if you have a linux box readily available.

as root

# mkdir /windata

Where /dev/hda5 represents the NTFS slice
# mount /dev/hda5 /windata/ -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222

# cd /windata

# rm -rf <name-of-dir-or-files>

:)

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I thought by default linux only had read access and that you had to install specific packages to get it to write/modify NTFS file system? However if all the new distros support full read/write, why not just use a live CD?