james_axton
asked on
Unable to delete files with improper characters in XP
We've got a machine with a couple of files that have a dot in the name that are unable to be deleted. We've tried all the variations of "\\?\" found in this article and its comments. We also tried booting into UBCD and attempting a delete that way, and chkdsk also passed with no errors. So far everything has failed.
Any attempt to delete or rename the file is met with a "cannot read from the source file or disk" message. This problem clearly stems from an improper file name but we can't figure out how to get rid of them. Any help would be appreciated.
Any attempt to delete or rename the file is met with a "cannot read from the source file or disk" message. This problem clearly stems from an improper file name but we can't figure out how to get rid of them. Any help would be appreciated.
rabindrajha
use ubuntu live cd, boot the machine and delete....
have you tried deleting them from dos using their 8.3 filename equivalent?
ASKER
Richard2k4, yes. We ran dir /x /a against it and tried del and del "\\?\" with that. Neither worked.
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ASKER
MASQUERAID, the files are locked by anything. Will that still get them out?
Do you mean "aren't"?
I've not had it fail on me yet. If it doesn't do it directly it adds a right-click context menu which you can use which avoids explorer complaining about file naming errors.
I've not had it fail on me yet. If it doesn't do it directly it adds a right-click context menu which you can use which avoids explorer complaining about file naming errors.
ASKER
Yes I left a word out, sorry. We'll give Unlocker a try in an hour or so and I'll report back here.
ASKER
Safe Mode and Unlocker did the trick where numerous variations of "\\?\" failed. Thank you!