how to delete C folder items on SBS 2008

To take ownership of the folder, follow this guide, then you should find you have the required access to delete the folder - if you need more detailed instructions post back.

I don't know.  My "administrator" name is listed as an owner.  For grins, I tried "replace owner on subcontainers and objects" but still get the "you need permission to perform this action".

Try this:
TAKEOWN /F <directory> /A /R /D Y >> C:\takeown_log.txt
(the last bit just logs the "takeown" command's output to a textfile so i can have a look if it fails)
From the command line to get ownership of the directory (remembering to run CMD as administrator). If that still fails, there's a couple of other options the - one would be to boot to a Live CD of some sort (hiren's boot CD, Ubuntu, knoppix) and delete the folder from there - it might also be worth trying a boot in safe mode and then take ownership from there - appreciate with it being an SBS box downtime might be hard to come by...

the folder I need to take ownership of is named-

test recovery of TheC

It is on the E drive.  Can you post that cmd again with that? I ran the one you posted and it gave "the system cannot find the file specified"

TAKEOWN /F "E:\test recovery of TheC" /A /R /D Y >> C:\takeown_log.txt

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>TAKEOWN /F "E:\test recovery of TheC" /A /R /D Y >> C:\takeo
wn_log.txt

ERROR: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

C:\Windows\system32>

Can you post the result from running "dir" from the e: drive? Sounds like that folder name is wrong.

I don't know how to run "dir" from the e: drive.  How do I do that?

Open a cmd prompt and enter "e:"   Press enter.
The start of the command line should change to E:>
type "dir"  Press enter.

Sorry, from E:> please run:

dir > c:\dire.txt

This will create a text file called 'dire.txt'on the C:\ drive.  Post that here.  Thanks.

Volume in drive E is America
 Volume Serial Number is 20AB-0B3D

 Directory of E:\

03/02/2011  04:34 PM    <DIR>          Joe Backup
08/22/2010  09:33 PM    <DIR>          IS_Unhip_Directories
09/10/2011  10:19 AM    <DIR>          Joe Share
06/06/2011  08:13 PM    <DIR>          JJMasterDatabase
09/15/2011  09:43 AM    <DIR>          test recovery of TheC
03/17/2011  03:46 PM    <DIR>          WSUS
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               6 Dir(s)  166,278,037,504 bytes free

Where do you learn all this?  The dir>c:/dire.txt is wack.

Hmm, this is not expected behaviour.  The first error (ERROR: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.) indicates that there is no folder  E:\test recovery of TheC
The dir output indicates that there is.

I shall have to consider this matter for a period of time.

Just for the hell of it, try:

del /f "E:\test recovery of TheC"

from an elevated command prompt.

Where do you learn all this?

All the info is freely available on the net.   There's a cmd A-Z here.  As you browse the forums and see how other people use cmd you'll pick up which cmds are more powerful or useful, then you can just run

[command] /?

to get the syntax.  The >> trick is pretty universal, if the command supports piping the output to a text file then that's the way to do it.

I ran del /f "E:\test recovery of TheC"  from cmd with C:\Windows|System32>. When I gave it del /f "E:\test recovery of TheC" it came back with "Are you sure Y/N? and I put y and enter and it came back with C:\Windows|System32>.  I then check the E drive and that folder is still there.  Should I just try booting with Ubuntu and delete the file while SBS is offline?

Certainly there is no harm in trying this approach, so long as you don't get carried away deleting things ;)

I used Ubuntu last night to delete.  That was a great suggestion.  Thanks! To further clarify for all, I had tested my backup and restored the C into a folder named TheC on my E drive.  I think in the future when I want to test a restore, I will do that to an external drive rather than my E.