On 17 Mar 2009 at 15:02, Joe Heaton wrote:

> I have a user that has some files that are 0 bytes in size.The names
> of these files have all kinds of punctuation, and therefore, no real
> file type. When I try to delete them, I get an error saying Cannot
> delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk.
> 
> Any ideas on how to get rid of these files?

In a CMD prompt, use DEL X?Y?X*.* using "?" as a wildcard for strange 
characters.  I usually use DIR X?Y?X*.* first to confirm that I'm only 
"seeing" the files I want to delete.

You might need to use ATTRIB to change the attributes first if files 
have hidden, system, or read-only attributes set.

I find that Total Commander is often useful in situations like this, 
get it from http://www.ghisler.com -- it'll run off a USB stick or a 
network share so you don't need to install it to run it, it can even 
run on a BartPE boot CD (which is another way you can kill unkillable 
files, since you're using an OS that's independent of the drive and any 
security thereupon).

HTH

--
Angus Scott-Fleming
GeoApps, Tucson, Arizona
http://www.geoapps.com/
---------------------------------------------------------



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