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Unable to delete 0-byte folder

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 16:03:55 No.719652 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>719656 >>719681

How can I delete a 0-byte folder in the latest Windows 10 build? I've tried with an elevated command prompt, Total Commander (error: Need to remove write protection), and just the del button to no avail. Help?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 16:13:41 No.719656 Report

Quoted By: >>719678

>>719652
I've heard from another anon on here that you can zip the file using winrar (or something similar) and check the option "delete file after compression" and it'll work. Otherwise if you're really desperate you could always boot up Linux and remove the file from there.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 17:40:50 No.719678 Report

Quoted By: >>719683

>>719656
thanks for the tip; could you also link me to a guide on the linux bit?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 17:56:07 No.719681 Report

Quoted By: >>719683

>>719652
>How can I delete a 0-byte folder

try in safe mode.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 18:09:48 No.719683 Report

Quoted By: >>719743 >>719764

>>719681
Solid advice
>>719678
Try safe mode first, do this second
You'll need an USB! (using a rooted android phone is an alternative).
This may take 15-60 minutes depending on how good you are with computers. If you get stuck anywhere feel free to ask. These are general guidelines.
Note that you don't have to install Linux on your computer, you can test it without install.
1. Download a distro of choice (I'm recommending Kubuntu, KDE is easy and the file manager is good)
2. Plug in an USB and format it with Rufus (small good program)
3. Go to your BIOS and enable Booting from USB
4. Make USB boot first in the order of booting
5. Plug in the USB and reboot
6. When reaching the Install screen click "Try before installing" or something similar.
7. Open the file manager (dolphin)
8. Click windows on devices (left side in the bottom)
9. From there go ahead and remove stuff (root may be needed, basically admin account)

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 18:10:22 No.719684 Report

Quoted By: >>719740

are you able to rename the folder?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 20:46:07 No.719740 Report

Quoted By:

>>719684
no, I’m not

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 20:57:44 No.719743 Report

Quoted By: >>719744

>>719683
which would it be?

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 20:59:00 No.719744 Report

Quoted By: >>719745

>>719743
well shit that was hypercompressed

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 21:01:18 No.719745 Report

Quoted By: >>719748

>>719744
Damn you actually did it, Nice
Just go ahead and start the selected option

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 21:19:25 No.719748 Report

Quoted By: >>719750

>>719745
been at this screen for about 20 mins; what’s the usual?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 21:33:42 No.719750 Report

Quoted By: >>719755

>>719748
That's definitely unusual, if it takes more than 2 minutes somethings wrong, probably some graphics, try the second option and if that doesn't work press ctrl+alt+f2 and login, then type lsblk to view partitions and mount it with 'sudo mount -t ntfs -o rw /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt' in my case from there you can delete files. Then type 'cd /mnt' to go to the windows folder. From there delete files with 'rm -rf filename'.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 21:40:10 No.719755 Report

Quoted By: >>719765

>>719750
ctrl+alt+f2 after you've started kubuntu, even if it's stuck at the login screen.
if you need to use commands it will look like this:
bl@arch> lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1 259:0 0 238.5G 0 disk
|-nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 260M 0 part /esp
|-nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 150G 0 part <---- Windows partition
|-nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 980M 0 part
|-nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 17.3G 0 part
`-nvme0n1p5 259:5 0 70G 0 part /
bl@arch> sudo mount -t ntfs -o rw /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
bl@arch> cd /mnt/
bl@arch> ls
*All files from C:\ listed here*
bl@arch /mnt> rm -rf file

Use cd to move between directories and ls to view all files

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 22:04:53 No.719764 Report

Quoted By: >>719765

>>719683
got this after “try kubuntu”

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 22:10:45 No.719765 Report

Quoted By: >>719772

>>719764
Driver issue, too hard to fix in order to delete a file, If >>719755 doesn't work there's not much I can help you with. I'm sincerely sorry for wasting your time. Sorry man.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 22:24:17 No.719772 Report

Quoted By: >>719776

>>719765
hey man no worries; I’m happy this thread even had a life. I was gonna backup-format my drives anyway, so maybe a good old wipe will fix it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 22:50:35 No.719776 Report

Quoted By: >>719778 >>719799

>>719772
Before you do that, OP, create a Windows 10 USB using the media creation tool, then once you boot off it press shift-f10.

You'll get a Windows command prompt, from which you can work with the filesystem as administrator, and chkdsk /f it without needing to log off.

Think of it as "safe mode command prompt only", but more powerful because you're running a stripped down Windows that doesn't give two fucks about permissions.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 27 Sep 2019 22:53:06 No.719778 Report

Quoted By:

>>719776
ty anon, I’llgive it a try

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 00:41:57 No.719799 Report

Quoted By: >>719803 >>719806

>>719776
next steps? it seems the command prompt chose the USB as the working directory and idk how to get to C:/ from there.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 00:50:28 No.719803 Report

Quoted By: >>719807 >>719809

>>719799
scratch that; I think the prompt can’t even find the folder when I copy and paste its name. for lack of a better metaphor, I think my folder’s turned into fairy dust in suspended animation.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 01:01:38 No.719806 Report

Quoted By:

>>719799
Your drive letters will be different; either guess (it will be D:, E:, or similar) or go

diskpart
list volume
exit

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 01:03:21 No.719807 Report

Quoted By: >>719817

>>719803
You need to put "" around filenames with spaces. i.e.

rd /s "[my group] my directory with spaces"

Or just type a [ then bang tab until cmd picks the right one.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 01:04:22 No.719809 Report

Quoted By: >>719817

>>719803
Don't use /q: that's telling it to not tell you what it's deleting.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 01:40:45 No.719817 Report

Quoted By: >>719821 >>719825

>>719807
>>719809
>The system cannot find the file specified.
well lads this might be it

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 01:55:29 No.719821 Report

Quoted By: >>719846

>>719817
You typed ["[ , not "[

Does tab completion work? Use tab completion.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 02:02:15 No.719825 Report

Quoted By: >>719846

>>719817
Could also be that the path is so long everything hates it.

Rename \\?\c:\users\........ shorter_name
Use tab completion to find your long named directory. The "\\?\c:\" enables really long filename mode.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 02:04:32 No.719826 Report

Quoted By: >>719832

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/
Use it on the folder and then delete

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 02:10:20 No.719832 Report

Quoted By:

>>719826
No. OP clearly already has ownership, because he created the file in his own documents directory. Plus booting WinPE off a disk ignores ownership.

The problem is either:
- the directory is being locked by something in the installed OS
- the directory has a name that's so long that if you create it inside another directory, the total path length makes everything shit itself.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 03:13:31 No.719846 Report

Quoted By: >>719935

>>719821
I redid it as you directed; same error. As for >>719825 do I enter that string while I’m in the directory? Seems redundant to rewrite the path when I’m at the directory.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 03:35:01 No.719850 Report

Quoted By: >>719884

Did you try inbuilt windows 'check drive for errors' function? Looks like a filesystem error to me.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 06:36:21 No.719884 Report

Quoted By:

>>719850
I’ll check that tmr; ty for the tip

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 11:45:35 No.719935 Report

Quoted By: >>719988 >>719991

>>719846
>Seems redundant to rewrite the path when I’m at the directory.
Well it's necessary, or you're not going to get the leading \\?\ that tells Windows you want to use long long filenames. (https://ss64.com/nt/syntax-filenames.html)

See that key above capslock? You need to start using it. Fire up your cmd.exe window, then type

rd /s \\?\c:\

Then press tab until you get the first level of your path, then press \
Then press tab until you get the next level of your path, then press \
Then press tab until you get the next level of your path, then press \
Then press tab until you get the next level of your path, then press \
Then press tab until you get the next level of your path, then press \

When the window has made your whole path for you, press enter, say yes, and your directory will be gone.

I literally just tested this in a vm, and if you do it properly it works. You absolutely need the \\?\c:\, if you don't use it you get "the system cannot find the file specified".

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 15:06:23 No.719988 Report

Quoted By:

>>719935
thanks for the clarification anon, I’ll do just that

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 15:18:55 No.719991 Report

Quoted By: >>720155

>>719935
hot damn that’s the way to go; thanks a bunch anon!
...and all the rest of you for graciously spoonfeeding me. /wsr/ is absolutely based.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 28 Sep 2019 23:37:48 No.720155 Report

Quoted By:

>>719991
Glad to hear you met with success, OP!

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