Folder and its files can't be deleted.

So I installed Windows 7 RC 7100 from a dvd with Vista present, choosing what I assumed was the clean install option. The installation rounded up the old windows and put it in a folder called windows.old. I got what I needed out of there, and deleted the windows.old folder and stuff got deleted, except the windows.old folder and some remaining sub-folders. There are two files way down in the last folder that won't be deleted. Windows 7 claims they are not there, so they cannot be renamed and cannot be compressed. Plus they have 0 bytes. These files are labeled in what looks like real Coptic script. These files can be moved and the folders that contain them too. Windows 7 will not delete them, saying that they are not where they are anymore.

I figure that when I deleted the windows.old folder, something went wrong and now Windows 7 shows them to be there, but also thinks they are not there - weird that it has enough to think they are there but not enough to think it can delete them.

Anyway, how can I get rid of whatever is there?

I don't think there is anything you can do to get rid of them besides a format. I've had something like that for over a year on one of my disks that is 400 GB full and I have no place to move the stuff temp away to fix it. I tried a little looking for ways, like software or commands, but nothing deleted the files.

Here's mine.

Sonyack said:

So I installed Windows 7 RC 7100 from a dvd with Vista present, choosing what I assumed was the clean install option. The installation rounded up the old windows and put it in a folder called windows.old. I got what I needed out of there, and deleted the windows.old folder and stuff got deleted, except the windows.old folder and some remaining sub-folders. There are two files way down in the last folder that won't be deleted. Windows 7 claims they are not there, so they cannot be renamed and cannot be compressed. Plus they have 0 bytes. These files are labeled in what looks like real Coptic script. These files can be moved and the folders that contain them too. Windows 7 will not delete them, saying that they are not where they are anymore.

I figure that when I deleted the windows.old folder, something went wrong and now Windows 7 shows them to be there, but also thinks they are not there - weird that it has enough to think they are there but not enough to think it can delete them.

Anyway, how can I get rid of whatever is there?

I think torrentg is correct but could you right click one of them and tell us the properties and who the owners are?

Thanks

Ken

Try running a disk check (chkdsk /f) on the drive.

Yeah, I've done all the tricks like trying to take ownership, using other OS, chkdsk too. Nothing fixes it.

Here's one of the file's permissions.

torrentg said:

I don't think there is anything you can do to get rid of them besides a format. I've had something like that for over a year on one of my disks that is 400 GB full and I have no place to move the stuff temp away to fix it. I tried a little looking for ways, like software or commands, but nothing deleted the files.

Here's mine.

If you are absolutely sure you want to get rid of them there are a couple of ways.

1-boot from a dos cd and delete them *.* even if they are -h,-s,-x (hidden,system files, and read only) DOS doesn't know that.

2- some apps (Im gonna use one called treesize) are able to delete anything. I have deleted winsxs files from within windows.

3- if your dual booting delete them from the other partition. This doesn't always work

Hope it helps some.

Ken

If you can move them, why not move them on a flash drive and them nuke the flash drive?

It's only possible to cut and paste within the same partition. Trying anywhere else it gives the same error as when trying to delete. "Could not find this item"