Can't delete folders,,,,,

Through some obvious fault of my own, and probably during one of two complete Windows 7 Ultimate reinstalls, I ended up with four of five folders within my “ProgramData” folder that appear to belong to another user. Since I am the only user on the system, and since Win 7 tells me that I need permission from myself to access these files, I was confused.

Two of these folders had data from both Nero, and Nuance. Attempting to upgrade either of these applications failed, probably due the protected, or read-only, status of these folders. While I couldn't erase them, I was able to rename them. While that then cause both applications to fail, reinstalling these applications with straightforward, and I'm no longer locked out of these folders.

That just leaves the two folders that I renamed, and am unable to delete under any circumstances. I even tried booting the system under a standalone Linux, and any attempt to delete these folders failed there also. This situation is more of a net, or annoyance, then any major problem, but I would be happy to listen to anyone's ideas about how I might delete these folders.

Thanks for your time.

JLOB

JLOB said:

Through some obvious fault of my own, and probably during one of two complete Windows 7 Ultimate reinstalls, I ended up with four of five folders within my “ProgramData” folder that appear to belong to another user. Since I am the only user on the system, and since Win 7 tells me that I need permission from myself to access these files, I was confused.

Two of these folders had data from both Nero, and Nuance. Attempting to upgrade either of these applications failed, probably due the protected, or read-only, status of these folders. While I couldn't erase them, I was able to rename them. While that then cause both applications to fail, reinstalling these applications with straightforward, and I'm no longer locked out of these folders.

That just leaves the two folders that I renamed, and am unable to delete under any circumstances. I even tried booting the system under a standalone Linux, and any attempt to delete these folders failed there also. This situation is more of a net, or annoyance, then any major problem, but I would be happy to listen to anyone's ideas about how I might delete these folders.

Thanks for your time.

JLOB

Welcome


You need to take ownership of the files/folders. Go here and download the shortcut which will add the take ownership to your right click context menu. Simply right click the folders and they are yours to do with as you wish. Take Ownership Shortcut

zigzag3143 said:

JLOB said:

Through some obvious fault of my own, and probably during one of two complete Windows 7 Ultimate reinstalls, I ended up with four of five folders within my “ProgramData” folder that appear to belong to another user. Since I am the only user on the system, and since Win 7 tells me that I need permission from myself to access these files, I was confused.

Two of these folders had data from both Nero, and Nuance. Attempting to upgrade either of these applications failed, probably due the protected, or read-only, status of these folders. While I couldn't erase them, I was able to rename them. While that then cause both applications to fail, reinstalling these applications with straightforward, and I'm no longer locked out of these folders.

That just leaves the two folders that I renamed, and am unable to delete under any circumstances. I even tried booting the system under a standalone Linux, and any attempt to delete these folders failed there also. This situation is more of a net, or annoyance, then any major problem, but I would be happy to listen to anyone's ideas about how I might delete these folders.

Thanks for your time.

JLOB

Welcome


You need to take ownership of the files/folders. Go here and download the shortcut which will add the take ownership to your right click context menu. Simply right click the folders and they are yours to do with as you wish. Take Ownership Shortcut

Nope! Doesn't work! Win7 tells me I need permission to perform that action....not the ownership....the delete!
Thanks though. Anyone else?

How did you reinstall 7? If it was "Clean" (i.e. the HDD was reformatted in the process) you shouldn't have ANY files or folders left-over from previous installs. Anyway, I also had this problem on my old external HDD after I'd wiped both of my systems and reinstalled 7/XP as well. The only thing that allowed me to finally be able to delete them (and as it happens they were old installer files from my XP desktop's WU - no idea why or how they'd managed to get there) was to 'take authorship' using the top-most listed account "Administrator" (and not the one I'd created) and giving that 'account' full permissions. Aside from that, or clean installing, I don't think you'll be able to get rid of them. Good luck...

Unlocker?? If it cannot delete at the time it offers to delete during re-boot.

EvilOzzmess said:

How did you reinstall 7? If it was "Clean" (i.e. the HDD was reformatted in the process) you shouldn't have ANY files or folders left-over from previous installs. Anyway, I also had this problem on my old external HDD after I'd wiped both of my systems and reinstalled 7/XP as well. The only thing that allowed me to finally be able to delete them (and as it happens they were old installer files from my XP desktop's WU - no idea why or how they'd managed to get there) was to 'take authorship' using the top-most listed account "Administrator" (and not the one I'd created) and giving that 'account' full permissions. Aside from that, or clean installing, I don't think you'll be able to get rid of them. Good luck...

It was a "repair" reinstall. Did that to get rid of Application Data folder replications....that part worked just fine! Kinda figured that I was stuck with these folders forever. No big deal. Another OS'll be along shortly!

Thanks.

JLOB

I would go along with fimble's idea of UNLOCKER 1.9.1 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB as this will do the jod easiest.

lehnerus2000 said:

A Linux Live CD should be completely unaffected by any Windows permissions.

I specifically use Ubuntu for that purpose.
When Windows says no, I start Ubuntu and I copy (or destroy) whatever I like.

I also find that Gparted does a better job of resizing, than the Windows 7 Disk Manager.

That's what "I" thought too! Tried two different versions of Knoppix Live GNU/Linux. No joy! Looks like the delete works, but....nope!