Windows 7 - Could not find this item - when deleting files

Machineguy · 06-09-2011

My thanks and gratitude to Tachy and the rest of you who confirmed his solution. It worked. Almost too easily. I had tried almost everything. Safe Mode, Command Prompt, moving, renaming, etc. But the phantom file had a long name and Windows 7 could not find it to change anything, not even its location. But the Dos 8.3 delete worked like a charm. Thank you.

Harkaway · 08-01-2011

Thanks for this thoughtful forum. Nothing worked for me until I tried the DelinvFile tool recommended by galmeida.

It worked when all else failed!

caperforever · 09-21-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by tachy

I know this is a bit late, but I found a quick workaround:

1) Open a Command Prompt.
2) Browse to the folder containing the buggy file.
3) Type 'dir /x' to obtain the 8.3 formatted filename.
4) Delete the file using the 8.3 filename, e.g. 'del NEWDOC~1.DOC'

Hope this information may spread and help other users with the same problem.

I tried everything else THIS WAS THE ONLY THING THAT WORKED!

dc366 · 10-09-2011

I found the solution!!

Use DelinvFile.

DelinvFile - Utility for Deleting Invalid Files and Folders

Twitterpedia · 10-11-2011

oempak · 03-10-2012

Quote: Originally Posted by galmeida

Try the DelinvFile tool. Search with google and install it. It worked for me perfectly when NOTHING worked before.

BR, galmeida

THANK YOU SO MUCH galmedia, DelinvFile really works, finally

etacarinae · 3 Weeks Ago

Quote: Originally Posted by galmeida

Try the DelinvFile tool. Search with google and install it. It worked for me perfectly when NOTHING worked before.

BR, galmeida

Cheers, galmeida. This tool worked perfectly whereas every other method provided failed.

NowIsForever · 2 Weeks Ago

Quote: Originally Posted by tachy

I know this is a bit late, but I found a quick workaround:

1) Open a Command Prompt.
2) Browse to the folder containing the buggy file.
3) Type 'dir /x' to obtain the 8.3 formatted filename.
4) Delete the file using the 8.3 filename, e.g. 'del NEWDOC~1.DOC'

Hope this information may spread and help other users with the same problem.

This worked for me too. It was a folder I had to remove and rmdir did it.

Windows 7 - Could not find this item - when deleting files

Could not find this item - when deleting files problems?