bulk delete certain types of files in rar/zip archive

i've got thousands of rar/zip files where each of them could have some types of files I don't want. for example, *.txt or *.html etc. I would like to know if there is any shortcut way to delete them all quickly? I don't want to do it one by one. I will go crazy

Are they scattered all over your hard drive, or are they in a particular part of your directory tree?

If the latter, I'd think you could do it from a command prompt.

Have they been unzipped so the contents are viewable from a command prompt?

ignatzatsonic said:

Are they scattered all over your hard drive, or are they in a particular part of your directory tree?

If the latter, I'd think you could do it from a command prompt.

Have they been unzipped so the contents are viewable from a command prompt?

hi

it is not all over my hard drives. It is only a particular group of zip/rar files under certain directory that I want to have special treatment with them. I have a lot other zip/rar files that should not be altered in any way.

Now I haven't extracted them all, but I can do so if it helps. I think extracting is easy.
I only want to bulk delete all *.txt and *.html without doing it with my hand one by one.

JDobbsy1987 said:

Hi,

The below script should do the trick, you are best putting all your .rar files into a single folder and replace the bit i have marked <file_path_here> with the path to the folder with all the .rar's

From Command Line

Code:

for %I in (<file_path_here>\*.rar) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" d -ibck "%I" *.txt

From Batch File

Code:

for %%I in (<file_path_here>\*.rar) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" d -ibck "%%I" *.txt

*** Important ***
Create yourself a test folder with a copy of a couple of the .rars and do a small test against them first

At the end of the script you will notice .txt, specify the file extension you want to remove there
You can list multiple file extensions at once...

Code:

for %%I in (<file_path_here>\*.rar) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" d -ibck "%%I" *.txt *.exe *.jpg

Please advise if you need some assistance.

Regards,
Jamie

Sorry ,I don't have any experience dealing with code/script. I am just a computer 'user'.. I always used tools and software. It looks very complicated for me, but I am willing to learn and try.

Can you teach me again in a 'for dummies' way??

what is batch? what is command line? how to get there?

kenny1999 said:

ignatzatsonic said:

Are they scattered all over your hard drive, or are they in a particular part of your directory tree?

If the latter, I'd think you could do it from a command prompt.

Have they been unzipped so the contents are viewable from a command prompt?

hi

it is not all over my hard drives. It is only a particular group of zip/rar files under certain directory that I want to have special treatment with them. I have a lot other zip/rar files that should not be altered in any way.

Now I haven't extracted them all, but I can do so if it helps. I think extracting is easy.
I only want to bulk delete all *.txt and *.html without doing it with my hand one by one.

If they were all extracted and in folders underneath a folder called "stuff" on the C drive, such as C:\stuff\cat and C:\stuff\dog and C:\stuff\fish, you could use this command to get rid of all files with a txt extension.

First, you would open a command prompt and navigate to C:\stuff. This would be your "certain directory" that you mentioned.

Once you have navigated to the correct location, this would be the command to delete all .txt files:

del /s *.txt

After that completes, you would enter this command to get rid of all .html files

del /s *.html


And so on for other file types.

Be careful. The command isn't forgiving. You have to be at the correct location (your "certain directory") before you execute the command.

Are you even familiar with a command prompt?

JDobbsy1987 said:

kenny1999 said:

Sorry ,I don't have any experience dealing with code/script. I am just a computer 'user'.. I always used tools and software. It looks very complicated for me, but I am willing to learn and try.

Can you teach me again in a 'for dummies' way??

what is batch? what is command line? how to get there?

No worries... Command Line / Batch Files allow you to automate tasks and with the right script can do a series of tasks much quicker than you could manually.

1. You said you only want to do a particular group of .rars... please create a copy of them in a new folder (maybe on your desktop?) i say create a copy so if anything goes wrong you still have the original copy.

2. Now you have created a copy of the .rar files, where have you stored them? (i.e c:\users\kenny\desktop\rar)

3. What file extensions would you like to delete?

Cheers,
Jamie

hey, sorry just back from world cup TV

1. Yes, I know It's important to make copies. They are in my G: drive. um, let me sort them first.

2. let say G:\zip_rar_copy\

3. yes, there are 400 files, either zip or rar. In each zip and rar there are some *.txt that I want to delete them. Do I have to extract all the zip first?? Can I avoid this?

ignatzatsonic said:

kenny1999 said:

ignatzatsonic said:

Are they scattered all over your hard drive, or are they in a particular part of your directory tree?

If the latter, I'd think you could do it from a command prompt.

Have they been unzipped so the contents are viewable from a command prompt?

hi

it is not all over my hard drives. It is only a particular group of zip/rar files under certain directory that I want to have special treatment with them. I have a lot other zip/rar files that should not be altered in any way.

Now I haven't extracted them all, but I can do so if it helps. I think extracting is easy.
I only want to bulk delete all *.txt and *.html without doing it with my hand one by one.

If they were all extracted and in folders underneath a folder called "stuff" on the C drive, such as C:\stuff\cat and C:\stuff\dog and C:\stuff\fish, you could use this command to get rid of all files with a txt extension.

First, you would open a command prompt and navigate to C:\stuff. This would be your "certain directory" that you mentioned.

Once you have navigated to the correct location, this would be the command to delete all .txt files:

del /s *.txt

After that completes, you would enter this command to get rid of all .html files

del /s *.html


And so on for other file types.

Be careful. The command isn't forgiving. You have to be at the correct location (your "certain directory") before you execute the command.

Are you even familiar with a command prompt?

how to open command prompt? start > cmd ????