bulk delete certain types of files in rar/zip archive

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

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

ignatzatsonic · Jul 8, 2014

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?

JDobbsy1987 · Jul 8, 2014

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

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

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.

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

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?

JDobbsy1987 · Jul 8, 2014

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

ignatzatsonic · Jul 8, 2014

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?

Click to expand...

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?

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

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?

Click to expand...

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?

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

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?

Click to expand...

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.

Click to expand...

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 ????

JDobbsy1987 · Jul 8, 2014

The script i posted that we will run will remove the specified file type(s) from the .rar file so don't extract them.

I'm not sure if this will work against .zip file though... let me do a quick test

JDobbsy1987 · Jul 8, 2014

You are correct about command prompt... we will go through it one step at a time though.

ignatzatsonic · Jul 8, 2014

kenny1999 said:
how to open command prompt? start > cmd ????

If you have absolutely no experience in navigation from a command prompt, it may be easier for you to use the script method that Dobbsy mentions.

JDobbsy1987 · Jul 8, 2014

Just tested againt a .zip file and it worked so working on the folder G:\zip_rar_copy\

1. Open a command prompt
(Click Start >> Type CMD >> Click CMD.exe from the search result)

You now have the Command Prompt open...

2. Lets change the directory/folder you are in - Type or copy/paste the following:
Type G: then press enter
Type cd G:\zip_rar_copy\ then press enter

Example (although my letter is E:, your is G: )

You should now be in G:\zip_rar_copy\ (see my screenshot above for example)
Before moving on... please confirm you get to this stage ok

Cheers,
Jamie

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

JDobbsy1987 said:
The script i posted that we will run will remove the specified file type(s) from the .rar file so don't extract them.

I'm not sure if this will work against .zip file though... let me do a quick test

thanks waiting for your result.

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

JDobbsy1987 said:
Just tested againt a .zip file and it worked so working on the folder G:\zip_rar_copy\

1. Open a command prompt
(Click Start >> Type CMD >> Click CMD.exe from the search result)

You now have the Command Prompt open...

2. Lets change the directory/folder you are in - Type or copy/paste the following:
Type G: then press enter
Type cd G:\zip_rar_copy\ then press enter

Example (although my letter is E:, your is G: )
View attachment 324781

You should now be in G:\zip_rar_copy\ (see my screenshot above for example)
Before moving on... please confirm you get to this stage ok

Cheers,
Jamie

give me some time to study it first. Thanks

Britton30 · Jul 8, 2014

You can put copies of all the .rar/.zip files in one folder, Select all>extract here. Use the folder sorting option and sort in to Types. Now you can find all the .txt or html files easily.
Problem with this is you'd have to re-compress all the remains back into separate files.

JDobbsy1987 · Jul 8, 2014

Britton30 said:
You can put copies of all the .rar/.zip files in one folder, Select all>extract here. Use the folder sorting option and sort in to Types. Now you can find all the .txt or html files easily.
Problem with this is you'd have to re-compress all the remains back into separate files.

The script that i posted earlier will remove the specified file(s) from the zip/rar without the need to extract / zip up again

We are about to get to that stage, just waiting for confirmation that the first steps mentioned above are completed.

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

JDobbsy1987 said:
Britton30 said:

You can put copies of all the .rar/.zip files in one folder, Select all>extract here. Use the folder sorting option and sort in to Types. Now you can find all the .txt or html files easily.
Problem with this is you'd have to re-compress all the remains back into separate files.

Click to expand...

The script that i posted earlier will remove the specified file(s) from the zip/rar without the need to extract / zip up again

We are about to get to that stage, just waiting for confirmation that the first steps mentioned above are completed.

The files are copying to the folder. It's 17Gb in total with 4XX files.
It takes some time.

I truly understand how to get to that folder by cmd.

you may show me the next step following. Thank you very much

kenny1999 · Jul 8, 2014

I've gone to that stage? what should be the next?

JDobbsy1987 · Jul 8, 2014

WOW... that's a lot of zipped up stuff ha ha.

Ok... starting where we left off, you are now within G:\zip_rar_copy\
This is where the fun / potentially dangerous bit begins... hence the "copy" of data.
Make sure you have WinRar installed - WinRAR archiver, a powerful tool to process RAR and ZIP files
(Download link at the bottom of the page 'English 64-bit')

Type or copy/paste the following into the command prompt:

This is currently set to remove .txt files, change the .txt bit at the end of the line to the filetype you want to remove.

Code:

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

Once it finishes lets do the same but for .zip files...
Notice the difference at the beginning, i have changed (*.rar) to (*.zip)

This is currently set to remove .txt files, change the .txt bit at the end of the line to the filetype you want to remove.

Code:

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

Now, when you look in the rar/zip files you shouldn't see anything of the file types you have just removed

Let me know how it goes.

Regards,
Jamie

bulk delete certain types of files in rar/zip archive

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