Solved How do I get rid of files with illegal names

[Johan Thom]

My backup program (WDSmartware) created several temporary folders and files with illegal names ending on a period. Explorer is unable to delete these folders and files; it gives an error message that it cannot find them (but they are displayed in Explorer and occupy space). How do I get rid of them?

 

[Brink]

Hello Johan,

Are you able to rename the files, then delete them?

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[flemur13013]

Ending with a "." isn't an illegal file name; having ":" and some other characters is "illegal", and they act like you mentioned.

Make sure you have permission to delete them; use the "Take Ownership" and/or the "unlocker" programs.

If that doesn't work, boot Linux from a CD and then delete them with that; Linux can deal with the file names properly.

 

[OldMX]

I had an extrernal disk with the same issue, files ending in period without extension, windows wasnt able to delete, move or rename them, ended backing up most important files and quick formatting the drive

 

[dsk04]

unlocker i am pretty sure will do it, make sure you get the 64 bit version if that's what you have

 

[profdlp]

An old trick which often works is to create a folder, (name it "Junk" or something like that), then drag and drop the bad files into it. If that works, just delete the "Junk" folder.

 

[Johan Thom]

Unlocker (64-bit) did the trick

Thanks to everyone who responded.
I was unable to rename or move the files or folders, but when I installed the 64-bit version of Unlocker I was able to delete them. (I first installed the 32-bit, which did nothing.)
Johan

 

[Brink]

That's great news Johan. Thank you for posting back with your results.

 

[profdlp]

Glad you got it.

 

[dsk04]

unlocker is a great tool, i don't see how any one can go with out it, heres a tip... you can use it to rename a folder or file like C:\system volume information, and browse it after you change the name back to normal