Windows deletes wrong folder (parent directory)

[oerWouter]

Hi,
I experience this problem in W7 32bit:
Sometimes when I want to delete a folder, Windows doesnt delete the folder I selected, but the PARENT folder, causing a lot of data loss. I coudn't find anything about this issue on the web.

Today I accidentally removed 4 GB of data in this way! I was able to recreate the problem and make a screenshot of it.

You can see I selected a folder called "buroblad" but windows asks me if I want to delete the parent folder called "pc".

Anyone on how this happens, solutions?

 

[GEWB]

You are dealing with different conditions:

• Item that has focus (an area or item that can have an action completed)
• State of an item (such as selected/not selected)
• Visual indicator of an item state (selected) but the item does not have focus

These are NOT the same as focus trumps non-focused state. Requested actions (such as DELETE) are applied to an item that has focus not the non-focus item to which you set the state (selected). To complete the action you wanted, the desired item (subfolder with state = selected) must also have focus.

To make it even more interesting, it is actually the Windows Explorer pane that receives the focus and you set the state (select) of the item within the pane on which you can apply an action (such as DELETE). In Windows Explorer the left navigation pane can have only one item selected but the right list pane can have one or more items selected.

In your example, you must have:

1. Selected (clicked on) the subfolder selection check box (in the right list pane)

• focus is set to the list pane (right pane) and
• state (selected) is set to your subfolder and
• the visual indicator (check mark) shows the selected state

2. Then you moved the cursor to and clicked on the parent folder (in the left navigation pane)

• this changed the focus and state to the parent folder in the navigation pane
• however, the state of your previous action remained as selected in the list pane (as shown by the check mark)

3. You then requested the DELETE action

• the requested DELETE action was applied to the item that has focus (the parent folder in the navigation pane), not to the item which you set the selected state (subfolder in list pane) as it no longer had focus

This behavior is by design. You must remain aware of what has focus not just to an item that has a visual indicator of state but does not have focus. To be safe, always click on the item (to set focus) just before applying an action.


Regards,
GEWB

 

[oerWouter]

Thanks for your extensive answer GEWB. Theoretically your story might be right, but from the userview this is a major fault from microsoft. Users must be able to count on that the explorer works in the same way as it did in XP for these important functions. To change the behaviour so that some users suddenly loose gigabytes of data is the same as changing the function of ctr-C from copying to the shift-delete function. For experienced users like me, after years of doing these kind of actions they happen so fast that it has become automatic; I don't even look at the confirmationwindow.

I am glad for you that you use the explorer in a way that this doesn't bother you. I searched some more and found a topic on this on the microsoft forum:
It is easy to accidentally delete a parent folder in Windows 7 - Microsoft Answers


One extra comment: you wrote that I had clicked on the parent folder before hitting Delete. This is definitely not the case. I still don't know exactly how I did it, but I know that the last item I click on, will be deleted, left or right pane. This is the same in XP. It has to do with going into a folder to check the content and then moving back to the parent folder (probably with Alt-left arrow) and then hitting delete to delete the selected folder.

KR, Wouter

 

[GEWB]

For experienced users like me, after years of doing these kind of actions they happen so fast that it has become automatic; I don't even look at the confirmationwindow.

I'm in full agreement with you (don't even get me started on changes to every version of Office).

I am glad for you that you use the explorer in a way that this doesn't bother you.

Actually it DOES bother me. I, too, learned the hard way about this condition when I did a SHIFT-DELETE, didn't fully read the confirmation dialog, and deleted hundreds of files in error. Took over an hour with a recovery utility to get them back.

One extra comment: you wrote that I had clicked on the parent folder before hitting Delete. This is definitely not the case. I still don't know exactly how I did it, but I know that the last item I click on, will be deleted, left or right pane.

As you had not written the exact sequence of events, I tried to reconstruct a scenario to duplicate your result. I'll play with it some more as my time permits.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[CreepinJesus]

I don't get the problem here...? It's deleting the most recently clicked-on item, right? The item that has focus?

 

[DeaconFrost]

The bigger problem is that too few people use SHIFT+DEL instead of just deleting the files to the recycling bin. That's your undo. I've done what the OP has done many times, but could always restore from the recycling bin.

 

[1Bowtie]

It's really not a flaw in Win 7, highlite the folder you want to delete, right click the folder and do delete, the box comes up asking you if this is the folder you want to delete, click yes and it's in the recyle bin. Mistake made it's there until you empty the bin.

Edit: DeaconFrost is right Shift Delete is permenant Gone, where rt click delete goes to recycle bin and is retrievable.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Check out the picture

Check out the picture.
The "pc" folder isn't the focussed one (it's grey).
The "buroblad" folder is the focussed one (it's blue).

Windows is offering to delete the non-focussed folder!
On his PC, it seems like the "check box" doesn't actually switch focus, even though the colour scheme indicates that it has!

I've tried on my PC and it works as you would expect (i.e. checking the "check box" swaps the focus).


You may need to open the "Command Prompt" and execute:

sfc /scannow
​

Tutorial:
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

 

[Emily Boda]

I am having the same problem as oerWouter, except when Windows confirms my deletion (the box that pops up in the picture that oerWouter posted) the name the window shows is the name of the folder I am intending to delete. The process I am using is open the parent folder, right click on the folder I want to delete, select delete, click OK when Windows confirms. The reason I know that it is deleting the parent folder is because it says "Finding items in [parent folder]" after I hit OK on the window that pops up. I didn't completely follow what the solution was in this forum. Can anyone help me out?

 

[Emily Boda]

To add to my previous post...

I am also having problems when I drag the folder directly to the recycling bin. It is ridiculous! I outlined my original problem with pictures:

HOVERING OVER FOLDER (my mouse does not show up, but it is hovering over the folder named "backups" which is the folder I am intending to delete)

RIGHT-CLICKING ON FOLDER (I right-clicked on backups)

CONFIRMING CORRECT FOLDER (It says that I am deleting the folder called "backups"- so far so good...)

DELETING PARENT FOLDER! (but when it starts deleting things, it deletes my whole flashdrive called "boda"! I had to take this picture really quick because I wanted to hit cancel as soon as possible, but I am very sure that it is deleting the flashdrive because the amount of data it is deleting as way more than the folder is.)

 

[lehnerus2000]

Your pictures didn't appear

I am also having problems when I drag the folder directly to the recycling bin. It is ridiculous! I outlined my original problem with pictures:

HOVERING OVER FOLDER

RIGHT-CLICKING ON FOLDER

CONFIRMING CORRECT FOLDER

DELETING PARENT FOLDER!

Your pictures didn't appear.

 

[BadCash]

I just had this happen to me for the second time. As others have pointed out already, when you're an experienced user you hardly even look at the confirmation dialog, you just hit DEL and then ENTER.

The worst part is that it didn't go to the Recycle Bin. Windows popped up a dialog saying that one of the files in the folder I was deleting had a filename that was too long for the Recycle Bin (that never happened on XP!). Of course I hit ENTER again to confirm, and later noticed that I had in fact deleted the parent directory of the directory I was really trying to delete.

In my case it is actually a case of user fault, poorly designed hardware, and poorly designed user interface. It turns out that what really happened was this:

I selected the folder I wanted to delete in the right pane of Explorer. Then, for some reason, I clicked the parent folder in the left pane. I then went back to the right pane and clicked the (now gray) folder that I wanted to delete. Or, so I thought. Turns out the left touchpad button on my HP ProBook doesn't really react if you hit the button left of center. But because Explorer uses the same color to indicate a "mouse-over" or hover on a previously selected, but unfocused, item as it uses to indicate a selected item, I thought I had actually clicked the folder. At this point it was really the parent folder in the left pane that was focused, because my click hadn't really "stuck" (because of the poorly designed button).

Anyway, this might help someone else trying to troubleshoot why parent directories get deleted.

-UPDATE-
So now it happened again, but I actually read the warning dialog for once, and pressed Cancel. It turns out what I wrote above is incorrect - there actually seems to be an issue with Explorer, because in the left pane the parent folder was selected, and in the right pane the folder I wanted to delete was selected. None of them were gray, they were both selected and both appeared to be focused (i.e. blue background). It wasn't until I hit the down arrow key that I could tell it was the left pane that had focus. I have no idea how it happened, and I can't recreate it. When I try, one of the panes always has it's selected item gray (unfocused) and the other one has it blue (focused). All I did was click the parent folder in the left pane, then click the folder I wanted to delete in the right pane, and hit Delete.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Dodgy buttons are a pain

Dodgy buttons are a pain.

I have this problem occasionally with my mouse.
It always makes the click noise, but sometimes Windows doesn't receive an actual click "signal".

 

[OldMX]

OMG, it happened to me once, so...I'm not alone...