Deleting unwanted / unused files and folders

[Iamanerd]

I would still try the Hirens disk and wipe those folders out in Parted Magic. The problem is that those seem like windows files from what you said was a temporary install. Maybe it's better to start over with a clean install of windows tbh.

[SoulForge]

It sounds like you've hit the path limit. Because it can't read any further then it does give an error saying it can't find the file.

I don't recall if chkdsk will fix this or not.

We had a guy where I worked who was getting a new computer and backing up his 60+ gb's of data was a pain because we had to pick and choose his files until we worked around this problem. He was saving webpages to disk with stupidly long names.

[Djinni]

Might also be running into an issue with file name length. What happens if you try to delete some of the deeper nested files through command line rather than the entire tree?

Interesting thought, but then wouldnt I get a slightly more helpful error message? Not to mention, we are talking most likely a windows 8 64 bit install, thought we got done with file name length issues long ago. Its not like its Windows NT4

Would this not be a problem with encrypting the contents of the directory? I remember having this problem a couple of years ago and if memory serves me it had to do with encrypting the contents of the directory and later having the user privileges all mixed up.

I doubt I would bother encrypting anything. Especially an entire install, I'm much too lazy and impatient for that.

I'm just wondering why your first screen shot differs from the rest. Did you change it in an attempt to fix things...?


Might be that, too. You could also try renaming the first few files so its like...

H:/A/A/A/Common Files/

Actually now I've looked back at it, so am I.... I sure didn't rename it, must be something to do with attempting to change access rights / doing a disk cleanup / file shreding.

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...sk_Cleanup.png

Just click on Clean up system files and then just check them all and press ok.

Thank you, but this was suggested and tried earlier in the thread.
However just to appease you:


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Is the pagefile on that installation still active?

Given that its a 5400rpm 2tb eco drive I sure hope not. Not when there is a 3x 1tb 7200 rpm raid 0 for the main install...

Looks like its file shredder that renames the files and folders!

[nyxtyr]

Can try http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner to clean out files not needed.
Can try http://www.ghisler.com/ to delete files you don't have permission to delete or are being used by another program.

You can backup your movies to another location then format the drive completely removing everything from it and starting fresh

In Windows 8, open Run from the Apps screen
In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, click on the Start button.
Type the following command in the text box:

diskmgmt.msc

...and then hit the Enter key or press the OK button, depending on where you ran the command from.

[Djinni]

Can try http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner to clean out files not needed.
Can try http://www.ghisler.com/ to delete files you don't have permission to delete or are being used by another program.

You can backup your movies to another location then format the drive completely removing everything from it and starting fresh

In Windows 8, open Run from the Apps screen
In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, click on the Start button.
Type the following command in the text box:

diskmgmt.msc

...and then hit the Enter key or press the OK button, depending on where you ran the command from.

Thanks, but Total Commander is shareware. No thank you, I'd rather put up with a missing 20gb on a secondary drive.
There are a hundred different ways I could format the drive, thats not really an issue. It's more about 1) space to put 2tb of media files, 2) time required to do it.
Also bearing in mind this IS a secondary drive, it doesn't really impact day to day performance in any way, I'd like like to reclaim some extra disk space rather than spend £100 on a new drive.

[nyxtyr]

Thanks, but Total Commander is shareware. No thank you, I'd rather put up with a missing 20gb on a secondary drive.
There are a hundred different ways I could format the drive, thats not really an issue. It's more about 1) space to put 2tb of media files, 2) time required to do it.
Also bearing in mind this IS a secondary drive, it doesn't really impact day to day performance in any way, I'd like like to reclaim some extra disk space rather than spend £100 on a new drive.

can try http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/fileassassin/
it is free and easy

[Tradewind]

Interesting thought, but then wouldnt I get a slightly more helpful error message? Not to mention, we are talking most likely a windows 8 64 bit install, thought we got done with file name length issues long ago. Its not like its Windows NT4

Windows is still bulshit when it comes to file names, it will let you write in excess of 255 chars for a file name, but the command prompt and most any shell command that just uses a command prompt is going to shit itself. What's going to happen is when it runs that batch it runs into something that might be a few characters too long and the buffer cuts the last characters entered into it off so instead of H:\path..\..\..\somefile.dll you just get "H:\path..\..\..\somefil" and it says it can't find it.

[Djinni]

Might have to revisit gaming in CentOS :-)

[SoulForge]

Might have to revisit gaming in CentOS :-)

An interesting idea but certainly not one for everyone.

As a gamer I prefer day 1 releases instead of Day 365 after the release and MIGHT see a native client.

[Djinni]

An interesting idea but certainly not one for everyone.

As a gamer I prefer day 1 releases instead of Day 365 after the release and MIGHT see a native client.

I dont have any quams about using CentOS as my main install.

Only reason I'm still uising Windows is becuase last time I tried it, WoW ran with only 20fps compared to 50 on my windows install.
I also dont tend to buy many games anymore, just main trusted titles like StarCraft, Crysis, Minecraft ... actually, just those three. havent bought anything else since bioshock 1. Minecraft being the only one to make me money

[SoulForge]

I dont have any quams about using CentOS as my main install.

Only reason I'm still uising Windows is becuase last time I tried it, WoW ran with only 20fps compared to 50 on my windows install.
I also dont tend to buy many games anymore, just main trusted titles like StarCraft, Crysis, Minecraft ... actually, just those three. havent bought anything else since bioshock 1. Minecraft being the only one to make me money

Emulation is never perfect.

In either case depending on the filesystem you use with CentOS you could see similar limitations on path lengths. CentOS just might punch you for trying to get around it where windows has a rent a cop at the door who can be paid off

[Djinni]

Emulation is never perfect.

In either case depending on the filesystem you use with CentOS you could see similar limitations on path lengths. CentOS just might punch you for trying to get around it where windows has a rent a cop at the door who can be paid off

Given that my smallest logical drive is 2TB (This media drive)

Well to be honest, I've also been meaning to have a play with ESXi, and since its free for single CPU use, no real reason not to.

[SoulForge]

Given that my smallest logical drive is 2TB (This media drive)

Well to be honest, I've also been meaning to have a play with ESXi, and since its free for single CPU use, no real reason not to.

Virtualization is big in the server world at the moment so not a bad idea. I think we are derailing your thread just a tad.

[Colmadero]

Use Unlocker. Will pretty much DESTROY anything you task it to.

[Iamanerd]

Djinni, Have you tried using Parted Magic? Give it a shot and see if you can remove those files, I'm almost certain it will work as I've run into this issue before and it worked by doing just this.

[Djinni]

Djinni, Have you tried using Parted Magic? Give it a shot and see if you can remove those files, I'm almost certain it will work as I've run into this issue before and it worked by doing just this.

Does that not mean playing with partitions?
I'd rather not risk having to try and recover 2tb of media because I messed up a partition table.
I think at this point the only solution is to backup the drive to another one and format it.

Unfortunately for whatever reason when I did this install, I didnt have the presence of mind to create a self contained partition.

I'm toying with the idea of getting this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/qnap-...30-2xusb-20-2x

to replace my media storage needs anyway.

I'd obviously prefer the 1u version, but I'm not sure how well a full rack cabinet would go down with the rest of the family.

[Iamanerd]

Does that not mean playing with partitions?
I'd rather not risk having to try and recover 2tb of media because I messed up a partition table.
I think at this point the only solution is to backup the drive to another one and format it.

Unfortunately for whatever reason when I did this install, I didnt have the presence of mind to create a self contained partition.

I'm toying with the idea of getting this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/qnap-...30-2xusb-20-2x

to replace my media storage needs anyway.

I'd obviously prefer the 1u version, but I'm not sure how well a full rack cabinet would go down with the rest of the family.

No, you wouldn't be playing with partitions, I mean sure you could but you can use the File Manager in Parted Magic. Parted Magic has a lot of useful tools, partitions being one of them, but the file manager is solid for when I'm trying to grab data or remove certain files with ease unlike in Windows at certain times. Just give the File Manager a shot, it worked for me with a customers computer a few weeks ago.

[Deleted]

No, you wouldn't be playing with partitions, I mean sure you could but you can use the File Manager in Parted Magic. Parted Magic has a lot of useful tools, partitions being one of them, but the file manager is solid for when I'm trying to grab data or remove certain files with ease unlike in Windows at certain times. Just give the File Manager a shot, it worked for me with a customers computer a few weeks ago.

did that customer also struggle with a 260 character long file path? because unless Parted Magic actually does magic and doesn't use the CLI or the powershell, he won't be able to fix this.

[Deleted]

Create a bootable linux USB, then delete the folder through that. You can run most linux distributions off USB without having to actually install it.

Crunchbang is something you can use for that, and the download page has instructions on how to make a live stick.

[Deleted]

Copy and paste following into a text file, save as .bat and run it (extended Windows clean)

cd C:\windows\system32 
%SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

Also did you try deleting in safe mode?

I know you're probably not having any malware but try using this guide (all freeware and easy to run) you never know:

http://www.selectrealsecurity.com/malware-removal-guide

And lastly a mentioned in the thread:

Unlocker