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[SOLVED] Can't delete a folder even with administrative rights

B

BehindEnemyLines

Senior member
I just recently discovered a folder on my hard drive that was in the archived pictures section. It's been a long time but for some reason I cannot delete the folder "Thumbs.db". Here's what happens when deleting from command prompt and windows explorer: "The directory name is invalid". The folder is like a regular windows xp folder icon but with a black and white clock on the lower-left corner and the letters is in blue indicating it's compressed. I recall you can't encrypt and compress a folder concurrently, but this is what Windows is telling me.

Properties of the folder provided by Windows Explorer:
Type: File Folder, Size: 0 bytes, Size on disk: 0 bytes, Contains: 0 Files, 0 Folders.
Attributes: "Compress contents to save disk space" and "Encrypt contents to secure data" and "Read Only" checked. The attribute column indicates it's "SACEO".
Security: Unable to take ownership (the ownership dialog freezes).

Able to do the following with the folder:
Rename name to anything and move it to anywhere, BUT can't access, copy, or delete it. I can only move within the same partition. If I try to move it to other partitions (NTFS and FAT32), I get "Cannot create or replace mysterfolder: The directory name is invalid."

Properties provided by command prompt:
01/01/1601 03:27 AM <DIR> mysteryfolder <==== Notice the weird date

********************

Another file located at F:\My Documents\My Music\My Playlists
with the file name: Album 1 (Complete).um that will not delete, rename, or moved. The error is "Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." The properties are:

Size: 0 bytes, Size on disk: 0 bytes:
Created, Modified, and Accessed: All three blank.
It doesn't have the "Security" and "Summary" tabs. And the Advanced button works file, but it's NOT encrypted or compressed or read-only.

In case anyone is wondering, I usually make copies of the My Document folder by copying it to another drive. This My Document folder was copied a few months ago. Everything else within the folder works fine except for the mystery folder and file.

Screenshot of both items and their properties:
http://www.geocities.com/kxn84/mystery.png (folder picture under Vista renamed as "p")
http://www.geocities.com/kxn84/mystery2.png
http://www.geocities.com/kxn84/mystery3.png
 
Will try the BartPE method. Fortunately I made a disk some time. I also tried deleting the two items from Vista RC1, but I have pretty much the same error messages. I also COULD NOT take ownership of both items. Like Windows XP, the dialog just freezes.
 
Originally posted by: Rilex
Try a chkdsk /f.
Click to expand...

That's the first thing that I did. I schudeled a chkdsk F: /f but it came back clean with no bad sectors. Just tried the BartPE Windows, but I still have the same errors with the file "Album 1 (Complete).um". The folder "mysteryfolder" gives this error: I/O error 267. using A43 File Management Utility. This is rather bizarre. The folder and file seems harmless, but I'm pretty puzzled by them.
 
Thumbs.db is created when you view the content of a folder in "Thumbnail View". They are a cache of all the thumbnails for the folder. Thumbs.db are hidden, system files.

To avoid generating them in the future, in Explorer, set the /Tools/Folder Options/View to CHECK the "Do not cache thumbnails" checkbox. Then select "Apply to All Folders".

If you don't allow thumbnails, VERY large folders will take longer to generate their thumbnails. Personally, I hate the Thumbnail View, so this isn't a problem for me.

I'm not sure why you aren't able to delete them. Mine all delete just fine. Obviously, there's something different....

Also, my icon for Thumbs.db is different: I see a "piece of paper" with two "gears" intertwined on it.
 
The craziest thing is that the original name is "Thumbs.db" but it's identified as a FOLDER and not a file. It has the attributes of compressed, encrypted, and read-only but not hidden and system file. I can rename it to anything and Windows still identify the item as a File Folder. Both Vista RC1 and Windows XP has the folder icon for it with a clock on the lower-left corner.

So basically, Windows XP (Safemode too), Vista RC1, BartPE and Hiren's BootCD with NTFSDOS Pro could not remove the two items? I can't think of anything else to get rid of them. I suppose a reformat should work since the partition contains only program installations. I can just copy those, format, and then copy them back.

Screenshot of both items and their properties:
http://www.geocities.com/kxn84/mystery.png (folder picture under Vista renamed as "p")
http://www.geocities.com/kxn84/mystery2.png
http://www.geocities.com/kxn84/mystery3.png
 
have you tried going into a cmd prompt navigate to the area the folder is in and typing dir x

this wil show its 8.3 name then try deleteing that

try del "mysteryfolder"

or del "myster~1" as it would be under 8.3 use the quotes
 
Go the the command line window in winxp, browse to folder where file is and do a directory listing to get exact name to delete.

dir /A

Once you get the name,

del "filename" /A

Notice the keyswitch of "/A". that is important.
 
I'm pretty certain the file system entry for that file is seriously corrupted. All the programs probably use ntfs.sys so they're all just getting the same error trying to delete it. If you use something else to delete it you risk lots of data corruption.
 
I have already tried deleting them in safe mode. Pretty much the same error messages. Finally took the time and made an entire scan of the disk for bad sectors using CHKDSK /R and also WD utility - came up with NONE. There're no logical and physical errors indicated. I will try to copy all the good data out and do a full format of the partition probably tomorrow.
 
Try Delete FXP program. The same thing happened to me when I copied "Sigur Ros Takk...." album to my computer. Because of the periods I couldn't delete the folder. Delete FXP worked just fine.
 
PROBLEMS solved! I finally found a program that can delete the file and the folder. It's called Unlocker v1.8.5 (free) from http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker The program first checks to see if the file is locked by a process. Evidently, both items were not locked by any process but I was still able to delete it using Unlocker's delete option.

Unlocker seems to work probably because it uses some sort of system hook notified by Comodo Firewall when I run it. I can't believe this program works while none of those paid-program worked (Delete FXP couldn't remove the folder). Of course, knowing "why" would be much sweeter.

The program uses these files:
86,528 Unlocker.exe
15,872 UnlockerAssistant.exe
8,704 UnlockerCOM.dll
4,096 UnlockerDriver5.sys
4,608 UnlockerHook.dll
 
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