Trying to delete file from external HD in XP Home

[pontifex]

My dad has a WD My Book external hard drive. When he tries to delete anything from it, he gets a message that says "cannot find the specified path". You can see the files, open the files, move the files, create new files without any problems but you just can't delete them.

I tried a few things I found in a google search but none have worked.

I'm thinking it might need formatted, but he has a lot of files on there. I could copy them to another drive maybe, but it might take awhile.

anyway, short of doing that, anyone have any ideas?

oh, if i set the recycle bin to delete immediately and not send to recycle bin first, it will allow them to be deleted, so I think it has something to do with the recycle bin.

 

[C1]

Another workaround is to use the Delete + Shift key combination, but this will delete the file/folder permanently.

When you plug the external HDD in, check the Recycle Bin's (ie, on the desktop) properties. You should see a tab for the external HDD displaying the corresponding drive letter.

My guess is that you have dualing recycle bins.
Enable "Show Hidden Files" and check the WD root to see if there is a Recycle Bin.
If there is, possibly eliminating it might resolve the issue.
There may actually be a registry line item mod that could fix this.

In all probabilty you'll have to fiddle with the OS to fix this.
(eg, plug in the external HDD, unmount the HDD then remount it using a different drive letter, etc. Try different ideas, be creative)

In general for me, the recycle bin that is created on the externl drive correlates to the Recycle Bin on the OS desktop. Ive never had any issues with this.