Developer Forum

I've been using a machine at work to move stuff onto an mp3 player. (I
have an ancient Mac with only USB 1 at home and the player is not Mac
Compatible.) The people in IT know I've been doing this and aren't
upset about it. HOWEVER ... I now find myself with a directory
containing several subdirectories full of mp3s that I can't delete.
Apparently in all the moving around between machines a some filenames
got changed. It seems what Windows can't figure out how to delete the
file.

I don't have admin privilages. The IT guys say that they don't know
what to do. I'd really like to move this off the system altogether
rather than just have it sit around taking up nearly 5gigs of space.

I'm sure there must be an obvious way to do this simple task but it's
not obvious to me.

I'd very much appreciate any advice. If you would be so kind, please
copy to my email address as well as posting here.
Thanks

Steve Klarer
Boston

Some more info could have helped. what is the error you are getting? Are you
able to delete individual mp3 files but not the folder?

Have u tried deleting the file by opeing a DOS box(cmd.exe) under Win2k?

Abhilash Tibrewal

Hi, Steve.

Can you open a "DOS" window? If so, you should be able to navigate to the
parent of that MP3 folder. At the command prompt, type rd <MP3> /s, and
press Enter. The rd is for Remove Directory, <MP3> is the actual name of
your folder, and the /s switch means to include all subfolders. This
command should remove the complete <MP3> folder, including all files and
subfolders within it.

If the name of the MP3 folder is not a legal 8.3 filename, you will need to
enclose it in quotes, especially if it includes a space. If that doesn't
work, type at the command prompt: dir /x

This should give you a listing of all the files and folders in that folder,
including the MP3 folder. There should be an extra column, before the Long
File Names, showing the Short File Name (also known as the 8.3 filename) for
any LFN that does not qualify as a legal 8.3 filename. Use this SFN with
the rd /s command as above.

If these don't work, post back. But don't just say "I've tried everything"
or "didn't work", because those don't help us diagnose the problem. Tell us
exactly what you tried and exactly what results you saw. And be sure to
include some basic facts, such as which Windows version you are using
(Win2K? Win2K3? Server?) As a one-man-one-computer kind of guy, I don't
know anything about permissions and such, but most volunteers who help out
here do, and they will understand if you spell out what restrictions you
must deal with.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
XXXX@XXXXX.COM
Microsoft Windows MVP