Inadvertantly got some junk (apparently non-destructive) sitting on my HDD taking up lots of space. I know where most if not all of it lives but can't delete it. I got most of it via cmd line del /f command but after a few weeks it's all back. Have used 5 dif utils and none even scratch the files. I tried renaming the Dirs in dos and that only made a dupe (yup, that's right) of the garbage using the new names. I've clean-booted, booted safe, booted to the cmd prompt and nothing works. ANY help would be appreciated. running XP pro/ SP1
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can;t delete unwanted files...no way, no how!
- Thread starter TI51
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- #21
gamma: this is good stuff. I'm progressing thru your suggested process. when I searched for POSIX I found many posts from users with the same problem..file structure, etc. Question is, I'm running XP Pro and don't seem to be able to D/L the Intel NT util. Following the install process I get an error msg "autoexec.nt is not compatible with windows applications" (something close to this). whether I choose Ignore or Close, all installed files are deleted and that's that.
any thoughts? thanks
any thoughts? thanks
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- #22
CorvetteZ0606
Programmer
Hey everyone,
I have the same problem as TI51. I came home from work yesterday and say a lot of traffic on my router and I wasn't downloading anything. I turned off my FTP server in MS IIS and the traffic stoped. Then I looked in C:\Inetpub\ftproot\ and I see a buch of trash. There are a bunch of directorys like "Tagg by Kango0" and "lpt4 . " and "com1 . %d" I can't delete any of them. I tried running Nortan Antivirus, I tried running "Chkdsk C: /F" and Spybot and Adaware. Nothing seems to help. If anyone knows more information about this problem PLEASE post it here.
I have the same problem as TI51. I came home from work yesterday and say a lot of traffic on my router and I wasn't downloading anything. I turned off my FTP server in MS IIS and the traffic stoped. Then I looked in C:\Inetpub\ftproot\ and I see a buch of trash. There are a bunch of directorys like "Tagg by Kango0" and "lpt4 . " and "com1 . %d" I can't delete any of them. I tried running Nortan Antivirus, I tried running "Chkdsk C: /F" and Spybot and Adaware. Nothing seems to help. If anyone knows more information about this problem PLEASE post it here.
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- #24
CorvetteZ0606
I've already tried everything you did or will try. Here's the scoop. try this wipefile software Abylon Shredder:
I installed this and was able to recover MOST of the space consumed on the HDD. However, even when using the 'X' switch to see long file names, there are some files that just can't be recognized by the shredder.
At this point some files/folders still exist. I've written 2 return posts asking for help to get the POSIX utility to work in the XP environment. It's an NT utility and during my searching I've found several users who had the same anomoly were able to completely remove all with that (POSIX) util. So, if there is someone out there who either knows how to run POSIX in XP or, if there is a POSIX-like util that WILL run in XP....that seems to be the solution we need.
I've already tried everything you did or will try. Here's the scoop. try this wipefile software Abylon Shredder:
I installed this and was able to recover MOST of the space consumed on the HDD. However, even when using the 'X' switch to see long file names, there are some files that just can't be recognized by the shredder.
At this point some files/folders still exist. I've written 2 return posts asking for help to get the POSIX utility to work in the XP environment. It's an NT utility and during my searching I've found several users who had the same anomoly were able to completely remove all with that (POSIX) util. So, if there is someone out there who either knows how to run POSIX in XP or, if there is a POSIX-like util that WILL run in XP....that seems to be the solution we need.
I found a handy utility at
We had been "tagged" on January 30th of this year and had 4 main folders without names with 5 to 6 sub folders that each drilled down about 5 to 6 times more. I used this utility to delete these. Hope this helps.
We had been "tagged" on January 30th of this year and had 4 main folders without names with 5 to 6 sub folders that each drilled down about 5 to 6 times more. I used this utility to delete these. Hope this helps.
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- #26
Sheilae
Thanks for the tip. I downloaded and tried it. It removed a couple of folders but can't touch the others. Error messages indicate the inability to delete a full folder but it also couldn't access and open the folders. This stuff has a tough shell.
Thanks for the tip. I downloaded and tried it. It removed a couple of folders but can't touch the others. Error messages indicate the inability to delete a full folder but it also couldn't access and open the folders. This stuff has a tough shell.
BeenThereDoneThat
Technical User
My thoughts at this time is to try one of the LiveLinux CD,s such as knoppix, mepis etc. that can see an ntfs file structure. These run straight from your cd drive and don't install anything on your harddrive. This way Windows isn't running at all and linux isn't as fussy about file names or permissions. Basically if you can see it in linux you can delete it.
That only solves part of the problem though, as you have to find out what is creating these files in order to stop it from continuing in the future.
Hope this gives you a direction to try.
That only solves part of the problem though, as you have to find out what is creating these files in order to stop it from continuing in the future.
Hope this gives you a direction to try.
BTDT is correct about that only being part of it. TI, you might want to try that Delete FXP again that Sheilae suggested. I went and downloaded it, paid for the sub for the server version and it got rid of all of them!!! Yip E!!! what you need to do after it deletes what it cans is to take ownership of the file! You right click on the directory that is still there after you delete what you can, and click take ownership. After that you just say delete! And presto!!! poff!! gone!!! did that to all of them for me. gave me back over 12 gig of my hard drive. Running defrag now. I hope this works for you.
Sheilae, THANK YOU!!!!!!!, THANK YOU!!!!!!!, THANK YOU!!!!!!!.
Sheilae, THANK YOU!!!!!!!, THANK YOU!!!!!!!, THANK YOU!!!!!!!.
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- #30
sugaman.
Thanks and glad to hear you're cleaned up. I guess we all have to determine what value is. Before I pay $250 for a license to remove some files, I'd either wipe the HDD and reload or buy a new PC. (one can get a Dell P4, 3Ghz complete system for $469.) Never mind that we still don't know where this thing entered or where it lives. I was able to remove everything once before using Safe mode with cmd prompt and dos commands. After 4 weeks it was back and much, much stronger this time.
Proceed with caution everyone.
Thanks and glad to hear you're cleaned up. I guess we all have to determine what value is. Before I pay $250 for a license to remove some files, I'd either wipe the HDD and reload or buy a new PC. (one can get a Dell P4, 3Ghz complete system for $469.) Never mind that we still don't know where this thing entered or where it lives. I was able to remove everything once before using Safe mode with cmd prompt and dos commands. After 4 weeks it was back and much, much stronger this time.
Proceed with caution everyone.
Hello,
I wrote a free program to fix this problem. It just recursively renames all the undeletable files in a folder to names that are deletable. You can get more information and download it from my website at:
Regards,
Shailesh
I wrote a free program to fix this problem. It just recursively renames all the undeletable files in a folder to names that are deletable. You can get more information and download it from my website at:
Regards,
Shailesh
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