Solved: “Cannot read from the source file or disk”

I’ve finally solved a problem that’s been bugging me for years. One of our file shares ended up with several undelete-able files. Attempting to delete them results in “Error Deleting File or Folder – Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk“.

Note: Windows 7’s version of this message is something like:

Could not find this item: This is no longer located in C:\Blah. Verify the item’s location and try again.

Even going to the file’s properties to check permissions presented a very blank properties dialog. And a CHKDSK didn’t sort thing out either.

It turns out the problem was: the filename ended with a dot, e.g. it was something like “C:\Temp\Stuff\Sales Agreement.“. As far as Windows is concerned this is an invalid file name: so although it gets reported in a directory listing, the standard Windows APIs for manipulating files subsequently deny its existence.

So how did this file get created in the first place? The answer: a Mac. The file was on a file share which had been accessed by a Mac user. Macs tend to write all sorts of metadata to extra “._DSStore” files and suchlike and had left this file behind.

So if Windows doesn’t appear to allow these file names, how did they get to be created? Well, it turns out that NTFS allows all sort of file name/path weirdness that Windows, or specifically the Win32 API, doesn’t allow. For example, NTFS actually allows file paths up to 32K but Windows restricts file paths to no more than 260 characters (MAX_PATH). I suppose this is all for DOS/Windows 9x backwards compatibility. As these files were being accessed over a file share I guess the usual Win32 checks are bypassed.

But thankfully you can get Win32 to ignore these checks by prefixing your file paths with \\?\, (ie. C:\Temp\SomeFile.txt becomes \\?\C:\Temp\SomeFile.txt) which I discovered after reading this blog post about long paths in .NET.

So at a command prompt (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt) I was able to delete the file using:

del "\\?\C:\Temp\Stuff\Sales Agreement."

Note: On Windows 7 it seems you can just use wildcards without the \\?\ trick to delete the offending files: e.g.
del c:\temp\somefil*

If it’s a folder/directory you’re trying to delete use the rd or rmdir command, e.g.:

rd /s "\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\User\Desktop\Annoying Folder."

Tip: as you’re typing the file/directory name use the TAB key to auto-complete the name (press TAB repeatedly to cycle through possible names).

 


Of course the corollary of all of this is that you could really annoy somebody by doing this:

 

echo Hi > "\\?\%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Annoying file you can't delete."

But you wouldn’t do that would you?

If this post helped you and you feel so inclined, feel free to buy me a beer :-)PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online.

443 comments so far

  1. James on

    At the end of reading this, I actually glanced over to the side of my desktop to see if there was a file there called ‘Annoying file you can’t delete.’ It was entirely involuntary. Clearly on a subconscious level I have deep trust issues.

    • jasm on

      HI

      Im getting the below error message

      “Cannot delete file: Cannot read from source file or disk”

      C:\>del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP\Favourites\bò┌ⁿ8g¼o.╦╧∞”
      The system cannot find the file specified.

      C:\> rd /s “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP\Favourites2|ì>⌡ƪ.▄rî”
      \\?\C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP\Favourites2|ì>)ƪ._rî, Are you sure (Y/N)? Y
      The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

      I tried thru Unlocker, but no results. pls help.

      Thanks

      Jasm

      • Ahmet on

        hi, you better try this:

        del “\\?\%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\[copy and paste your annoying file name]”

        hope it works.

        cheers!

    • Alec on

      Praise be to those smarter than I am. That file has been a blight on my desktop for weeks but it just now started bothering me to the point where I was moved to try and find an answer. Thank you!

      • climb on

        ditto.

        The internet is a wonderful place

    • Alex on

      Hi,

      I am experiencing this same error in MOSS but when I try to rename a file through the explorer view of a document library.

      To let you know, the file has a ‘+’ character, was brought into MOSS through drag and drop in the explorer window and is also part way through a workflow.

      Not knowing the origins of the document can I assume that this is occuring due to the same reason?

      Thanks,
      Alex.

  2. -=N=- on

    INTRIGUING.

    Thanks for the heads up on that Duncan.

  3. Tatyana on

    I’ve inherited a bunch of files ending in “.” and had no idea how to get rid of them, and now this simple and elegant solution. Thank you very much, Duncan!

    • vegiVamp on

      A good solution to the problem, certainly, but you have to be a pretty major ms fanboi to call this ’simple and elegant’ instead of ‘a crappy problem that should’ve been fixed at the api level ten years ago’.

  4. Tech Guy on

    Sweeeeeet! Worked like a charm. I had tried booting in safe mode and deleting, MoveOnBoot, and toying with permissions, none of which worked. The files did indeed come from a Mac and in my case it wasn’t a period on the end, but something that looked like a space. I highlighted the name of the offending file, copied it, got in the command prompt window, typed your command, (del “\\?\C:\folder name\sub folder name\), then right-clicked to get the paste function in the command prompt window and typed the close quote. That way, no matter what the offending character is, there’s no guess work. Thank you!

    • Dan on

      I know this conversation is over a year old, but I had to reply: Tech Guy, you are a genius. I used your copy/paste idea, and the offending file is gone! Thank you for sharing.

      • Joe on

        OH MY GOD, THANK YOU!

  5. Nation on

    Very helpful! Glad I found this via Google. My problem was a folder name generated by a program. I tried to move it, rename it, etc — no dice. In my case the last character in the name appeared to be a space. I couldn’t seem to rename it with this trick (got syntax error – sorry, I didn’t record exact error message). So I copied the contents into another folder, and then deleted the bad folder ( rd “\\?\c:\folder\folder\bad name”). It went away. Some where in some manual the exact syntax rules of these DOS commands is documented, I’m sure.

  6. Nation on

    Oh, and I couldn’t resist trying your evil suggestion. Yes, it worked on my (Win XP NTFS) system. And the same method deleted it. There may be some hacker potential for this method of creating (practically) undeletable files.

  7. Aris on

    Great! It worked like magic. Thanks. :-)

  8. borg on

    ok so im not very computer savy and i still cannot get a file on my desktop to delete it gives me this same error

  9. Lindsay George on

    In addition to this you can try reading this:

    http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/forum/windows-xp/32482-error-message-cannot-delete-file-cannot-read-source-file-disk.html

    This is unlocker(it’ll do the job without having you type in names check it out!): http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

    • Jim on

      I would just like to thank you Lindsay for posting this information on the program Unlocker! It deleted that annoying file right off of my desktop with easy! Thanks Again Lindsay!!

      • Tim on

        Trojan virus detected on unlocker

      • D on

        Well I just came up here to thank Lindsay too for posting the link to this marvelous program, Unlocker, which has worked like a charm on some immovable icons that have been bugging me all year. But here I see Tim is telling us that there’s a Trojan virus on it :/
        Is this true??
        Or is he fear mongering?

    • lemon on

      tnx a lot^^ the UNLOCKER did remove the 2 files on my desktop. i have tried to delete these 2 in command prompt but it just cnt be deleted there. the commnd prompt did delete my other files in my desktop.
      just for a history, these 2 files appeared after i cleaned my hard disk. actually, i have deleted these 2 files already. they r torrent files and has a long file name and a SPACE. i just dont know which of these four made them appear again in my desktop.
      1. registry mechanic
      2. pc doctor
      3. ccleaner
      4. purera
      and the reason why i cleaned my hard disk is bec. the windows update just downloaded every update and filled my harddisk.now i turned the automatic updates off.not sure if it is a good thing to turn it off.
      -THE END-

    • Nick on

      I would also like to thank Lindsay for posting the link to unlocker. It did NOT have a trojan like another poster said.
      It could not unlock the file, but gave me the option to delete it anyway.

      Thank you, Thank You.
      Nick

  10. DRev on

    Thank you. Very much.

  11. Jimmy Jim on

    I just wanted to thank you for posting this. It helped me get rid of an annoying file on my desktop :)

  12. Korvus Redmane on

    Thanks. I had a file which i think was some kinda deleated download which i couldn’t remove, but this worked.

  13. Edward on

    So I have little experience with command prompt. How exactly do I go about prefixing the file path to the file I want to delete?

  14. Jason on

    doesn’t work with Win XP SP3

  15. augerin on

    great! thanks.

  16. LC on

    @Lindsay George the unlocker program worked for me, thanks.

  17. Chrome on

    Good lord, thanks for this. I tried ALL the other things, and this is the only method that did it. In my case, it was a space at the end of too-long filenames.(It worked even though I have SP3!)

    Perhaps these WERE a deliberate trap…

  18. whatwouldmattdo on

    I had this annoying die-hard folder with a space (or some invisible non-ANSI space bizzo) at the end..

    After trying a hundred things, that “\\?\” thing was just the ticket. Thank you!

  19. Eugenia on

    Hi, I’m not really sure how you put your solution into the command prompt, because every time I do, it says that windows cannot find ‘del’.

    Can you type exactly what I’m supposed to type? The file location is: C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\Maddie Bailis

    It’s driving me nuts!

  20. Eugenia on

    Wow!

    Never mind! It worked! I just put in the wrong thing.

    Thanks!

  21. Matthias on

    Finally!
    I had been searching all of Microsoft Knowledge Base and the whole web for a solution to this, with nothing but “Contact Microsoft support”.
    This here worked!
    Thank you *very* much!
    Please note that the word “Solved” in the subject header caught my eyes within the millions of search results that state the same question but have no answer. So another thank you for helping me to get here!

  22. Salim on

    Thanks. Worked the first time. It was smart thinking to use the word ‘Solved’ in the Header.

  23. Keith on

    Jason, and all others who may be running XP with SP3, I found a possible solution as well.

    From the command prompt, navigate via dos commands to the directory containing the offending file/folder.
    Now type dir /x/a
    This will show you the old 16 bit 8 character dos name for the file or folder.
    Now type del 8characterfilename /ah
    Not sure if the /ah is needed but this worked for me. I hope it helps =] Good luck to you all!

    • ben135 on

      Thanks Keith, that worked perfectly.

    • Keksich on

      What if the offending folder is located on another drive? (D: in my case, cmd won’t navigate to it)

      • Keksich on

        Nevermind, found the solution! Navigate to C:/WINDOWS, then just put d:, so it looks like C:\WINDOWS>d:

    • insan on

      Thank you, thank you! :-D

    • shep on

      Brilliant! I couldn’t get the original method to work but this worked perfectly first time, thanks :)

    • san on

      Thanks Keith, an hour of experiment through this article got me happy ending… you made me close this window, with a smile on my face.

  24. vasssos on

    hi
    Im desperate..i’ve tried everything but this thing won’t go..I’m not good in command pro so i can’t figure out what to do..
    The folder i’m trying to get rid of has the following name:

    [snip]

    With the dot at the end and it’s located in C:\Documents and Settings\Vasssos\My Documents\Downloads

    Any help will be much appreciated!
    Thanks in advance
    vasssos

  25. Duncan Smart on

    @Vassos: at the Command Prompt type:

    del "\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Vasssos\My Documents\Downloads\rest-of-your-path-here."

    Note you can copy and paste text to the Command Prompt also, which will help.

  26. vasssos on

    hey
    thanks for the quick reply.
    I tried what you said but i get “The system cannot find the path specified” even though i can see the folder when i type in “dir”

  27. Duncan Smart on

    @vassos: One thing that may help is to use the TAB key to auto-complete the file path for you. Type the following (note the \\?\ at the start):

    del \\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Vasssos\My Documents\Downloads\

    …then press TAB until your filename appears, when it does, press ENTER.

    • PK on

      This Worked for Me !!!
      Many thanks Duncan.

  28. vasssos on

    Still no luck.
    Note: This “thing” appears to be a folder. I don’t know if it makes any difference on the command for prompt.

    Thanks again

  29. Ben on

    @vassos: try using ‘rmdir’ instead of del.
    1. in dos, navigate to the directory of the offending folder
    2. dir /x/a to get the 8 character name of the offending folder
    3. rmdir [your 8 bit filename]

  30. vasssos on

    @ben
    Thanks ben
    I tried that but I get the following:
    “The directory is not empty”

  31. Stickman on

    Holy Snap! It worked!
    Thanks.

  32. Anon on

    awesome! finally got rid of that thing :/ many thanks! :)

  33. sam on

    thankyou so much! I had no idea how to get rid of a file I had partially downloaded and the cmd line worked perfectly first go

  34. eucarya on

    can anyone tell me how to prefix my file path? Every time I type the command in DOS I get could not find and I have absolutely no idea how to add the \\?\ prefix to the path.

  35. GaGirrl on

    @vassos

    I had the same problem as well. There were folders under the top level “bad” folder that I had to delete first before I could do these steps.

    1. So, in Windows, I had:
    c:\myfiles\badfolder\stuff\morestuff.

    2. I deleted the “morestuff” and “stuff” folder in Windows just fine, but I couldn’t delete the top level folder (it had a space in it).

    3. Once I deleted the subfolders and all that was left was c:\myfiles\badfolder, the suggesions that Ben had worked.

    4. I used rd instead of rmdir, but it shouldn’t matter.

  36. Johnny on

    Hi… I’m trying to delete the following filename “The Gate dvdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.”

    Here’s what I’ve done in Command Prompt so far.

    Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps

    10/06/2008 04:37 PM .
    10/06/2008 04:37 PM ..THEGAT~1 The Gate dvdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.
    09/22/2007 02:13 PM 0
    10/05/2008 04:23 PM 21,661,580 Thumbs.db
    2 File(s) 21,661,580 bytes
    2 Dir(s) 17,562,890,240 bytes free

    I tried every reccomended method of deleting the file as described here to no avail. I Know I’m getting the file name right because I’m using the tab key.

    Guess my question is what exactly should I type in from C:\ (at the very beginning) to delete this file with the dot at the end? When I try to preface a path with \\?\ it says the following.

    CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories.

    =(

  37. Johnny on

    Exactly what’s been tried thus far…

    C:\>del \\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps\The Gate d
    vdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.
    The system cannot find the file specified.

    C:\>del \\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps\”The Gate
    dvdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.”
    The system cannot find the file specified.

    C:\>del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps\The Gate d
    vdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.”
    The system cannot find the file specified.

  38. Bassastingur on

    Thanks man! You’re a lifesaver…

  39. eucarya on

    Why does “iexplore.exe” download automatically from this page?

  40. Martin on

    A brilliantly helpful clue .. that almost worked!

    My files were hidden system files as well.
    What did work was replacing the dot with a wildcard in the filename, so this is what worked:

    del /ahs CAODIZOX?

    /ahs allows deletion of Hidden System files, and ? substituted for .

    • Ruver Uki on

      Thanks, this one from Martin did it:

      A brilliantly helpful clue .. that almost worked!

      My files were hidden system files as well.
      What did work was replacing the dot with a wildcard in the filename, so this is what worked:

      del /ahs CAODIZOX?

      /ahs allows deletion of Hidden System files, and ? substituted for .

    • Martian on

      XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX MARTIN’S tip was the last piece of the puzzle I required in addition to the main blog XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
      THANKS MARTIN AND DUNCAN (the blogger)

  41. snkcube on

    Thank you for the tip! I was able to get rid of these pesky files thanks to you!

  42. eucarya on

    So not everyone is a DOS guru, how do you prefix a file path? Guys who keep posting saying “wow this worked, thx dewd!!!” how about telling us non-command line savvy folks exactly how you got it to work? Please and thank you! ! !

  43. Duncan Smart on

    @eucarya: I’m not sure what you’re having difficulty understanding. Just read the last few paragraphs: “So at a command prompt I was able to delete the file using…”

  44. Wolverine on

    @vassos: try using ‘ren’ before del.
    1. in dos, navigate to the directory of the offending folder
    2. dir /x/a to get the 8 character name of the offending folder
    3. ren [your 8 bit filename] to something like “temp”
    4. del temp > yes
    thats worked fine for me..
    Wolverine

  45. eucarya on

    Got it to work, had to use the “rd” commands as the folders were the ones inherited from my Mac with periods…

    The problem I was having was that I was forgetting to add the quotation marks to the file path I was trying to remove. So if you can’t get it to work make sure you add quotes around the file path (i.e. del “filepath” or rd “filepath”)

    Thanks!!

  46. Megan on

    After several tries I finally got it to work! Thanks :D

  47. Annie on

    Thank you sooo much. I could NOT figure out how to delete one of those DOT files. Now I know!!!! Bless you my child. LOL

  48. austin on

    you win

  49. Fred on

    Great ! Thanks !

    My problem, as others has already said, was not due to a “shittyfile.” but a “shittyfile.xls ” …. A space at the end of the .xls extension drove me crazy for two days.

    Thank you again for your smart post !

  50. Nicolas on

    Now,
    How can i create a folder that end with period?

    How Can i rename a folder that contain a period at the end, what is the syntax in command prompt?

    Thanks

  51. Kelly on

    im still having trouble with this. someone please help! i have only used the command prompt once prior to this, so i need step by step instructions. I opened the command prompt and it says:
    C:\Documents and Settings\Kelly Gonrue>

    The file I want to delete is “Coach case complete ”

    Please help, I would really like to delete this file!

  52. Janie on

    Thanks a lot, it worked a treat on a stubborn folder with a space at the end of its name. XD

  53. Andrew on

    Thanks! This worked great at first, but I’m still having the same issue with hidden resource fork files that are created by Macs, for example it shows up in Win as “._filename ”

    Anybody have any luck with these files? I’ve tried using wildcards, /ahs, copy and paste, but can’t get it to delete them.

    Thanks again for this helpful post!

  54. sadtosay on

    ..OMG! that was really helpful!
    now my mind is at ease..
    thanks a lot..

    yer a genius..for me. ^^,

  55. sherifffruitfly on

    A+.

  56. Josh on

    Worked like a charm. Thanks for making this public! :)

  57. Lyxeas on

    Hey Martin! Well done the Wildcard at the end was the only way to take it off the Desktop!

    Good teamwork all!

  58. Neelima on

    Thanks a lot for this information !!
    Was of great help to me !!

  59. Kasper on

    Thank you so much, I was going ballistics over this file, and nothing worked but this! Cheers!!

  60. Neil on

    Tried this command and it worked on all but 1 file. THe file in question has 2 .. at the end no spaces. I can see it in windows explorer and in the properties it has no hidden attribute but if I do a dir in dos it is unable to see the file. So therefore it won’t delete it doing the above command? Any thoughts?

  61. Nish on

    I had the same problem, but with spaces in start and the end of the file name. It removed with Kieth’s solution.

  62. tacojew22 on

    Dude:
    I have been unable to delete a file for months. I work in an IT department and even go to school for IT;however, no-one could tell me how to remove the file. You, my friend are awesome; your method worked perfectly. Thank you very much for your assistance.
    Tacojew22

  63. sam on

    please help.i need to delete this “C:/Documents and Settings/Korisnik/Desktop/Gipsy Kings Hotel California “.how could i delete it.it has no dot but space at the end.thank you

  64. Viktor on

    cmd
    del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Viktor\Desktop\ The Madagascar panguins ”

    The best solution! (i was googling for it 2 hours)

  65. Pat on

    Cheers Duncan, I’ve had a file on my desktop for months and tried everything I got by googling but nothing worked – until now :-)

  66. Santiago on

    You are a genius! I spent hours trying to delete a crappy file with no success, until I found this method. Thank you so much!

  67. Greg on

    You rock, thanks for the help with this. All the other forums led me astray :-)

  68. dan on

    ive tried it and it worked but the folder is still stuck in the recycle bin and it cannot be emptied
    please help

  69. testing123 on

    An extra tip: if the file is hidden use this command:

    del /ah “\\?\D:\uit_dienst\pootsm1\Homedir\1\CAH4QDX3″

    Greets

  70. Oneil Williams on

    I’m still unable to get rid of my pesky file. It’s called “FW_Ya know you’re a Floridian if..” and it’s on my desktop.

    So, I tried del \\?\C:Documents and Settings\Desktop\FW_Ya know you’re a Floridian if.. and it’s saying the file couldn’t be identified. Am I doing something wrong?

  71. JA on

    Thanks a lot!
    I downloaded a file off one of the many sendspace/rapidshare/mediafire clones and the file ended up corrupt. It has been bugging me for a while now and this really worked.

    To those who have trouble doing it, you have to make sure that the file is in quotes, that there are no typos at all, and if there is no dot at the end of the file then it probably ends in a space.

  72. Hello_World on

    thx bro… (damn Mac User..). :D at last.. i can get rid of those files..

  73. Fulchand on

    Hi! Ijust noticed this site – two days back – Please help me. I
    The name of the file is: Instant File Search 1.7.5.
    I did the following;’
    Start > Run > CMD> and on command prompt I typed:
    del”\\?\c:\documents and settings\fulchand shah\local settings\application data\microsoft\ cd burning\instant file search 1.7.5.” I can not delete it. Kindle show me steps I should follow

  74. Elevated Sky on

    I love you!

    thanks sooo much!

  75. aftab on

    I actually tried this and it didn’t work. Then I realized why – it was a folder and I needed to do the same thing with the rmdir command. Thanks for the help.

  76. aftab on

    I wonder if you could rename a file rather than create one ending with a period. Any help? (*srry im evil)

  77. Chola on

    I Had the same problem of “Johnny on October 6, 2008

    Hi… I’m trying to delete the following filename “The Gate dvdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.”

    Here’s what I’ve done in Command Prompt so far.

    Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps

    10/06/2008 04:37 PM .
    10/06/2008 04:37 PM ..THEGAT~1 The Gate dvdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.
    09/22/2007 02:13 PM 0
    10/05/2008 04:23 PM 21,661,580 Thumbs.db
    2 File(s) 21,661,580 bytes
    2 Dir(s) 17,562,890,240 bytes free

    I tried every reccomended method of deleting the file as described here to no avail. I Know I’m getting the file name right because I’m using the tab key.

    Guess my question is what exactly should I type in from C:\ (at the very beginning) to delete this file with the dot at the end? When I try to preface a path with \\?\ it says the following.

    CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories.

    =(

    Exactly what’s been tried thus far…

    C:\>del \\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps\The Gate d
    vdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.
    The system cannot find the file specified.

    C:\>del \\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps\”The Gate
    dvdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.”
    The system cannot find the file specified.

    C:\>del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\Maps\The Gate d
    vdrip(ironeddie)Divx[1].avi.”
    The system cannot find the file specified.

    I resolved it with
    del “\\?\C:\myFolder\myfilebad.AVI.” /a
    Sorry for my english, i’m peruvian

    THANKS A LOT DUNCAN

    • Frances on

      Thanks Chola! I could not figure out why
      del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\jsmith\Desktop\CAFUM93N.” was not working. I went through half this list trying every suggestion, then I hit your solution. The /a at the end finally did the trick. YAY!

    • Rahul on

      Thank you Chola. The /a at the end worked.

      Thanks a LOT to Duncan. I have saved this page in my favorites now.

    • Good Grief!!! on

      The /a at the end is what finally worked for the hidden file. After 2 1/2 hours of working on this and constantly getting the message: “The system cannnot find the file specified”… this worked! THANK YOU!!!!!

  78. Mike Hays on

    There is a program that will remove files ending with a “Dot” it is called “unlocker Assistant” this is a freeware program that did delete the Mac files with ease. The link for this file is: http://dailyfreeware.net/2006/09/15/unlocker-183/

    Go to the file right click with the mouse and select unlocker it will ask what do you want to do with this file, then pick delete.

  79. Stella Volante on

    I have a similar problem with deleting invalid files. But my problem isnt solved by the above method. (I can successfully create a *. file by \\?\ and it can be deleted by \\?\ after. But it just doesnt work for my other invalid files.)

    So for people like me, that cannot delete files by the above method, this is what I used to solve it:
    http://www.soft411.com/company/Assistance-and-Resources-for-Computing-Inc/DelinvFile.htm
    Easy to use.

  80. Jenny on

    Oh my GOD I can’t believe it. I’ve been searching Microsoft’s tech sites, Norton’s sites (my files were NPROTECT files), running CHKDSK over and over, making the files unhidden and trying to delete them from the command prompt and DOS and XP, nothing worked. You have just released 12.7 GB of my disk. I love you.

  81. OngKL on

    Thank you very much! x 1000 times

    I managed to use the command you recommended

    copy \\?\D:\Disk1

    to copy a file in an old CD I used a few years ago when my OS is Win95.

    Under my present OS the file shows in the directory with 0 byte.

    After the copy, finally it shows some data.

    Thank you again! :)

    Ong KL from Singapore

  82. Alex on

    THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
    This worked wonderfully.

  83. Andy on

    If you want the simplest way to delete this type of file, download Unlocker- http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/index.htm
    Worked within a matter of seconds and deleted 3 files off my desktop. Fantastic!

  84. attaboy on

    End the year on a positive note .. technique works on xp v5.1 sp3 build 2600 (Pro) thanks a zillion. unlocker (noted above)took out the stubborn ones with AS attributes .. these files where found in the nprotect folder.

    Mac files??? Grrrrrr .. never touch the stuff. Now, if i can just get symantec to stop puking liveupdate files into the nprotect folder every six minutes.

    Awesome solution .. KUDOS

  85. Edom on

    Awesome, thanks! Mine doesn’t even end in the dot, but it worked. Finally got rid of(C75_東方) (同人音楽) [dBu music] 廃弾奏結界 鬼譚奏鳴曲 Demon tale sonata (Lame3.96

  86. shaun the genius on

    if its on your desktop for example
    do this…

    in cmd type cd desktop (press enter)
    type dir (press enter)
    you should see the file there
    for example if its called imatwatofafile
    get the 1st 5 letters in this case it would be imatw

    type
    del imatw*.* (press enter)

    now should be gone :)

    • J on

      did the trick!
      thanks

    • Rahul on

      Hi All, I have a torrent file ending with space. I tried all methods it does not go. When I do a dir the cmd prompt it does not list the file.

      thank you!

    • mm on

      this worked perfectly! thank you!! (the other suggestions on this blog and correspondence weren’t working for me)

  87. myfinalheaven333 on

    You just earned 1,000,000,000+ internets from me. I had a stupid torrent file on my desktop forever that I was having this problem with, this did the trick for it :D

  88. Marty on

    Many Thanks for posting, this worked for me for a file that had a space at the end of the file name. A brilliant solution that doesn’t require installing a freeware app.

    del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\Desktop\filename.torrent “

  89. James on

    I had that problem, and this works! The file in question ended in a space, with no extension. It was created by DownloadThemAll during a cancelled download. So I guess the OS allowed its creation, but couldn’t delete it.

    I changed it to adsf.txt, and deleted it, no problems.

  90. Fernnado on

    Great! It helped me to delete A blablabla.torrent file. Windows was giving me the same error. Since I had the file in the c:\temp directory I just went to the command prompt and did a del *.*
    Problem solved.!
    Thanks.

  91. IamAnerD!!! HA!!! on

    THANKS SO MUCH BRO!!!

  92. Eric Moran on

    This works for deleting files very well, but I cannot get this same method to work while trying to remove directories.

  93. Alex on

    Actually, I was looking for a way to create folders that cannot be deleted normally by Windows and you helped me out!

    Just passed md “\\?\c:\AnnoyingFolder.” to the command prompt and there! it works like magic.

    One other thing…

    Whenever you create a folder ending with a dot, you can neither access nor delete it.

    Should you however create a folder whose name ends with a space (” “), you can access it like a regular folder but you cannot delete it. In such folders, any subfolder or file you create is *lost* for good. Windows does not recognise its existence.

    Plus, as soon as you create any file or folder in a folder whose name ends with a space, the DOS command, RD, or RMDIR does not work on it nor its contents any more. You’ll have to use the program Unlocker.
    My warning: Do not mess around with folders whose names end with a space or you will be in serious trouble.

    Thanks man. You’ve been of help.

  94. DILLI on

    Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! The unlocker program worked perfect. Thanx once again to all of you and your input

  95. Bill on

    Thank you so much for sharing this solution, Duncan. A worthy contribution to the public good.

  96. SB on

    I have a Firefox bookmark folder named “Car..”, which when imported into IE8 becomes “Car.”! Stupid Microsoft! The imported bookmark folder is neither accessible or deleteable from within IE or Windows Explorer. Thankfully, your solution works for me!

  97. Matt on

    OMG THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

  98. Dankwa on

    absolutely fantastic. i tried everything to no avail until i found this solution. Thank you very, very much!!!

  99. Mark on

    Thank you Duncan… Two week problem fixed.

  100. ogeday on

    unlocker 1.8.7! i’ve been trying to delete a file for two weeks but now it’s gone. thank you unlocker =)

  101. Haluk Cengiz on

    Thank you Duncan,

    The same problem happened to me yesterday. I used, Chkdsk, Moveonboot and unlocker but they did not help me.

    I never thought that this was that easy. Now I tried and it worked.

    Thanks million times. It is really annoying to have it on your desktop.

  102. A1efBet on

    THANK YOU! The unlocker worked flawlessly and got rid of a folder that ended with a space. It was driving me crazy for over a month!

  103. crinky on

    TYVM (grrrr Mac people!)

    I used rd /s \\?\path and it worked perfectly.

    This page was #1 on my Google search of the error!

    Gotta love the Series of Tubes!!!

  104. Lynne on

    Not working for me: On my Win Server 2000 When I try:D :\data\Scanner\scan>del “ADVISORY SERVICES” I get
    Could Not Find D:\data\Scanner\scan\ADVISORY SERVICES

    Tried the unlocker it gets message of Process not locked, “Object cannot be deleted”
    Grrr…
    These folders are created when someone scans a doc, saving it to the network. It seems that occasionally certain files just wont delete. Any suggestions? tks

  105. BryTech on

    SOLVED: UNREMOVABLE DIRECTORY!

    Ok, so I have a Windows XP machine with a shared folder used by some Mac users. That got me in trouble. Now I have a load of folders I can’t delete, even using the above suggestions. COBIAN BACKUP to the rescue! I use the Cobian Backup utility (free) for other folders and I noticed it successfully removed folders I couldn’t – AND – on the Cobian “Tools” menu, there’s a utility called “Deleter”. You can browse to any folder name on the XP PC, select it, check the box that says “Delete recursively” and away it goes. Those guys RULE! Yeah, maybe installing a backup utility is a little more than you want to do, but it only takes a few minutes and it was soooooo worth the time. FYI, I’m running v.9 of Cobian Backup. Good luck to you all but this worked great for deleting a bunch of Mac-deposited folders!!!

  106. shopkin527 on

    the command line resolution suggested here did not work for me, but the “unlocker” utility did provide a quick and easy install and fix.

    thanks!

  107. Lynne on

    Thanks BryTech! Your solution (after trying many) was the only way I could get these folders to delete!

  108. BryTech on

    No problem. I couldn’t get the folders removed any other way. Even Unlocker wouldn’t do it for me.

  109. Tim on

    Awesome solution, thanks!!

  110. Jayanth on

    Perfect Solution. Thank You.

  111. andrew on

    Thank you so much.

  112. meirav on

    try double-click on the file and open it with Notepad. Then, you will see a message: ” Do you want to create a new file? ” click YES. Then, write something in it few words and click on SAVE. Close Notepad and go to the file again , right click on it and delete. Worked for me. Hope it will work for you…

  113. meirav on

    Actually, it did not work for me at the end so don’t try it. But i downloaded the UNLOCKER and it deleted the files finally.

  114. msknyc on

    Thanks a lot….was finally able to get rid of a troublesome file that’s been makin’ me nuts for the longest=)

  115. Eric on

    worked great for me with a file name that ended with a dot. command prompt lists it’s directory like so
    c:\documents and settings\eric>

    you must remember to use the command cd\ first

    eg. c:\documents and settings\eric>cd\

    press enter and it will now show
    C:\
    now type the file you want to delete and it will look like this:
    C:\ del \\?\c:\documents and settings\eric\desktop\annoyingfile.

  116. Eric on

    example spacing correction
    Only required space is between del and the \\?\ any other spaces are the actual spaces in the directory and file names.

    C:\>del \\?\c:\documents and settings\eric\desktop\annoyingfile.

  117. ian on

    at command line it kept saying it couldn’t find the file, but when I typed (from inside the folder) del awaken~1 it worked great. Use the DOS filename.

  118. scorpio_india69 on

    Thanks a lot !!!

    I had two such cases on my machine. One folder and one file. Both were deleted with no problems.

    Thanks again, and keep the good work going !

  119. Todd on

    You are the best! Thanks!

  120. TheChaim42 on

    Thank you for the command line code! It’s been bothering me for a few weeks and it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve had to use a DOS command line!

  121. Lauren on

    Thanks so much, the little twerps have been annoying me for so long.

  122. Scott on

    Thanks for the elegant solution and to those intrepid commenter’s who where able to fill in the chinks! The last time I had a file like this I reformatted to remove it, this is a darn sight easier!

  123. Hari on

    Thanks for this kool stuff buddy

  124. Nice on

    YAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

    THANK YOU SOOOO MUUUUUUUCH!!
    YOU ARE A GENIOUS!!!!!!!!

    YEEESS!!!!!!!!

  125. Vekos on

    This works wonderfully.
    For those havin’ trouble typing in the path, click and drag the file name into cmd eg: del “\\?\click and drag the name of your file here and the path will be filled in for you. Use your back arrow on your keyboard and delete the double quotation mark ” that appears before the C: or D: press Enter and yer done.
    Click and drag the name of the folder into cmd if using rd /s “\\?\ remember to delete the quotation mark, press enter, type y for yes then Enter and voila.

  126. bryan on

    Thanks, I waded thru a lot of info and tried several things before I found your solution

  127. ota on

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! At last, after several months, I could delete an annoying file thanks to your precious advice. I am really happy and very greatful.
    Ciao from Rome

  128. Alex on

    Thanks a lot, man!!! The del command didn’t work as I’m on WIN XP SP 3 NTFS, but unlocker still helped!!! Many thanks !!! Also for the trick;-)

  129. Greg on

    Thanks for all your input. The Unlocker Assistant, http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker worked! I was able to delete two files that I have been trying to delete.

  130. Jason on

    Hi there, I had a problem deleting a folder created by a program — I tried the above but this did not work for me (I have ended up with the folder on a number of drives through syncing) the only way I seem to have been able to get rid of the folder is by booting into Ubuntu by CD and using Linux to get rid of it!

  131. Pearl on

    Hey thanks for the solution! Been looking all over the web for help and you’re the best!

  132. Graham on

    I just tripped over a super simple (that’s me!) solution. Open the fikle with Unlocker 1.8.7, change the pulldown to delete, and bingo….gone.

  133. Mark G on

    Thanks. In my case there was very very very very long file name.

  134. Myk on

    100% working.
    Thank you so much.. :)

  135. Richard G on

    Bingo! (problem solved)

    Much appreciated. Smart stuff! Thank you.

  136. LoTek on

    Duncan. Well played! Solved an issue with a craptasmo file that threatened my very existence. It has been dealt with and life will resume. Tragedy avoided. I like many others feel the wrath of The MAN often and appreciate simple solutions. Now time to catch the 405.

  137. Boatless on

    Duncan, These three files have been on my desktop for years. I was spring cleaning this evening and was bugged one more time by the files mere existence. I stumbled on you solution and it’s genius. I too was told by my IT department there was no way to remove the files and evene if they rebuilt my hard drive there was no GRT they would go away. Hats off to you a million times. I am grateful.

  138. Courtney on

    Duncan, thanks! I’ve had two files stuck in a folder for months that I hadn’t been able to get rid of.

  139. Anurag Anil on

    I am not able to type the recommended command in the “command prompt” as it shows :
    C:\Documents and Settings\username>

    I’ve tried 2 use all “delete” programs..but,they didn’t work.

    The file is on desktop.

    The annoying filename is :
    out_BuBut you love me,Daddy !

    Help needed..DESPERATELY as I luv a clean Desktop.

    If u want..u can mail me.

    But,plzzzzzzzzz ASSIST me.

  140. john on

    Ty for the info…

    At last i deleted that pesky file

  141. Anonymous on

    THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

  142. Anurag on

    I am not able to type the recommended command in the “command prompt” as it shows :
    C:\Documents and Settings\username>

    I’ve tried 2 use all “delete” programs..but,they didn’t work.

    The file is on desktop.

    The annoying filename is :
    out_BuBut you love me,Daddy !

    Help needed..DESPERATELY as I luv a clean Desktop.

    If u want..u can mail me.

    But,plzzzzzzzzz ASSIST me.

  143. Mac on

    My file was on my local disk, not a system file and not hidden. It did appear to have a trailing space in the name. None of the above worked directly, but a variation/combination of posts led me to try this, which worked:

    1. cd to the directory with the bad file
    2. dir /x /a to get the file’s short 8-bit name, say “shortname”
    3. del /a shortname

    No other options on the del command. For example, “del /ahs shortname” did NOT work since the file was not a system or hidden file. I don’t know what the “/a” option is supposed to do without additional specifiers, but it worked for this case.

    @Anurag, in step 1, to cd to your desktop, just type “cd Desktop” from your “C:\Documents and Settings\username>” prompt.

    • Rahul on

      Hi Mac, thank you. This works. Each file is different. Lobe this page.

      Thank you!!

  144. Anurag Anil on

    Thanks,Mac for showin’ concern for my woes..
    Though,due to ineptness of me..it didn’t work.

    But,something DID work..like a magic..after goin’ thru d agony of watchin’ that irritating file’s existence on my desktop:
    http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

    Amazing..

  145. rajkuma on

    ooooooooohhhhh my goddddd..
    its working…….
    thanks man..
    may god bless you.

  146. ggeorgi on

    Well done man….. I had this “ghost” and looking for solution a month now….. thanks

  147. pae on

    thx a lot….
    >,< this solution is great

  148. Anurag Anil on

    But,something DID work..like a magic..after goin’ thru d agony of watchin’ that irritating file’s existence on my desktop:
    http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

    Amazing..

  149. diego on

    YOU ARE GOD!

    My God, I was having such a terrible time; look am a maniac, ok, I couldn’t live with this damn file that refused to go away, and you had the seemingly non-existing answer. Thank you!

  150. J on

    Thanks a lot! Worked for me.

  151. rcragun on

    worked for me!!

  152. Brenda on

    gee, thanks a lot! :)

  153. derek on

    Thanks Chola, that worked.

  154. Shawn on

    Again, another big thank you

  155. Basu on

    Thank you very much man

  156. Dave on

    Thank you so much – my server just been hacked with 10gb of s**t – this save my life, many thanks man.

  157. Christopher on

    I was pulling my hair out having tried just about all the standard stuff to remove an annoying directory. This worked like a charm. Thanks!!

  158. Evan on

    Duncan you just rock man! I spent the last 30 mins of my life searching for this issue in google and I’ve found only really stupid suggestions and explanations of this little problem. Until I got to you! Thank you so much :)

  159. 80sBoy on

    Worked like a charm – thanks!

  160. ZoRo on

    Big thanks

  161. Ben on

    You are a legend, thanks alot for taking the time and effort to post this.

  162. luiz on

    thank you. incredible !

  163. da bare on

    you da man!!! and the others that helped you come up with this!!! at work they always call on me to fix computer things and now after searching and finding this for my personal computer, i think i’m gonna have some fun at work with creating files and then deleting them! hehe ;)

  164. Vašek on

    Thank you!

    I suffered for one year with one file/notfile on my Destop (no possibility for change name, delete or move through normal way)

  165. nick on

    didnt work so depressed

  166. RKD on

    Impressive..!

    Finally I got rid of those stupid files on my desktop..

    Thanks VERY much Duncan..

  167. bibie on

    wow…
    thanks a lot duncan..ftr a month, finally i found it. thnks!

  168. Hels bells on

    Fan-bloomin’-tastic!!
    Thanks a million, worked a dream…

  169. Dave on

    Thanks alot for taking the time and effort to post this, tearing my hair out trying to get those damn directories to delete.

  170. woooooo on

    this just saved my life. thaks

  171. Randy on

    Thanks!!! worked great

  172. Stephaen on

    Great! It works also for files with some weird invisible characters (these files came from my Mac at work).

  173. Steve on

    Thanks for that, I had some files with the syntax [file name] at the start of the filename that apparently, windows didn’t recognize. However your solution beautfully deletes them (and creates them too !!) One thing I would add, is that instead of using two “” at the end of each command line, just leave the command as it is untouched after you paste the offending file name. this worked well for me with a multitude of different names.

  174. RP on

    Thanks a MILLION. ‘Unlocker Assistant’ worked. File deleted successfully

    • MWR on

      Thank you.

  175. Dietmar on

    Just had a similar issue with a folder containing a space as last character (“FolderName “). Your tip helped also in this case. Thanks

  176. Kushagra Udai on

    Hi,
    I’m probably the most unfortunate of you all – I’ve got a folder whose name ends with a backslash. I’ve no idea how it got created – I probably copied it off a pendrive, although I can’t imagine which OS would allow this.

    05/17/2009 03:39 PM .
    05/17/2009 03:39 PM ..
    08/18/2007 04:32 PM defective\
    0 File(s) 0 bytes
    3 Dir(s) 11,153,424,384 bytes free

    Thats the folder – please not hat it was called defective because I had kept some incomplete videos in it – NOT because this was intended.
    I’ve tried Unlocker, Delinvfile and all the methods in the comments above – absolutely nothing seems to be able to find the file. And Delinv fileshows its short name also as “defective\”. I’ve no idea how that can possibly be because that is 10 Characters. For some reason /x/a does not seem to show short file names when I use the switches with the dir command in cmd. Any Assistance will greatly appreciated.

  177. mARk on

    Just had a file that ended with a space this worked on the First Try….Thanks

  178. Flushing Turd on

    Found the solution to the file copy problem. It was a firewall setting of AES-128 encryption that was mucking up the copy. Changed it to a lower encryption.

  179. aileverte on

    Thank you! The file that got stuck on my desktop was actually a partially downloaded pdf file, and it didn’t have any extension at all… Tried three different things in the command prompt, and it worked when I added a space to the end of the file name!

  180. Johnny T on

    Thanks! I can get around a puter, but not such a hot shot but this worked easy, way to go bro’!

  181. Scott on

    Thanks! Got rid of a torrent file I couldn’t delete.

  182. piyush on

    hi! i hv a whole folder to delete . i tried using ur suggestion but itsnot happening …. :(
    the file names r strange like “*”, “”
    C:\MetaStock Data\april\
    pls help

  183. Nobody on

    UNBELIEVABLE!!!
    IT WORKS, LIKE A CHARM (TO QUOTE SOME OTHER USERS).
    THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIP, DUNCAN!

  184. Beef on

    Hope this can help: I had 4 files ending with a space. They were flagged system and hidden.
    I couldn’t delete the entire directory because it was my desktop folder!

    The \\?\ trick doesn’t work, because of the H and S flags.

    The /a trick works instead! It works because you don’t need to specify any path (and the ANY filename, right or wrong it is, with ending point o ending spaces: it doesn’t matters). The wildcards and the /a will do the rest.

    del *.* /a (only if it is a simple file)
    del *.* /ash (in my case)

  185. Michael on

    So happy… it worked for me. Thanks a lot for sharing it.

  186. Mohammad on

    use a third party software called “unlocker” to delete the file permanently, here is the link:

    http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

    that unbelievably worked for me after trying all other useless ways.

    hope it does the same for you

  187. Neal on

    You smart boy Duncan…
    Thanks very much. First I typed in command prompt del “c:Documents and Settings\cinkhede\Desktop\Annoying file you can’t delet
    e.”
    By using TAB key & then added \\?\ before filename.
    Worked fine for me.

  188. Mika on

    Worked beautifully. This is a problem I have been trying to solve on my windows servers for months. Thanks a bunch!

  189. David on

    The file I am trying to delete from my desktop is “CASJQTMT.” Duncan’s solution didn’t work for me. Unlocker did not work either. Any suggestions?

    • Neal on

      Nevigate to desktop through command prompt & try the following:

      C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Desktop>del “\\?\c:\Documents and Settings\Username\D
      esktop\CASJQTMT.”

  190. Thank you! on

    wow kickass, this worked!

  191. Karthik.India on

    Thank you. this works perfectly.

  192. Rahamath on

    Thanks Dude. U r great

  193. Alex on

    Thank you very much Duncan! I also inherited a bunch of these files & directories and they were a major eye sore. What a great solution. YOU ROCK!!!

  194. Jacob on

    Thanks for the heads-up. I had a few of these files that came from…….a MAC. But, not anymore. Thanks again!

  195. Alec on

    Hi guys! Normally, I am one from those that only read about such problems without contributing. However, this time, I want to share my experience on how to remove these files and deal with this “cannot delete file cannot read from the source file or disk”
    So, after reading all this conversation, I downloaded the Unlocker (http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/), although full of doubt!
    Simply, I installed it, I right clicked on the files and I deleted them right away!
    So, the most simple way is this Unlocker, if one wants to get rid of these files, stuck on our desktops! (btw, they were .torrent files)

  196. Matt on

    Dude I love you, this file randomly showed up from a torrent and I was worried it was a virus or malware sorta file that wouldn’t delete it self. Glad to see it was not, thanks for the help.

  197. Tuc on

    Worked like a charm, thanks!

  198. Jonez on

    PRECIATE THAT HELP WITH USING THE UNLOCKER PROGRAM, WORKS LIKE A FUKIN CHARM YA DIG!!

  199. loc on

    Excellent, it worked! I was getting so pissed off with these Mac folders on my WinXP machine! Thanks!!

  200. qwerty on

    RMDIR! THANKyou thankyouthankyou!

  201. Bgr on

    Oh great! been hunting for this! thanks works flawlessly on XP64!

  202. bala on

    THANKS A TON.

    I broke my head for several days on this.

  203. cecileva on

    Thanks for this, worked like a charm for me too. It was also a “buddy file” for a word doc that I received from a correspondant on a mac.

  204. Ennev on

    Thanks such folder where stuck one of our servers, this really fixed the problem. Since the volume was on a raid 5 i doubted it was a bad sector.

    Thanks again !

  205. Racan Aboredaif on

    i have tried every thing but nothing seems to work. it doesnt seem to recongise the file at all. the size is zero.

    i keep getting msgs like this when in dos:

    1. the file name, directory name or volume label syntax is incorrect

    2. couldnt find ….etc

  206. Keksich on

    My folder I want to delete doesn’t have 8-bit name. Other folders do, but this one has just empty space.

  207. Keksich on

    Unlocker doesn’t help either.

  208. Keksich on

    (Yes, I run SP3)

  209. Joel on

    Thank you so much for the help! I’ve been struggling with a folder for a while. No longer.

  210. Keksich on

    Solved it! Opened Nero BackItUp ImageTool and deleted it from there ^^

  211. lezlow on

    just a note You have done an excellent job sorting this problem another way is go to start hit run type in chkdsk /f and checkdisk acts as the old scandisk instead of windows new checkdisk nb TO ALL THEIR IS A SPACE BETWEEN CHKDSK AND STROKE F ie.,CHKDSK[SPACE]/f
    alot easier and works i run it regular saves defrags

  212. Travis on

    Thank you very much for this fix! I was having problems with a folder in Program files.

    It was called “Mafia” but there was another folder also called “Mafia”. I looked closely once and it turned out to be “Mafia ” (with a space at the end). That seems to cause problems with windows, as I can delete one of those files, but if I try to delete the other (or access it) it says the location on the disk can not be found.

    But your ‘rd /s “\\?\C:\” fixed it

    Thank you again

  213. jay on

    I downloaded a torrent file the other day….Firefox saved the torrent on the desktop. Long story short, I could not delete the torrent files from the desktop. I would get an error message that read, “Cannot read from source disk”.
    Frustrated,with re-install disks in hand, i decided to research the problem and I stumbled across this post.

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

    I went and got the “unlocker” program. NO MORE FILES!! very good software, easy to use, and a handy tool to have if you do a lot of downloading. THANK YOU!!

  214. Jim on

    Dear Duncan,
    I just want to say thanks a million for helping me to solve the problem of a “0 bytes” file that wouldn´t delete. I have been trying for 3 days to find a solution on the internet. I´m dizzy with all the sites that I´ve visited and reading all the similar problems and solutions (that didn´t work in my case). I had accidently created the problem by naming the folder “ONCE UPON A TIME..” (notice the 2 dots at the end of the title). It seemed a good idea at the time, you know, instead of writing the whole title….boy was I wrong. I´m not so computer savvy so I went looking on the net for a solution. I tried FileAssassin, File&Folder Unlocker, MoveonBoot etc, etc, etc. I was getting obsessive about it (I don´t like to give up!!!). Most of the suggested solutions worked if your computer recognises the existance of the cursed folder, but in my case it said the location (folder) didn´t exist, or that it had “no handle”. I tried ChckDisc but it came up clean and the folder wouldn´t budge. I tried Safe Mode, i tried overwriting with another folder (unamed and with the same name)…no joy. It wouldn´t let me move it or change it´´s name. In properties it confirmed “0 bytes”, and I also confirmed it wasn´t being used by any other program. I scanned with anti-virus, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Threat Fire, just to make absolutely sure I hadn´t somehow picked up a rootkit or virus/spyware. All clean. Some of the suggested actions I found on the internet filled my trembling heart with more fear of disaster than is healthy and I didn´t dare try them (“Avenger” for example). Some of them seemed too damned complicated to follow.
    Then, just 20 minutes ago, I found your explanation, clearly and simply written…and better than your explanation, your solution, also clearly written. I followed your instructions carefully and…..(drum roll)…it´s gone!!!!! So unless it comes back on my next reboot, I´m so happy I could have your children!! (not literally). Just want you to know that I´m really , really grateful and thank you once again.
    Best Wishes.

  215. little_big_man on

    Thank you very much!

  216. Steve Tomlinson on

    Excellent guide.

    I had a few annoying files accumulaling.When you can’t get a file to behave the way you want it to do it canbriefly take over your life.LOL.

    thanks for the great work

  217. Frank B on

    Thank you much!! That worked for a file i had which had a blank space at the end!

  218. srini on

    open command prompt.then select the in which the file you want to delete is placed.use dir command.use the tab key to select the file u want to delete.then add a word del in front of the file name n press enter.give yes.your file will be deleted

  219. srini on

    open command prompt.then select drive the in which the file you want to delete is placed.use dir command.use the tab key to select the file u want to delete.then add a word del in front of the file name n press enter.give yes.your file will be deleted

  220. srini on

    open command prompt.then select the drive in which the file you want to delete is placed.use dir command.use the tab key to select the file u want to delete.then add a word del in front of the file name n press enter.give yes.your file will be deleted

  221. noel on

    thx for the post – google helped me find you and I had a folder with a space on the end of the filename and the command prompt thing helped.

  222. Clay on

    PAY ATTENTION TO BACKSLASHES AND QUOTE MARKS. THESE ARE VITAL TO MAKING THIS WORK. BUT IT DOES WORK. I HAD TO TRY FIVE OR TEN TIMES TO GET ALL OF THE BACKSLASHES AND QUOTE MARKS IN THE PROPER PLACE. BUT THEN AGAIN, I AM SLOW. THANKS FOR THE SOLUTION. THIS WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY!

  223. greciu on

    thanks a lot man…

  224. Jake on

    Im getting the same error message, but my file doesnt end in a “.” I’m copying a file called “trance around the world.mp3″ and pasting it into my phones memory.

    I know it definatly has enough space, but for some reason it’s refusing to do it :(

  225. kkw on

    Unlocker! FTW!

  226. Carol on

    My only additional suggestion is that you go to Properties to make sure you have the exact file name. The file name I was trying to delete was “Fwd_ FW_ Transplant…..” On the first ten tries, I did not realize there were *spaces* in the file name! If you right click on the file and select “Properties”, you can copy and paste the exact file name from the top box into Word, write your command there, and then copy and paste it into DOS. Worked like a charm once I had the correct file name!

  227. Ryan G on

    HOLY SMOKIN CRAPPITY CRAP CRAP…lol thank you sooo much..i recently re-installed my o\s just to be rid of a pesky file that didnt finish downloading and remained as an undeletable file in my dl folder…finally figured it out with lots of help from here and a couple links posted here…i can now officially help others with step by step instructions to completely remove those files…one way or another i will help anyone who asks for it , long as i get the emails from this site…thanks to all and ill continue the chain of helping!!!

  228. Ryan G on

    And no..i wont get u to reinstall windows to fix ur issue when i help haha…i had to delete a second one recently on my new system and got rid of it through the command prompt…i tried everything and finally got it to be gone so dont fear…HELP IS HERE!!

    • Carolin on

      I tried the syntax above for the removal of folder to which I receive a response “Are you sure ? and reply Y, only to have a succession of errors that the system cannot find the file specified.
      This followed by “The filename, directory name, or volume label is incorrect”
      Is it Operator error?
      I assume since I receive the positive response, that the syntax is correct.
      These are all peculiar symbols for file names, that I can’t replicate. Unlocker has not worked. I’ll try MoveON next.

  229. matty on

    i had a music file that canceled during download, its left a part file on my desktop and wouldnt move, i used the command prompt function and it worked perfect, thanks (Y)

  230. Ritesh Bisu Mishi on

    Thanks a lot. At last i could delete this irritating file on my desktop and it saved me from reformatting my system over again. Nice suggestion

  231. shashi on

    thanks a lot.. totally awesome.. i had an ugly file for years and the only option seemed like formatting the disk..
    thanks a for a making my day…

  232. Ravi on

    Thanks a ton for posting this article. I am indebted to you. I lost sleep for 1 day due to this “cannot read from the source file or disk” error. The suprising thing is, this dot named folder was created by Microsoft webcast website when I tried to download its presentation in live meeting format. You are smarter than the MS guys :)

  233. spatial on

    I had a Safari shortcut that had that “cannot read …”. I was trying to delete it via the method at the top of the screen but it wasn’t appearing in the cmd window. To solve this I changed the attributes of the file to “Hidden” then hit F5 to refresh the page and all of a sudden I could delete it. Weird, I’m blaming apple!

  234. savan on

    hey when i try to paste the bad file name in command prompt it gets paste and ia am getting continous beep from my cpu and when i press enter it returns to the normal prompt but the file wont deletes again

    • Carolin on

      I have had success finally, with Error-checking on disk properties. (Select Drive, right click> Properties> Tools>, select both Check disk options > Start. My bogus files were on external drive, and this worked simply and beautifully, since I had been unable to reproduce file / folder names (hieroglyphics) from CMD line. Folders and files are gone, and able to delete folder from drive. yippee

  235. savan on

    thank u finally i deleted them using del *.*\a command i lost other files with them but atleast i got rid of those files thank u

  236. Cannot delete folder on

    [...] is an easier way to do this. At the Command Prompt, type a \? before the file or folder path. This will allow you [...]

  237. mentor on

    Thank you very much.

    Finally simple and elegant way to clean the annoying files.

  238. Dave on

    Thanks! I had a folder with a space at the end…

  239. watwat on

    THANKS. I had a folder with space at the end in my steam folder and it drove me nuts.

  240. Sapa2ler on

    THANKS. Finally, I can delete that annoying file on my office pc desktop….

  241. Pramod on

    Err! in my case

    D:\websites\Hub>rd imagegallery
    Access is denied.

    D:\websites\Hub>rd /s “\\?\d:\websites\hub\imagegallery”
    \\?\d:\websites\hub\imagegallery, Are you sure (Y/N)? y
    Access is denied.

    Its happening on a Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. Can you please help me with this.

  242. joeboxertbf on

    thanks guys this method really worked and is very effective
    I did it in command prompt to take out a self made folder from
    program files

  243. Nick Ng on

    Thank you very much…

    My problem finally solved by using “Unlocker” program,
    since the Japanese character cannot paste completely into command prompt, the problem of “The system cannot find the file specified.” continue exist..

  244. PI1960 on

    In my external hard drive “G” I found a lot of files with symbols and future dates reading 12/16/2036. All the files are empty and look like the following: 9hÜ{ë.m╝

    I cannot delete them keep getting error code: Cannot delete file: cannot read from the source file or disk.

    There are a couple of hundred of these files in my external hard drive. How can I remove them? I tried the “Unlocker” program but it says their not locked and when I delete them they’re still there. I would apppreciate if you can help me.

  245. Eli on

    Thanks a lot!
    It really workes!
    Finally I succeeded to delete these annoying files.

  246. Rob on

    Wow, how silly of windows. Thank you so much for helping me fix this!.

  247. Adam on

    When I put my code into the command prompt (Start > Run)”
    del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\CA6FKTS5.”

    Then click Ok, a browser spawns and tries to open http://del/ which of course can’t be found. I just can’t seem to execute a dos command from the command prompt…

    Am I being a dumbass, or there something else?

  248. Adam on

    Ok, I’m a schmo, but, I still put it into the actual command prompt window (Start -> Run -> CMD (enter)) — I paste it in there:

    del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\CA6FKTS5.”

    And it says:

    C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Admin
    istrator\Desktop\CA6FKTS5.”

    Could Not Find \\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\CA6FKTS5.

    Any ideas?

  249. sean on

    Very neat trick :-) Thanks indeed for the information!

  250. Manzoor on

    Thankkkkk you very much….

    It worked wonders for me…the command worked and I was able to delete a file which was showing hell…thanks for your expert advice and I would give you a hug if you were beside me…Thanks again….

    Manzoor

  251. Steven Gardiner on

    That worked great–and the instructions were clear enough that even a command line phobic person such as myself could do it. Thanks!

  252. rutvi on

    thanks a lot …..

    :)

  253. Greg on

    Thank you very much, worked like a charm!

  254. Lloyd on

    You nailed the problem!!! My file ending in “.” was within several nested directories. The “\\?\” approach didn’t work… and I tried many combinations. HOWEVER, just using rmdir /s worked perfectly (just naming the top directory)! THANKS AGAIN!

  255. Sam on

    Hey, so I looked over this post for quite a while and my file was not going away. So this is what I came up with:

    Every time I would type in the del “\\?\E:… it would say that the file was unable to be located (even when I would copy and paste the extension directory, so I knew I had it right). I even would tab through the entire directory so as to be extremely accurate. Nothing seemed to work.

    By the way, this file was on a flash/thumb drive and was formerly/caused by a corrupt .docx file (a.k.a. ms word 2007).

    So I ended up using the “rd /s “\\?\” command and deleting the entire folder it was in. Well, it worked. Here is what it looked like when I typed it into command prompt:

    rd /s “\\?\E:\—school—\—-Fall 2009—-\Marketing (sales) 3200\Homework

    pressed enter, and…. good by folder! the corrupt file was reading 1.2gb on a 4gb flash drive. How STUPID! But now it is gone and am glad I ran into this post. Also glad to find there are others with similar problems and im not just an idiot.

    Hope this helps

  256. Mike on

    I’ve never left a comment on a blog before. I generally try to stay away from them because of the risky advice and, let’s just say, poor attitudes often encountered. However, I’ve been fighting a plethora of computer issues for over a week now. The latest was a corrupted Recycle Bin where I found I couldn’t delete 321Mb of Symantec files. I’m so grateful for stumbling across this link that I’m breaking my rule (“More of a guideline than a rule, actually.”) and saying, “Thank you.” I don’t know how many times I, too, have struggled with this issue.

    Also, allow me to say that, although I didn’t read all the posts, I found the inputs, attitudes, and egos to be wonderfully different from those other blogs to which I referred.

    Thanks, again.

  257. Tim on

    Duncan, you are a god among men. Thank you for this post, it fixed a suuuuper annoying problem I had.

  258. Stella on

    Thank you so much. I’ve had this annoying file on my desktop for MONTHS! Now it’s gone. Hurrah!

  259. Paulo on

    Thanks, it worked. It should be noted tough, that even in DOS prompt, I got the message “the system can’t find the specified folder… blah, blah, blah…”. When I looked again where it was, it had simply vanished. Let me tell you, every passing day I think more and more that computing is modern day magic.

  260. Rui on

    Download this program: http://baixaki.ig.com.br/download/unlocker.htm
    When finish install one new option in your windows right button of the mouse will be showed.
    click whit right button of the mouse in the file that you need and select the action.
    This program is perfect and very easy to use.
    tanks
    Rui from Brazil. sorry by the my worst English

  261. Afshin on

    thanks so much!

    I also had a few files which I had downloaded and they had a space at the end of extension, so like they were 4-char extensions, and I could not get rid of them. removing them from the DOS prompt worked at the very first time!

    I was lazy so I used the “del” command using the confirmation mode (/p) and confirmed “y” when it came to those files. Thanks again! I am happy tonight.

  262. sam on

    Hey thanks alot … This thing was bugging me for the last 3 days, atlast! Thanks alot..

  263. ETM on

    What if I have over 600 .DS_Store files on a server, in many different folders that I want to delete. Is there an easy way or will I have to go to each folder individually to delete them?

  264. Jon Swerens on

    I had some folders that ended in spaces and question marks. The “rd” command line deleted them with no trouble!

    And the tab-until-your-file name-appears trick sure was helpful when I couldn’t tell exactly what trailing character I was dealing with. Thanks!

  265. JMPD on

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!

  266. Mahdi on

    THank you, you helped me so much.

  267. Darlene on

    This worked like a charm! Thank you SO much!

  268. jryprt on

    rd /s “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\User\Desktop\Annoying Folder.”
    Worked after I changed User to my user name.
    Thanks been looking for a fix for over a year.

  269. MadMan on

    Just wanted to say Thanks I downloaded unlocker and it worked Thanks for the info..

    All The best

  270. Ibrahim Shah Khan on

    Go to this site: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
    This will definitely help you
    At last i got rid of this Useless file….Unlocker helped me it is the best!!!

  271. Zelta on

    Great thanks a lot!!

  272. Lars on

    It helped me a lot.
    Thank you!

  273. catarina c on

    This application, unlocker, really helped. Thanks a bunch!

  274. Dennis H on

    Try a free program called “Unlocker.” It is not spyware or filled with any virus junk. Great for solving many issues when Windows will not let you control a file. Allows you to release Windows control with useful features and ease. http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

  275. pascolodoro on

    hi :)
    very helpful, thank you for sharing your experience with netizens.

    cheers :)

  276. JK on

    OMG!!! It worked!! Thank you!!!

  277. Sharon on

    It worked – thanks so much for relieving that headache!

  278. tbone on

    Thank you kindly. This was a rather annoying issue for me.

  279. Mike on

    worked perfect, glad i found this post quickly.

  280. glen on

    What a hero!

    I couldn’t log off my pc nor log onto another because of this stupid file.

    I really would have a beer with duncan. Total legend

  281. loran on

    Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!!

  282. Jackhammer on

    Thanks for the \\?\ switch… I have been trying to delete a folder for months and would always get the cannot read from the source file or disk BS. This worked great man.

    Thanks loads!

  283. Linux on

    It doesnot work it says The filename, directory name or volume lable syntax is incorrect

  284. Pragya on

    Thanks Dude!!!
    You are a genius……..
    I been trying it out for several weeks to delete 2 such folders on my laptop but all in vain.Then i searched it on google and was directed to this blog.
    It was so simple that i was amazed…..
    All my headache was gone so easy that i jumped out of my bed.
    Previously i thought that it was a virus or something like that and kept on scanning with all kinds of virus removal tools and the trick was just so simple….
    Hats off to you…..!!!

  285. meadeslemicah on

    Thanks a bunch….that’s the solution i’m looking for. ,,V,^_^,V,,

  286. Peter on

    Thank you so much! I appreciate it! this has been bugging me for a long time now.

  287. HDNUT on

    Thanks it worked

  288. Eleni on

    Thanks a million!!! Had a file that was driving me crazy and now it’s gone!!! Respect!

  289. Christos on

    Very interesting insight into NTFS and Win32 API. However the \\?\ did not work for me. The folders I couldn’t delete had orginated after copying the Favorites folders to my USB drive. I have had this problem many times and have usually resolved by copying all files off and reformatting the drive! The symptoms are: in Explorer or DOS attempts to delete a folder tree \Favorites\e result in the error at the beginning of this post. Folder properties show no security or sharing tabs on either folder. However I resolved it by using DIR /X /S which showed my folder structure was actually “\favor~2\e0256~1″. Using RD with these names allowed me to delete the files. Using \\?\… did not work in this case.
    Many thanks Duncan for focussing me on what the real cause of my problem could be!

  290. Todd on

    Thanks man. I had 2 files I could not delete bcuz they ended with ‘file…..” I had made a backup of my website and a form processor creates a file of the output with no extension that I can read in notepad from FTP. But once I backuped up my site on my computer, and then tried to backup my computer it would stop at these files and would not go any farther. Windows XP would not let me delete or rename the file. Your post worked perfectly to get rid of those files. Again thanks

  291. Question on

    Damn. People seem to get this problem but most people are ignoring it here. And I’ve tried all the ones that have actually tried but to no avail. I have tried everything but nothing works. The file is on my USB and I’ve tried the unlocker and all the \\?\,/s, commands but it still doesn’t work. I just get the same error, Could Not Find blah or when I try to delete the folder: The system cannot find the file specified or filename, directory name, syntax is incorrect. I’ve tried disk checking and I also typed in /a, not sure how that works though. The problem doesn’t seem to be the filenames. At least I’m not sure. One of the files is called IrSPXO~1.PRX and I’ve tried naming another file the exact same thing and I was able to delete it. So what’s the problem here?

  292. Lud Betoven on

    Don’t know how to thank you man. I had couple of files on my Desktop ending with a dot and occupied my work space for months.

    Thanks a bunch!

  293. iambrianrice on

    Oh snap! I’ve been living with a file on my desktop for months. Rather than have a . at the end of the file name, there was a space that I had never noticed.

    Thanks for the direction and the relief.

  294. [...] at the end of a file or a folder name. More information on this issue can be found on this blog here. Take the following steps to rename or delete the affected folder: Open your start menu and move [...]

  295. Random Man on

    I had this problem only I made the mistake if trying to rename so every time I tried to click off it was like OMG NO NAMING THIS FILE and since I had made no note of the name of the file first, I was stuck because every time I clicked off an error popped up. Fixed that by restarting explorer.exe.

  296. Brenda on

    I am having trouble with this fix: del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Brenda\Desktop\Fwd_ Health tip of the day……” but I was unsure of how to open a cmd window and when I did finally open one it looked like this:
    C:\Documents and Settings\Brenda> Is this correct? Do I just paste the fix in like this? C:\Documents and Settings\Brenda>del “\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\Brenda\Desktop\Fwd_ Health tip of the day……” I get the following error when I paste that into the cmd window.

    The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

    When I go to this website: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/ it sets off all kinds of warnings on my computer so I was afraid to proceed. These are the errors that I have received: This website has been reported as unsafe. This website has been reported to Microsoft for containing threats to your computer that might reveal personal or financial information.

    Can someone help?

  297. wim on

    Thanks! After downloading some louche file I ended up with 4 such undeletable files. They were just standing there, doing nothing, anoying me, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

    Thanks for your help.

  298. Brenda on

    Well I am a little slow with things but once I used the tab it finaly worked. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. I have XP and SP3.

  299. D on

    Hi there. I’m a dummy at all of this but I have to get rid of some icons on my desktop that give me that error message when i try to delete or rename them. Where do I type in the “\\?\” ?
    Like I type that before the filename right but how do I get to where I can do that?
    Can someone please walk through it like they’re trying to show their grandma?
    Deep thanks in advance.

  300. D on

    Oh my stars. I’m terribly excited! Someone up there posted a link to a program called Unlocker and it’s deleting those icons just like that. I must go thank him/her!

    I did manage to find out how to open the command prompt window from start>all programs>accessories but alas when i entered the command it told me the “The System Cannot Find the Path Specified”

    But at least Grandma is learning a thing or two.
    And those nasty icons are going just like that.
    Now my husband won’t see a thing!

  301. Ned Edillor on

    Wow!
    thank you so much!
    Finally! i got rid of that stupid annoying file!
    THANKS AGAIN! Salamat.

    ~Ned

  302. Matt on

    Thank you Duncan. \\?\ is the trick I was looking for.

  303. Ang on

    Thats great Duncan… it is working for me using Win XP SP 3.. Thanks a lot.. LOL

  304. Daron on

    Great post. deleted the dot file that was bothering me for a while now.

  305. nightrider on

    THANKS! Great tip.

  306. stefan on

    had a similar problem. //?/ didn’t work, still same error, so I tried del C:\….\temp\*.* . Problem gone :-)

  307. Jenny on

    You rock! I was tasked to delete old home directories that data security could not and these old favorites were kicking my butt. Not anymore!!!
    Thanks

  308. David Barnes on

    One minor point missing for me was to ‘un-hide’ the file(s).
    For me the steps had to be:
    Attrib -H “\\?\D:\My Share\jobfolder xy\subfolder\*.*”
    Del “\\?\D:\My Share\jobfolder xy\subfolder\*.*”

    David Barnes
    Barnes IT Solutions Ltd (BITSolve)
    http://bitsolve.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D0597DCC1B3A70EF!390.entry

  309. Francis on

    OMG! THAT WORKED SPLENDIDLY!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

  310. Sammy on

    Duncan

    Unbelievable

    OH MY GOD

    Thank you. Very much.

    Thanks for your help.

    Thanks, it worked.

  311. Vy on

    Brilliant job. My OCD-like tendencies would not let me sleep until I found a way to delete these pesky files that I had just received via email and would not delete. At last I can go to bed. Thanks very much.

  312. Mikuz on

    Did not work!

    On explorer it says “Cannot read from the source file or disk”

    On cmd, well are some weard characters so I made pic:
    http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3827/cmdm.png

    Someone pluggen my usb stick off when I was copying files >:(
    Help? Anyone?

  313. Niveque Storm on

    Thanks so much for this. My problems was mac files created on a terastation. Between this little hack and that program unlocker that got rid of a problem that has been around for 3 years for me. ROCKIN! PS: My annoying files had extra blank spaces at the end of the file name.

  314. Techbox on

    UNLOCKER worked like a dream. I downloaded it from filehippo, always a good and reliable solution site.
    http://www.filehippo.com/download_unlocker/
    Thanks all

  315. tom on

    hi,

    thanks for that tip.

    very useful.

    regards

    tom

  316. Chris on

    Thank you ever so much. Beer forthcoming separately.

    • Duncan Smart on

      :-)

  317. chris on

    wow i will admit that i was drinking quite a bit but for a minute i thought i was being hacked. i could not get rid of these two files that were .jpg that i got in an email. thank you duncan your command worked perfectly! oh joy! the un-deletable files are gone.

  318. thankful1 on

    man, you’re a genius, thank you very much for your help, keep up the good work, and again thank you

  319. Ralle-USA on

    This solution also works with spaces after file name extensions. Like “annoying_file.jpg “.

    I just couldn’t delete that file the normal way either. Always received the “Cannot read from the source file or disk” error message.

    Thanks man!!!

  320. Mick on

    Tried everything you suggested, but with no luck… and then I found the link to Unlocker and the darned thing is gone! Three days messing with an empty file that was driving me crazy… thanks for all the help in this post.

  321. Jatin on

    I have tried this “ren \\?\e:\win xp tb.bit10.office2007.drivers. 1234.gho” where but the error shown is where 1234.gho is the name which i want to rename it to, the result of the commmand is
    “The syntax of the Command is incorrect”
    Actually the file i have is a 3.6 gb Norton Ghost file which ends with “.”
    i don’t wanna delete this file but only want to rename it.

    Please help me coz even unlocker is also not able to rename it.

  322. Jatin on

    I have tried renaming the file by “ren \\?\e:\win xp tb.bit10.office2007.drivers. 1234.gho”
    the result is
    “The syntax of the Command is incorrect”

    The file i have is a 3.6 gb Norton Ghost file which ends with “.”
    i don’t wanna delete this file but only want to rename it.

    Please help me coz even unlocker is also not able to rename it.

    • Duncan Smart on

      You need to put quotes around the first filename because it has a space in it.

      • Duncan Smart on

        e.g.

        ren “\\?\e:\win xp tb.bit10.office2007.drivers.” 1234.gho

      • Jatin on

        Thank you man………you are a Genius……………..
        thnkxxxxxxxx a lot!!!!!!!!!!

  323. Zoran on

    You are a f***ing genius!!! THANK YOU MAN!!!

  324. Alex on

    [let's try again]

    Hi,

    I am experiencing this same error in MOSS but when I try to rename a file through the explorer view of a document library.

    To let you know, the file has a ‘+’ character, was brought into MOSS through drag and drop in the explorer window and is also part way through a workflow.

    Not knowing the origins of the document can I assume that this is occuring due to the same reason?

    Thanks,
    Alex.

    • Duncan Smart on

      If it’s in SharePoint then ultimately it’s stored in SQL Server so I doubt if the “\\?\” will work as this is an NTFS thing. I’d dig into the underlying SQL tables of your SharePoint site to see if you could fix it there.

  325. David on

    I finally did it. I had no idea what ‘Command Prompt’ was. Haha.

    Thank you SO much. You’re a genius. :)

  326. Thing on

    Like everyone before me, THANK YOU!

  327. Santiago on

    This is great. I had this page bookmarked and I knew I was gonna need it again. I had to look through the comments again to realize my annoying file had a SPACE at the end and not a dot. But once I realized that, I was golden. So to all of you out there that may not be getting this done with the dot, try a space.

    Thanks again!

  328. dude on

    hey can some one e-mail me one of those un-deletable files, i tried to make one but i cant, and i can’t find one to download :( … I JUST WANT TO LOOK AT ONE. thanks.
    —————–
    dude123654789@yahoo.com
    ———————-

  329. Katya on

    bacm\\

    folder will not delete on my desktop “owner\desktop”
    it was created outside of windows xp (fat fingered it)
    cannot delete it in safe mode
    can see the directory in cmd prompt under “all users\desktop”

    when i try to open the folder i get: ….all users\desktop\bacm\ refers to a location that is unavailable….

    try to rd it per your instructions and get “… syntax is incorrect”

  330. hac on

    Thanks a million for the tip.
    You really saved my life. In my case it was not a dot but a space at the end of a folder, which I couldn’t rename or even delete, and it affected the functioning of a server-based application.

  331. Jono on

    Thank you so much Duncan!
    This little file of mine has been bugging me for months!! arr
    I looked everywhere for a solution and it still didn’t work, I tried the whole ending explorer process way and even downloaded some applications to do the job, but nothing
    Same as hac, it was the space at the end, therefore i was typing it wrongly into cmd and to add to my frustration it was a really long name arr you can imagine!!
    anyway thank you so much once more
    This page saved my life

  332. tienzyee on

    Well Duncan,

    Not just you saved those hundreds of people above me from an annoying file but you saved mine + teaching me a new thing in the process.

    The file have been bugging me for months, I tried cmd to rm dir, I tried showing hidden file, I did all I knew till I suspected it as a virus, but thankfully, it turns out that it’s not a virus but file naming confusion?

    Whoever you are, wherever you are, thank you Duncan.

    Vielen Dank,
    tienzyee

  333. AJ on

    Okay, so it found the folder but it says “Are You Sure ?”
    and i’ve tried putting Yes, yes, Y, but NOTHING WORKS. afterwards, it just says “cannot find specified file” or sometihng like that.

  334. Cannot Delete File Solution on

    [...] Command Prompt. If you are not afraid of using that, it works great! Anyhow, Duncan gives pretty clear and concise instructions here even if you aren’t too comfortable with Command Prompt, you can do [...]

  335. Yogi on

    Thanks pal !!! it really helped me to put those annoying files out of my desktop

  336. Yogi on

    and one more thing.. the problem arises not only with files and folders ending with a “.”(dot) it also comes with names ending with a ” “(space).. thanks again

  337. Greg on

    This originally got posted over a year ago, and you’re still helping people on almost a daily basis… that’s pretty amazing! What’s also pretty amazing is that Windows doesn’t support the full range of NTFS, considering MS developed the file system in the first place.

    Well done Duncan, beer is on the way!

    • Duncan Smart on

      Thanks Greg :-)

  338. Julie on

    I have what looks like 243 annoying files on my external hard drive that appeared out of no where and wont let anti virus and malware scans through. Clearly something happened, and they have become corrupted. I read your tip with very high hopes and I will be VERY happy to buy you a beer if you have a further tip for me since when I run from the command line this is the response I get:

    \\?\F:\Movies\Pi\måƒ25Ñ╔Ω. º⌠ – The system cannot find the file specified.
    \\?\F:\Movies\Pi\~-1♫┘╡½è.╥♠z – The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

    I’m on Windows XP with SP3

    Julie

    • Duncan Smart on

      Julie, try the short filename trick mentioned by Keith on September 20, 2008.

      Failing that, it looks like the drive filesystem is corrupt. I would copy all the stuff you want to keep off it to another drive and reformat the bad drive (right click it and choose Format…), and then copy the stuff back.

      HTH, Duncan

  339. Jack on

    Wonderful – have been looking for months to get rid of a directory (empty). I finally discovered it had a rogue character at the end (not a .) but which had the same effect. The ? trick finally did the trick. By the way, I suspect the rogue character was inserted by a Nokia mobile phone!

  340. Saeed on

    Hi,

    Just stumbled across this and wanted to thank you for the great tip.

    Not only have I deleted two annoying locked files, but – due to the fact that these files came from a couple of large corrupt .rar archives – they were hogging around 20Gb of disk space, which I have now reclaimed!!!

    Thanks again!

  341. patricia on

    hello all .
    I tried the command but nothing worked
    C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.SABAHMHANNA>del “\\?\F:\Music\album ▐^^╨
    ó’a.σ`í”
    Could Not Find \\?\F:\Music\album ▐▲╨ó’a.σ`í

    C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.SABAHMHANNA>?
    ‘?’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
    operable program or batch file.

    C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.SABAHMHANNA>rd /s “\\?\F:\Music\album”
    \\?\F:\Music\album, Are you sure (Y/N)? y
    \\?\F:\Music\album\ù Yh3S⌂τ._ßπ – The system cannot find the file specified.
    \\?\F:\Music\album\ó2▌╒m0ä┬.ï≤¶ – The filename, directory name, or volume label
    syntax is incorrect.

    • Duncan Smart on

      Patricia, try the short filename trick mentioned by Keith on September 20, 2008.

  342. Nathan on

    I have the same problem with the error message,

    however its on my usb flash drive…. :|

  343. Tamie on

    Urgh! Not working.
    Tried to delete the files via Windows Explorer. Got the “cannot read…” message.
    Tried to rename files. Same message.
    Cannot move, cannot copy, cannot do anything.
    Tried the solution given by the author of this page. The files cannot be found.

    So I went and moved all files out of that folder EXCEPT those to be deleted, and then attempted del *.* in the command prompt.
    That didn’t work; I received a lot of “syntax not correct” errors…and one file not found.
    Tried to go up one level and just delete that folder; same problem.

    Attributes didn’t seem to make a difference, whether in WinExplorer or the Command Prompt.
    (By the way, there are 12 files I need to get rid of, at least seven of which have the faded icon that indicates hidden or system files; but even with hidden or system files showing, Command Prompt only showed 6 total.)

    Tried Unlocker. It said it deleted the files; they’re still in there.
    Tried the deleter from Cobian Backup utility….
    I don’t remember the message I got, but those files are still there.

    Tried opening in Notepad and saving as a new, deletable file. Syntax not correct.

    What else am I missing?

    About the only solution I can come up with at this point is to backup everything I WANT to keep and reformat the disk (it’s a flash drive, so it’s not as big a deal as it would be if it were the computer, but still….)
    Help, please?

    • Duncan Smart on

      Tamie, try the short filename trick mentioned by Keith on September 20, 2008.

  344. [...] Had a big problem deleting files that emule created, tried check-disk tried safe mode, nothing helped… until I found this article: http://blog.dotsmart.net/2008/06/12/solved-cannot-read-from-the-source-file-or-disk/ [...]

  345. Carlos on

    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Had a dozen jpg files that my Father downloaded on his desktop that I could not get rid of till I read this article. Took awhile but that’s cause I had not used a command prompt in years and forgot to put a space after del

  346. sunil on

    this is cool..it worked and i was able to delete files from my desktop

  347. Ren on

    nice ty paps >:D

  348. Brian on

    o m g thankyousomuch

    Was able to delete 3 annoying files from my desktop. Hooray for the interweb and the intelligent people on it.

  349. Debbie on

    Thank you sooo much for posting this! I was about to try reinstalling Windows to get rid of those files on my desktop after having tried so many other things to delete them!

  350. Jimmy on

    This guy deserves some kinda award-Thank You! Seriously right now im imagining all the people that have used this to help solve their problem and the combined relief- how do you measure relief, in tons right!? The best part, typical of computers the solution is more simple than the problem and right under the nose. I mean the command prompt, who is gonna discover this problem of “undeletable” files and think right away, i could definitely fix this with cmd. It wouldnt have mattered much, i have basic understanding of dos (havent messed with in years) and even less of cmd but i wouldve never figured out the prefixing for this on my own. Again, Thank You!

  351. Cossu on

    i have a problem with a fil called êV4  from my MicroSD and i can’t seem to be able to write êV4  in my Command Prompt… any ideas?

  352. Kapitan Kosmos on

    Thanks a lot Duncan. Couldn’t do it for around a month… Great Stuff :)

  353. Iggie mann on

    Thank you for this tip! BEST TIP EVER!!! Been stuck with some legacy files forever and this was the only way to squash it!

    Thanks!

  354. NetSoul on

    Hi, Everybody .. thanks for your posts…

  355. Kent on

    Here is an easy way for deleting files that don’t have an extension or end with … or has a space after the period. Take your desktop and copy all the files except the one you want to delete to a new folder. Then go into the c:\ prompt, and go to your desktop C:\documents and settings\owner\desktop

    Then just find the file you want to delete. Make sure there are no other files in the folder and then type C:\del X.*

    X= the first letter of the file e.g. if the file is:
    Superman-flies… then type C:\del S.*

    Or of course if you are sure there are no other files then you can type del *.*

    Then go to the temp folder you created and move all your files back to your desktop, and then delete the temp folder.

    It worked for me!

  356. John on

    Great hint!!!

  357. chris on

    Thanks guys so much. I have had a damn file for over 2 yrs and unable to delete. The DOS method did not work, but unlocker did the job. Thanks again.

  358. goran on

    Thank you so much. Cheers :)

  359. Larry on

    “Error Deleting File or Folder – Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk“. I get this error when trying to delete files from a flash drive that is on a GPS the files have names like (+si+_5-.C(+ I have try cleaning software but it can not access the flash drive it dose not have a drive letter but looks like a folder with the name My flash disk. I have tried to move the files, to rename them but no success. Thanks for any help I get….

    • Duncan Smart on

      Copy any data you want to keep off it then reformat it (assuming you don’t want the misnamed files)…

  360. tahir on

    good way to get rid of annoying folder. thanks.

  361. Karen on

    Thanks dude!!! Worked perfectly.

  362. officejedi on

    I’m trying to move files from one share to another ..and a bunch with the spaces and .’s in the file names will not copy or move …

    do not want to delete , as we need these files, but what would work to just move them to another file share?

    thanks

  363. sms on

    Thank you very much…

  364. Anonymous62265 on

    Thank you. Worked first try. Was driving me crazy til I found your fix.

  365. bgbg85 on

    Hey Author of this awesome blog ! This solution worked great ! Thanks alot !

  366. troy on

    thanks bro.. it works

  367. zulu on

    thanks all internet legends.. got rid of annoying file with this fix.

  368. teil on

    Hey, THANKS a million!
    Got the file from an email attachment, which was indeed generated by Mac. Didn’t know what’s wrong with the file, didn’t know what to do with the file. Now, clean world returned after following your proc!
    Happy New Year!

  369. Aleksandar on

    This is great,BUT there is easyer way to do that,just download and install unlocer(to download it search on google unlocker,and download it from filehippo.com)after doing that,right click on the folder,or file that you want to delete,and click on “unlocker” after that select action “delete” click “ok” and BAM youre done :)

  370. chiemartin on

    Works perfectly! Thanks!

  371. premo on

    You have just freed me from a 3 year burden I thank you kind sage. Unlocker has done nothing for me. Nothing I tell you

  372. mariachipr on

    Thanks, you’re a genius.

  373. martin on

    thanks very much, you helped me on this issue, clear and concise, 10/10

    have a good day

  374. Midge on

    I know this is an old subject, but I just ran into this problem today with a file that I had that ended in a “.” I tried everything I could think of to get rid of this stupid thing…but to no avail.

    I want to thank you, Duncan…your solution worked like a charm. I am so glad there are smart people like you out there to help “techno-challenged” people like me!

    Thanks again!

  375. oesoep tjhai on

    Great! It worked . Thanks!!

  376. David on

    Great Solution – been bugging me and today stopped a data migration project in its tracks.

    Thanks,

    -unlocker is for a totally different set of circumstances Alex

  377. Leddo on

    Yeah same here, old prob, but still a very current solution.

    I came across a situation where I had spaces at the end of the folder name on a win 2008 server.

    I had to do rd \\?\”fullpath to directory”

    note the \\?\ was outside of the ” ” bit.

    Thanks again.

    • Duncan Smart on

      Interesting!

  378. me on

    you are my hero of the day!

  379. JR on

    Thks for the UNLOCKER site…..works like a charm….months unable to get rid of file on my desktop…..it is now gone….this is a great place…..lots of great great info.
    once again thks.

  380. David on

    Yeah, it’s not working for me. I put the exact path into the command prompt and it keeps saying it cannot find the path specified.

    Hate my computer. I’m setting it on fire when I get a new one.

  381. Shana on

    it worked for me . . . i struggled for 2 damn years – thx 4 the heads up

  382. Lesley on

    Thank you for this. That file has haunted me for weeks. I’m afraid I can’t afford to buy you a beer but I just wanted to know how much you are appreciated.

  383. Wendy on

    You are an angel, I have been trying to remove some annoying folders for over 6 months now and thanx to you I now got it right.

  384. Russell on

    Thank you so much! This solution is fantastic for anyone using Dropbox across Apple OS and Windows. How has an explanation this clear not made it into my search queries for the past year? I don’t know what a beer costs in Abingdon, but I made an estimate. Cheers.

    • Duncan Smart on

      Thanks Russell – much appreciated :-)

  385. Anex on

    Scanned the Program Unlocker with multiple netbot/malware scans. Nothing found and worked like a charm, of course, not making the same mistake I uninstalled it after use.

    Was trying to delete a remote manipulation of two ports from a trojan virus called ‘Owner.’ Couldn’t use command prompt to take care of it, no matter how long I tried, but it did provide more information about the commandprompt which is always usefull, thank you.

  386. silvr on

    [Torrentsworld.net] – Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince DVDScr XviD-PUKKA.torrent

    above is the file that i am unable to delete from months….
    its of 0 bytes…..
    the msg comes as
    can’t delete the file…can’t read from the source or disc…

    what should i do…
    plz help…

  387. silvr on

    plz help

  388. Arun.A on

    hi all,
    i tried deleting a file named “CAMJIRMP.” i am not able to delete it since its showing
    “cannot delete file: cannot read file from disk”

    help me….

  389. Navin on

    Thanks a lot!! Was breaking my head for almost a day… It worked exactly the way it said. Thanks Again!!

  390. Fadi on

    Thank you
    This has been troubling me for 6 months

  391. Fadi on

    to Arun.A

    as our genious friend here who owe many thanks to described the process.

    You need to CD (change directory) to reach there, and check if it is a FILE or a FOLDER
    & follow our great friend advice

    Trust me it works

  392. Snoopy on

    Bravo, this works for me.
    Thx.

  393. cmcculloh on

    Amazing. Thank you so much for posting this!

  394. [...] didn't work, but at least it didn't re-backup files already backed up. After deleting several files that were causing it to fail (had to go to the command line for these, … I again tried the backup. This time it failed on UsrClass.dat (see the actual error [...]

  395. Michael on

    This worked great, and on XP sp3.

    I have been trying to figure out how to get rid of 8 Gig of recycle data that Norton left for unerase function, that it did not remove itself, files that were 5 years old.

    Dropped a donation in your beer fund, it was worth getting room back on my C drive.

    • Duncan Smart on

      Much appreciated Michael, thanks!

  396. Lenny Gray on

    Another wrinkle which was necessary for me to get rid of mine:

    Mine was an evil directory, with contents, on XP, and didn’t respond to the method suggested.

    Eventually it occurred to me to isolate it in its own directory and use /s on that parent directory. I first looked at the contents with:
    dir /s “\\?\d:\o\parent”
    and then rmdir’ed it with:
    rmdir /s “\\?\d:\o\parent”


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