Can't delete 0 byte file, with no file type

I’ve got a file that appears to exist, but when I try & delete it I
get: “Cannot delete …. Cannot find the specified file”. I created it
as a.txt with a long-ish file name (76 chars) as a reminder, but it
now has no extension & is zero bytes. I can’t open it and the
properties doesn’t give me much info.

It’s on a drive (h that’s sync’d to a network and only appears when
I’m not connected to the network. This makes it difficult to use
things like ccleaner, deletefxpfiles, chkdsk etc.

I’ve tried deleting it from a command line (tells me it doesn't exist)
in safe mode (couldn't log on) deleting the folder and a bunch of
other things … but no joy.

Any ideas?

Michael

<michaeld121@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:7f3400a0-e49c-4eca-a8ef-3ec87c3214cc@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
I’ve got a file that appears to exist, but when I try & delete it I
get: “Cannot delete …. Cannot find the specified file”. I created it
as a.txt with a long-ish file name (76 chars) as a reminder, but it
now has no extension & is zero bytes. I can’t open it and the
properties doesn’t give me much info.

It’s on a drive (h that’s sync’d to a network and only appears when
I’m not connected to the network. This makes it difficult to use
things like ccleaner, deletefxpfiles, chkdsk etc.

I’ve tried deleting it from a command line (tells me it doesn't exist)
in safe mode (couldn't log on) deleting the folder and a bunch of
other things … but no joy.

Any ideas?

Michael

*** *** ***


Does the phantom file have a name?

You might try creating a text file in Notepad and then saving it with the
same name as the unwanted file. Hopefully, this will bring up a dialog box
which says:

H:\DirectoryName\TextFile already exists. Do you want to replace it? YES/NO.

If you get this far, click YES.

Now maybe you can delete the phantom file which has been replaced by a real
file.

On May 28, 5:31*pm, "One Shot Scot" <so...@gun.com> wrote:
> Does the phantom file have a name?
>
> You might try creating a text file in Notepad and then saving it with the
> same name as the unwanted file. Hopefully, this will bring up a dialog box
> which says:
>
> H:\DirectoryName\TextFile already exists. Do you want to replace it? YES/NO.
>
> If you get this far, click YES.
>
> Now maybe you can delete the phantom file which has been replaced by a real
> file.

Yes it does have a name - 76 chars long, but with no file extension at
the end.

I've gave your (useful) suggestion a go - but still no joy. I got the
same error message I normally get (ie "Cannot find the specified
file...").

It's weird as when I go to the folder from a cmd line & type DIR it
shows the file (at 0 bytes) and the creation date & time. However
when I use DEL (or anything else) to try and get rid of it - it then
tells me "The system cannot find the file specified."

It almost seems like there's some metadata somewhere that thinks
something exists, although it doesn't.

Michael

michaeld121@hotmail.com wrote:
> On May 28, 5:31 pm, "One Shot Scot" <so...@gun.com> wrote:
>> Does the phantom file have a name?
>>
>> You might try creating a text file in Notepad and then saving it with the
>> same name as the unwanted file. Hopefully, this will bring up a dialog box
>> which says:
>>
>> H:\DirectoryName\TextFile already exists. Do you want to replace it? YES/NO.
>>
>> If you get this far, click YES.
>>
>> Now maybe you can delete the phantom file which has been replaced by a real
>> file.
>
> Yes it does have a name - 76 chars long, but with no file extension at
> the end.
>
> I've gave your (useful) suggestion a go - but still no joy. I got the
> same error message I normally get (ie "Cannot find the specified
> file...").
>
> It's weird as when I go to the folder from a cmd line & type DIR it
> shows the file (at 0 bytes) and the creation date & time. However
> when I use DEL (or anything else) to try and get rid of it - it then
> tells me "The system cannot find the file specified."
>
> It almost seems like there's some metadata somewhere that thinks
> something exists, although it doesn't.
>
> Michael
Try dir /x
it should give you the short name. Try using DEL on that name.

Does the file exist in a sub-directory of another folder ? ( Not in
the Root folder of the Drive ). If so, Use Windows Explorer to
move ( Drag and Drop ) the file into the Root Folder and then
try to delete it. Also from a Command Prompt try to remove the
file by using Quotation marks around the path/filename.

<michaeld121@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a028c649-92d2-4691-9545-48444ea91e88@p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
On May 28, 5:31 pm, "One Shot Scot" <so...@gun.com> wrote:
> Does the phantom file have a name?
>
> You might try creating a text file in Notepad and then saving it with the
> same name as the unwanted file. Hopefully, this will bring up a dialog box
> which says:
>
> H:\DirectoryName\TextFile already exists. Do you want to replace it?
> YES/NO.
>
> If you get this far, click YES.
>
> Now maybe you can delete the phantom file which has been replaced by a
> real
> file.

Yes it does have a name - 76 chars long, but with no file extension at
the end.

I've gave your (useful) suggestion a go - but still no joy. I got the
same error message I normally get (ie "Cannot find the specified
file...").

It's weird as when I go to the folder from a cmd line & type DIR it
shows the file (at 0 bytes) and the creation date & time. However
when I use DEL (or anything else) to try and get rid of it - it then
tells me "The system cannot find the file specified."

It almost seems like there's some metadata somewhere that thinks
something exists, although it doesn't.

Michael

On May 28, 6:04*pm, Big Al <Bi...@nowhere.com> wrote:

> Try dir /x
> it should give you the short name. *Try using DEL on that name.- Hide quoted text -
>


Thanks. I tried dir /x and it did giveme the short name
(ADDTOM~1.TXT). I then tired using DEL, but got the same error as
before: "The system cannot find the file specified."

I got the same results when I tried REN and various other alternatives
with wildcards

Michael

Have you tried right clicking, rename change the name to something shorter
and add the .txt extension.


<michaeld121@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a028c649-92d2-4691-9545-48444ea91e88@p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
On May 28, 5:31 pm, "One Shot Scot" <so...@gun.com> wrote:
> Does the phantom file have a name?
>
> You might try creating a text file in Notepad and then saving it with the
> same name as the unwanted file. Hopefully, this will bring up a dialog box
> which says:
>
> H:\DirectoryName\TextFile already exists. Do you want to replace it?
> YES/NO.
>
> If you get this far, click YES.
>
> Now maybe you can delete the phantom file which has been replaced by a
> real
> file.

Yes it does have a name - 76 chars long, but with no file extension at
the end.

I've gave your (useful) suggestion a go - but still no joy. I got the
same error message I normally get (ie "Cannot find the specified
file...").

It's weird as when I go to the folder from a cmd line & type DIR it
shows the file (at 0 bytes) and the creation date & time. However
when I use DEL (or anything else) to try and get rid of it - it then
tells me "The system cannot find the file specified."

It almost seems like there's some metadata somewhere that thinks
something exists, although it doesn't.

Michael

On May 28, 8:58*pm, michaeld...@hotmail.com wrote:
> I’ve got a file that appears to exist, but when I try & delete it I
> get: “Cannot delete …. Cannot find the specified file”. *I createdit
> as a.txt with a long-ish file name (76 chars) as a reminder, but it
> now has no extension & is zero bytes. I can’t open it and the
> properties doesn’t give me much info.
>
> It’s on a drive (h that’s sync’d to a network and only appears when
> I’m not connected to the network. This makes it difficult to use
> things like ccleaner, deletefxpfiles, chkdsk etc.
>
> I’ve tried deleting it from a command line (tells me it doesn't exist)
> in safe mode (couldn't log on) deleting the folder and a bunch of
> other things … but no joy.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Michael

Have you tried using DelinvFile.exe available in
http://dl10.filekicker.net/private/$adv-rgn3$1212082938$f0252b24b6b5d62591e6e3598a3d137b$/id/$FK29722$172697-LWGI$/cache/609e29cde4166c5f06656bd844f3361e8318a24dfd44f6ed27 ff20fe69d2f8cc1466cb7d203d0d/delinvfile.zip
from http://www.purgeie.com/delinv/dldelinv.htm ?
I have successfully used the older completely free version several
times. It says on the web site that the current version has retained
as "free" all the features of the older version, but you have to pay
to get additional features.

I had a similar problem with an undeletable file and I fixed it by
restoring a file over it with a file that I created with the same name
using Acronis True Image.


Instructions:

1. Create a text file and write in it a couple of letters
2. Save that file in your root drive (C: for example) with the
same exact name and extension as the file you want to delete
3. Now make a backup your new file (I used Acronis True Image)
4. Open your backup program and restore the file you created to
the folder where the undeletable file is, overwriting it
4. Now you can delete it!
5. Run chkdsk


ju.c


<michaeld121@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:7f3400a0-e49c-4eca-a8ef-3ec87c3214cc@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

> I’ve got a file that appears to exist, but when I try & delete it I
> get: “Cannot delete …. Cannot find the specified file”. I created it
> as a.txt with a long-ish file name (76 chars) as a reminder, but it
> now has no extension & is zero bytes. I can’t open it and the
> properties doesn’t give me much info.
>
> It’s on a drive (h that’s sync’d to a network and only appears when
> I’m not connected to the network. This makes it difficult to use
> things like ccleaner, deletefxpfiles, chkdsk etc.
>
> I’ve tried deleting it from a command line (tells me it doesn't exist)
> in safe mode (couldn't log on) deleting the folder and a bunch of
> other things … but no joy.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Michael

michaeld121@hotmail.com wrote on Wed, 28 May 2008:

>It's weird as when I go to the folder from a cmd line & type DIR it
>shows the file (at 0 bytes) and the creation date & time. However
>when I use DEL (or anything else) to try and get rid of it - it then
>tells me "The system cannot find the file specified."

Hi Michael

Instead of typing DIR at the command line, try DIR /X . This should show
you two names for the rogue file; the normal one and a "short name"
usually consisting of the first 6 letters of the file name, a tilde (~)
and a number. Try deleting it using the short name.

--
Nightowl