To Force Delete A Folder/File

Description:

I don’t know why this keeps coming up, but I have the hardest time deleting files/folders sometimes despite using Unlocker and FileAssasin. Follow these steps to work on issues like these.

To Resolve:

1. First navigate to the directory in Windows Explorer. Hold down CTRL + Right click => Open Command Window here. You may have to close that CMD prompt and open CMD as administrator.

2. Type:

   rmdir (foldername) /s 
   :: Gives error
   
   del *.* 
   :: Gives error
   
   takeown /f (foldername) /r /d y 
   :: Gives error
   

3. Since those don’t work, lets try doing it running as NTAUTHORITY\SYSTEM: type

   :: NOTE: This assumes you have PSTools installed and added to your PATH variable.
   psexec -sid cmd.exe
   
   whoami 
   :: Should return system
   :: Try step 2 again, still no go
   

   • You used to be able to run:

   at 11:10 /interactive cmd.exe
   :: Where 11:10 is the current time (HH:MM 24 hour) plus 1 minute.
   :: The /interactive switch has been depreciated though.
   

4. Right click each file with the Unlocker windows explorer extension => Delete on next reboot. This works!

5. If you have a “path too long” error, just type:

   robocopy c:\empty C:\deleteme /purge
   :: NOTE: This will delete that folder (c:\deleteme) and all subfolders for you!