Need help with an undeletable folder.

[flomtl]

attrib -R -A -S -H H:\Florian\Backup\Pictures\NewJersey\*.*

says: file not found.

del H:\Florian\Backup\Pictures\NewJersey\*.*

says : not enough storage space is available to process this command

rd H:\Florian\Backup\Pictures\NewJersey

says: the directory is not empty.

so i guess the only option left is to call up SimpleTech.

[Broni]

Since we still have a few hours until tomorrow, try this:
Leave the command line window on the desktop, open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), and kill all explorer.exe tasks. Your desktop will go blank, except for the windows already open.
Now try to delete the offending folder with rd H:\Florian\Backup\Pictures\NewJersey
After that, in the command line window enter:
explorer
to restart your desktop.
If you closed the command line window, you can still restart explorer by opening the Task Manager by holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys and briefly pressing the Esc key. In Task Manager select Applications, New Task and enter: explorer

[flomtl]

tried it. same as always. directory is not empty...

so what exactly do i ask simpletech?
I need to find out who manufactures the Harddrives that they have inside the product i own?

[Broni]

Exactly. If, it's their own product (I doubt), do they have any diagnostic tool?

[mcxeb52!]

It's a folder you want to delete right? Can you move that folder to a different drive and delete if from there?

For example. you have a USB stick or something and I wonder if there would be error if you moved folder in question to the USB stick or wheverever else you decided to send the folder to.

[flomtl]

@mcxeb52!

i moved the folder to the drive on my computer. but the folder was simply an empty folder called "NewJersey"

so no there was no error when moving it. however. when you move a folder from one drive to another it simply copies it. so now i just have to of them. The one on my D drive i can delete but the one on my H drive (the undeletabel one on the external hardrive) i cannot.

now i tried cut and paste into a differnet drive. this gives me the error that the directory is not empty then simply creates an empty folder called NewJersey on my new drive and leaves the original on the external.

@Broni
alright ill do that tomorow. and i know they dont have a diagnostic tool cause ive looked for it and i saw some peoples reviews of the drive and it was one of their cons...
anyways ill call them up tomorow and post what i find out.

[mcxeb52!]

Now I'm wondering, what happens if you save all the stuff you need out of the external drive (excluding that folder you want to delete) AND just format the external drive? Would the folder go away as expected?

[flomtl]

Well ive tried to create partitions on the external hardrive (this was befor i tried to solve the problem) and that is when is when it became anoying. because befor it creates partitions it checks the disk. and at this folder it always fails. so im assuming the same would happen when its formatted? If all else fails this is an option to try but id rather leave it as my last option seeing as it means backing up all my things on this drive which is 300+gigs...

The problem used to not bother me because i would work around it, however when i wanted to create a FAT32 partition (using Acronis) on my external to be able to move things quickly from my pc to my PS3 it never worked becasue it couldnt read that folder.

so im going to call tomorow. then if all else fails. ill give your suggestion a try.

thanks

flo

[Broni]

Is the drive still under warranty?

[mcxeb52!]

well, if you have a windows installation CD, you could just format the drive that way. If the CD recognizes there's a partition there, just have it delete the partition and it erases all data on it. And then you could try formatting the drive again thru normal windows.

But if there's still a problem, make the phone call to the tech support guys.

[flomtl]

i called up SimpleTech. They couldnt tell me what drive is inside because they have 3 manufactures and it could be anyone of those three....so that wasnt very helpful. However he told me to free up diskspace on my C: drive and then try to delete the folder since i was getting that error message about there not being enough room.

Ill give that a try since i only have 990mb left on my C drive.

@Broni, not sure about the warranty, unless its more then a year i dont think so.

[EDIT]
I have done what the simpletech technician told me to do. it didnt do anything. i still have same problem (same 2 error messages when i try to open or delete) just now i have lots of free space on my C drive.
[/EDIT]

[patio]

Burn any important data from the external to CD/DVD and then do a full format on it...
There's more than one way to skin a cat.
Simpletech should have been able to tell you from the serial# what drive is there.

[flomtl]

all SimpleTech told me to do was to go to device manager and check the diskdrive. Theres no way to format it, without deleting everything right? cause i have 250gigs+ stuff on there and backing all that up will take a long time.

[patio]

Correct.
It would all have to be backed up to format.
Formatting erases everything.

[Fed]

Give Pocket Killbox a try.

BTW, what is the full size and current amount used on your C drive?