Re: Unable to delete orphaned 1.5 GB System Restore folder


"puzzled and frustrated" <puzzledandfrustrated@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message news:83835395-D937-4B33-88CA-EA43EDB1DEDE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That advice was no help at all. I have FULL CONTROL over the entire C:
drive
and all subdirectories, imcluding C:/TEMP.

You did not give any info on if you checked file permissions or not. That
would be a suspected reason. By the way just becaue you have full control at
the root folder does not mean that you have full control on all
folders/files on the drive. Folders/files can have explicitly defined
permissions instead of inherited permissions with the system volune
information folder being a perfect example of one and by default only system
has permissions to that folder. If there is one file in a folder that you do
not have fullcontrol/modify permission then you can not delete the folder.

I don't need instruction in basic Windoze file ownership and permissions.
I
am the OWNER of that file and have full permissions according to Windows
Explorer. Using the attrib command does more than you suggested because
it
allows the System bit to be taken off of a file or folder. Even that
doesn't
help.

File attributes have absolutely nothing to do with the ability to delete a
file - you are wasting your time dealing with them. If you have effective
delete permissions for a file and the file is not being used by a process
and the file is not corrupt nor is using an illegal name or a few other
obscure reasons you should be able to delete it.

XP Pro treats the System Restore files with some type of special
protection
similar to the way they prevent you from deleting crucial system files.
Instead of general advice on how to delete files and change ownership and
permissions, i need information specific to how XP "protects" the System
Restore files and how to turn that off for files no longer used by System
Restore.

See if you can delete any files and or child folders. It could be just a
couple files causing the problem. From the parent folder try going into the
security properties/advanced and then select "replace permisions entries on
all child objects". You could also try deleting from the command line using
system by using the AT command to schedule the delete command in the future
by a couple minutes. Or use the AT command to open the command window to try
using delete which also be running as system which can be verified by Task
manager. Tasks scheduled by the AT command run as system.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313565 --- using
the AT command

Does anyone know how to override that "protection"? Gimme a break.
You're
telling me to run CHKDSK when i said the orphaned file is over a year old
and
i've posted that two different versions of Linux won't let me delete those
files and their folders. It says "ACCESS DENIED."

One single corrupt file could cause the failure where the operating system
can not interpret the security descriptors. Running Check Disk with the
option to automatically fix file system errors often can fix such a problem.
Offhand I don't know why linux did not work but for any operating system you
need permissions to delete files and root/administrator may not always have
such. I like using Bart's PE better in such situations and it also allows me
to edit the registry of another Windows operating system when I need to. The
link below from Microsft may be helpful in dealing with files you can not
delete. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320081



"Steven L Umbach" wrote:

I would try making sure you have full control NTFS permissions to the
folder/subfolders/files as administrator and then try to delete them. If
that does not work try booting into Safe Mode and trying again. Sometimes
it
helps by trying to delete child folders first and then working your way
up
to the parent folder. I would also run Check Disk on your computer and
select the option to fix file errors automatically. The links below shows
how to take ownership of folders/files [if needed to change permissions]
and
how to change NTFS permissions if you need that info. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418


"puzzled and frustrated" <puzzled and
frustrated@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message
news:1F096E8C-EABB-42EB-8709-D925A1DE779C@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My Dell came with Win XP Pro SP1, and when they sent me a Dell SP2 CD
with
a
replacement box (and SP1 installed on it) i transferred over all my
files
and
then installed SP2 (but there was a hitch) and XP Pro SP2 lost track of
the
huge change file it made for going back to SP1. I should have turned
off
Sytem Restore for the SP2 installation. Everything is now fine but
there
was
a hitch in the SP2 upgrade procedure that made me do it twice.
Apparently,
XP lost track of the 1.5 GB restore folder as a System Respore Pointr
and
it
also refuses to let me delete it. The problem is that there is an
orphaned
1.5 GB System Restore folder storing all the changes from SP1 to SP2,
and
XP
(and Linux) won't let me delete that year-old useless file. By
various
machinations (after the Windows XP Accessory, Disk Cleanup's function,
"delete all but most recent restore point" failed to delete it) ... I
then
succeeded in "unhiding" that obsolete "...DC1/RP1/" folder by making it
a
a
network share and writable over the network and then moving the
obsolete
junk
file to C:/TEMP from System Volume Information, so it is far away from
the
"real" restore points. The old folders under TEMP are named DC/RP1 and
DC1/RP2, while my PC's "real" Restore Points are numbered past RP99.

With Windows Explorer i can uncheck the Read Only box and try to apply
it
to
all subirectories, but XP immediately changes it back to Read Only and
says
Access Denied when i try to delete the files and directories (both from
GUI
and from command line). I have even tried using a Windows 98 boot CD
and
that won't work either. I can't boot into DOS 3.1 to do it because it
doesn't handle NTFS (as do the two Linux bootable discs). Even Linux
recognizes these files as special system files that it refuses to
delete,
saying Access Denied when i try to give myself write access to them. I
have
been unable to delete these 1.5 GB of junk files using (in an XP
command
Window: "set attrib -r -h -s C:/TEMP/DC1/RP1/files /S /D" to turn off
the
read-only, hidden, and system bits for that folder, and the /S /D means
to
apply the change to all subdirectories and to all folders. I get the
error
"Acess Denied" when i give it that command.

XP mistakenly sees these as crucial system files and (as moved Network
Shares) it lets me move them around to other places, like
C:/TEMP/DC1/RP1
..., but it doesn't let me delete them. I get Access Denied from both
XP
and
Linux, and my accounts all have Admin (and root) privileges. If i had
a
removable hard drive large enough which i don't) i might be able to
move
them
there and then reformat it to get rid of them. Can anyone think of any
easier way to get rid of this 1.5 GB of junk files that were created
when
SP2
was installed?

Please help me get rid of this 1.5 GB of junk.

David
dc(remove)@davidchanin . com [delete the two spaces]





.

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