Solved I Just Cannot for the LIFE of Me Get One File Deleted!

Hello, everyone, I’m using Windows 8.1.

I have an external USB 3.0 hard drive with a folder on it that has six subfolders. (You can thank an older Mozilla Thunderbird backup utility for that.)

Inside the last subfolder is an .eml file with a very long file name. I’ve tried to delete this file, and just can’t. No matter what I do, I cannot delete this file. I get the following screen when I try to delete it.



If I right-click on the file, I do not see the typical context menu that would normally have Delete, Rename, etc. It just has Open, Open With, and Send To.

I researched this problem via Google and even Bing, and read several instructions on what to do. NONE worked. For example:

* I tried installing Unlocker to unlock the file, so that I could delete it or rename it. That didn’t work.
* I even tried a few DOS commands in the Command Prompt screen. I tried DEL, RMDIR, and even DELTREE. None worked.
* I tried editing permissions. That didn’t work.
* Lastly, I tried going into Safe Mode (via SHIFT + RESTART), and tried playing with the folder and file there, without success.

So, I’m asking for help. How on earth do I get this file deleted?

It’s not the end of the world if this folder and file are stuck on my external drive. It’s more an annoyance than a problem.

Actually, I do have a viable solution to this problem: Backup everything on my external hard drive onto my OTHER external hard drive (except, of course, for the folder in question). Then, format the first hard drive, and move back everything I backed up. That HAS to work. It HAS to. Doesn't it?

That will be a long, tedious process, because there’s over a Terabyte of data on it. It seems ridiculous to me to have to spend hours backing up a TB just to delete or rename one e-mail file. (The other external hard drive is USB 2.1, not 3.0.)

Does anyone have any other ideas that might work? Thank you so much. J. Danniel

Open an admin command prompt and give this in-- rmdir /s /XXXXX where the x's are, just drag & drop the file on the command prompt after typing

I cannot drag the file, or the folder it is in, into the admin command prompt.

And I did try the rmdir command manually, with no success.

Do you have a Linux distro live disk? Ubuntu or Mint perhaps. Then you could boot into a live session and mount windows find the file and delete it.

I've never used Linux. I do not know what Mount Windows means. But I could probably figure it out. It would probably take less time to backup-and-format the drive than become familiar enough with Linux to use it to solve this problem. Of course, if formatting the external drive doesn't work, then I'd probably have to try Linux.

Just download Ubuntu and burn to a DVD or make a bootable USB(just unzip the ISO to it) then boot to it then you get the option to try it (live session) or install(don't touch it) then a desktop will appear, in it's version of file explorer click on the windows drive(automatically mounts it(gives access to windows)) then you can find the file like you would with 7zip or any other file manager and delete it. after that shutdown take the disk out boot to windows...done.

I am creating a bootable USB stick with Ubuntu right now. I'll follow your instructions, and will let you know how things turn out as soon as possible. Thank you. Jd

Wow. That worked. Simple, too. Thank you so much. I never would have thought of using Linux. Thanks again. Jd

WOW!!! you were fast. You're welcome. Just so you know the Ubuntu live session al has a great disk tool called GParted for instruction on how to use it go HERE: But when moving windows OS partitions it's better to use Windows own Disk Management. But Gparted is good when used before anything is on the disk(prepping an external or 2nd internal drive or multiple drives in one instance.