Can't delete a folder on Windows 7 with a trailing space

powershell windows-7 cmd explorer delete-directory
Elliptical view picture Elliptical view · Jan 12, 2014 · Viewed 29.5k times · Source

Issue: I have a Windows 7 sub-directory which I can't delete.

While I know others here, and many more elsewhere on the Internet have asked about this general class of Windows 7 file system problem, my question here specifically relates to the specific class of un-deletable files on Windows 7 which have a trailing space in the directory name.

Is there a better tool to inspect and/or edit my filesystem (in hex if need be)?

OS: I'm running x64 professional and it's fully updated.

What has been tried: I have read many web pages on this subject and tried many potential solutions. I have been studding the problem most recently using PowerShell which seems to be fully capable of dealing with system internals. At this point I am looking for something like a hex editor for the filesystem.

What it's not caused by:

  • a long file-name, or
  • by being located in a lengthy path,

What it's not fixed by:

  • Renaming using the old DOS file naming scheme
  • Running CHKDSK of the entire file system
  • Shutting down all other programs which might be accessing it
  • Disabling virus software
  • Using the Delinvfile.exe 4.5 utility. Note: Delinvfile says that it can't fix, "Files and Folders with a shortname that contains invalid characters. These include the characters [which are disallowed in file-names]:
<  -  Less than symbol
>  -  Greater than symbol
:  -  Colon
"  -  Quotation Mark
/  -  Forward Slash
|  -  Vertical Bar
?  -  Question mark
*  -  Asterisk

What caused it? In my case the un-deletable sub-directory was created some months ago with a custom PHP program that I use for source tree backups. It appears to have either a space or other bad character in the name, but I can't be sure. It is visible in a file directory, but unavailable to delete, rename, rmdir, etc.

Investigation: I can move it around on my file system and have placed it inside a sub-directory called, 'holds bad subdir' on C:.

Here you can see it with PowerShell. First I show it with a Get-ChildItem (which is the same as the alias 'dir'):

PS C:\holds bad subdir> Get-ChildItem


    Directory: C:\holds bad subdir


Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----        1/9/2014   3:01   AM            20120530-04

If I try to delete it in a cmd window by typing 'del "2' + tab, it completes the file name expansion as follows: del "20120530-04 ", showing that there is a space at the end of the directory name. When I execute this command the result is:

Could Not Find C:\holds bad subdir\20120530-04

If I try to delete it with del 2*, the system returns as if though it had deleted it, but does not.

If I issue this same command in PowerShell, and also with the Force option, it reports, "An object at the specified path C:\holds bad subdir\20120530-04 does not exist.", as follows:

PS C:\holds bad subdir> Remove-Item 2* -Force  Remove-Item : An object at the specified path C:\holds bad subdir\20120530-04  does not exist.At line:1 char:1
+ Remove-Item 2* -Force
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Remove-Item], PSArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Argument,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand

This is sort of strange because the directory can clearly see it, but any methods apparently either can't see it or can't be applied to it.

I can also view the un-deletable sub-directory in Windows Explorer. When I browse into it, it says, "this folder is empty". And if I try to delete it there I get:

Enter image description here

Also if I view the properties of this folder I can see that the name is "20120530-04 ", that is, with an extra space at the end.

Enter image description here

Also interestingly, the Security tab reports "(X) The requested security information is either unavailable or can't be displayed."

And it's not Read-only, nor Hidden.

Scope of issue: Now, this is not a big problem, it is easy to bury this sub-directory inside an out-of-the-way sub-directory and just not worry about it.

But for me this has turned into an intellectual challenge and partly a way to learn more about the guts of Windows 7. I guess I am amazed that such a bug in Windows could exist at such a low level, and with so many systems installed in the world. It's hard at this point to know if this is a Windows bug, bad data (that a bug let in), or just bad data.

Answer

Lars Truijens picture Lars Truijens · Jan 12, 2014

According to You cannot delete a file or a folder on an NTFS file system volume (requires JavaScript to display), the following should work (notice it uses a UNC path). 

rd "\\?\C:\holds bad subdir\20120530-04 "

Be sure to do this with cmd.exe. It does not seem to work with PowerShell's Remove-Item (rd).

Also see:

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