files doing stupid strange things

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

No, you shouldn't have to do that - I don't think the computer would know what to do with it if you did anyway...

Are you able to get it to tell you the contents of the I: drive..? Type in:
dir I: (this is for the contents of the root) or
dir I:\_____ (where _____ is the name of a folder within the root of the I: drive)

[chal7ds]

Yeah, the dir thing works. It displays some dates, some 'nect bkup' information, etc.

maybe the cd command should be something else? if the dir command works, i don't see
why the cd one shouldn't..

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Hmmm... I've been able to replicate your current situation, albeit with one of the network drives on my computer.

I have created a 'test.txt' file and was able to successfully delete it when the command prompt was using the root of the C: drive as the "working location" - as can be seen here:

Quote:

C:\>dir O:
Volume in drive O is Data Mirror
Volume Serial Number is C82F-D4A8

Directory of O:\

12/07/2009 15:16 <DIR> .
12/07/2009 15:16 <DIR> ..
19/02/2008 00:25 25,088 Decoration Comments.doc
04/01/2009 23:35 <DIR> DopeWars
28/03/2009 01:45 <DIR> Funny Schitt
12/07/2009 12:44 <DIR> General Schtuffs
04/01/2009 23:35 <DIR> Pix
26/09/2007 16:45 20,992 Preggers Dates......xls
04/01/2009 23:37 <DIR> Summer BBQ
12/07/2009 15:15 0 Test.txt
04/01/2009 23:39 <DIR> Training
03/02/2008 19:09 76,367 Video call snapshot 15.png
03/02/2008 19:08 87,483 Video call snapshot 17.png
03/02/2008 19:11 81,792 Video call snapshot 22.png
03/02/2008 19:13 87,621 Video call snapshot 25.png
03/02/2008 19:27 78,511 Video call snapshot 26.png
29/05/2008 02:13 23,040 Wish_List.xls
21/04/2008 15:27 127,536 ??0001.jpg
21/04/2008 15:25 178,677 ??0002.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 168,109 ??0003.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 177,578 ??0004.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 166,807 ??0005.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 121,846 ??0006.jpg
21/04/2008 15:17 101,685 ??0007.jpg
21/04/2008 15:16 123,992 ??0008.jpg
21/04/2008 15:22 34,944 ??????0001.jpg
18 File(s) 1,682,068 bytes
8 Dir(s) 8,021,528,576 bytes free

C:\>del O:\test.txt

C:\>dir O:
Volume in drive O is Data Mirror
Volume Serial Number is C82F-D4A8

Directory of O:\
12/07/2009 15:16 <DIR> .
12/07/2009 15:16 <DIR> ..
19/02/2008 00:25 25,088 Decoration Comments.doc
04/01/2009 23:35 <DIR> DopeWars
28/03/2009 01:45 <DIR> Funny Schitt
12/07/2009 12:44 <DIR> General Schtuffs
04/01/2009 23:35 <DIR> Pix
26/09/2007 16:45 20,992 Preggers Dates......xls
04/01/2009 23:37 <DIR> Summer BBQ
04/01/2009 23:39 <DIR> Training
03/02/2008 19:09 76,367 Video call snapshot 15.png
03/02/2008 19:08 87,483 Video call snapshot 17.png
03/02/2008 19:11 81,792 Video call snapshot 22.png
03/02/2008 19:13 87,621 Video call snapshot 25.png
03/02/2008 19:27 78,511 Video call snapshot 26.png
29/05/2008 02:13 23,040 Wish_List.xls
21/04/2008 15:27 127,536 ??0001.jpg
21/04/2008 15:25 178,677 ??0002.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 168,109 ??0003.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 177,578 ??0004.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 166,807 ??0005.jpg
21/04/2008 15:26 121,846 ??0006.jpg
21/04/2008 15:17 101,685 ??0007.jpg
21/04/2008 15:16 123,992 ??0008.jpg
21/04/2008 15:22 34,944 ??????0001.jpg
17 File(s) 1,682,068 bytes
8 Dir(s) 8,021,528,576 bytes free

C:\>

[chal7ds]

Okay bro, check this out. I think I'm onto to something here.

I did like you said, and just used del C:\ as my starting point instead. I then used quotations around the directory (cause otherwise it wouldn't allow me to delete) "Chals folder\chals favorite horror movies\thismoviereallysucksbad.jpg" etc..

Now, it lets me delete if i take off the last file (the thismoviereallysucksbad.jpg) and 'would' allow me to delete the chals favorite horror movies folder if i 'wanted' to. But obviously, I'm trying to get rid of the thismoviesucksreallybad.jpg file instead.

So, what happens when I try entering all of it with the jpg and everything? it says the filename or extension is too long. Now, it'd be fine if it said that if I could go in and rename the messed up file I am wanting to delete, but unfortunately, like I said..I can't right click rename it any more because it's screwed up. So how do I get the cmd box to delete something that has a long name? If i can get it to do that somehow, I can get rid of this sucker..

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Ah, I think I know why it is stopping you from doing that...

One of the limitations with the CLI (Command Line Interface) is that file names can only be a maximum of "8+3" characters. This means that the extension can only have up to 3 characters, and the 'name' of the file cannot exceed 8 either.

If you were to do a 'dir "I:\Chals folder\chals favorite horror movies"' you would prolly see that all the files that should be longer than the 8+3 are shortened. For example, the file you mentioned above might be something like 'thismo~1.jpg' - the ~1 indicating that this is the 1st file that starts with the first characters shown.

Obviously, if you have lots of files that start with 'thismo' then you might encounter some that are 'thism~10.jpg' or whatever...



Let us know how you get on...

[chal7ds]

Ok, I checked out the directory and it does show some numbers in front of each of the files; however, it also lists what the full title of the those files are after the number shown. For example, for the file I'm trying to delete, it says:

10,261 thismoviereallysucksbad.jpg

So, my question is, now that I have the number, is that the way I delete the file now? ..is just by using the number only? Before posting this, I tried it, but it didn't work. I put del "I:\chals folder\chals favorite horror movies\10,261.jpg"

...but it says it 'Could Not Find'. I also tried it without the .jpg at the end and just the number, but it still said Could Not Find.

Is there a small detail I'm leaving out or something I should add to get this to delete/find it?

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Hi,

I would try using:
del "I:\chals folder\chals favorite horror movies\thismo~1.jpg"
this is down to the 8+3 I was referring to earlier.

Obviously, you should ensure that there are no other files that have the same starting characters before you do that - just in case you delete any other data that you didn't want to delete....

[chal7ds]

Ok,when i try that, it still says it 'Could Not Find..' etc.

The only difference I'm seeing between what you typed and what I typed is that the little squiggly thing for me when I type it ~ in the cmd box it shows it as floating 'up' towards the top of the letters, rather than horizontally how you see it when we type here in the threads. Not sure if that has anything to do with anything, but that's the only visible difference i noticed, so maybe that's why it's not finding it, I don't know.

Not sure why it's not finding it..

I typed del "I:\chals folder\chals favorite horror movies\thismo~1.jpg"

I'm getting to the point where maybe I'll just let this little guy make his home here in this folder..lol..not sure why the delete feature seems to not work for me, but seems to work for you so well..

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Hi,

That 'little squiggly thing' is the symbol call a 'tilda'.


It shows near the top of the line (in the CLI) for me too, but that is just the display it uses and is nothing to be concerned with...

Personally, I don't like having files where I don't want them. As such, I would even go as far as to copy all the files/data to a new folder (you could even just copy the entire folder, then try to delete the offending file from the new location) if you can, then you could just delete the old location....

[chal7ds]

Aha..yes..a tilda :P couldn't remember what it was called.

Well, your idea about the folder worked. It lets me delete the folder, so I went ahead and did that. I then returned all the other files to the folder and voila, no more nasty file.

It's too bad i couldn't get the single file thing to work though, cause it's a chore having to take out all those files or copy the folder, especially since I had a lot of files in there.

Nice workaround though