I have these on one of my drives and can't get rid of them. I Googled for a solution and there were instructions for taking ownership and using a command line instruction - but it didn't work.
Short of formatting the drive (and copying everything somewhere and back) is there any way to remove them ?
My windows is Version 22H2 (08 Build 190453803) and I'm the only user.
Open the Command Prompt and execute below command to delete all files named Found.xxx.
Replace X: letter with external drive letter.Code:Del /a /s "X:\Found.*"
There's no error but that doesn't work.
They are hidden and system folders it seems and the icon is slightly different shade of yellow.
If I try to change any attributes I just get
Not resetting hidden file - S:\found.000
This may not work depending on permissions.
It may be necessary to boot to a winpe command prompt to delete the files e.g. boot from a windows installation drive and press shift+F10 at first screen to get to a winpe command prompt.
I usually boot to Macrium Reflect in winpe mode (I have a boot entry) and use its built in file manager to delete stubborn files.
I have Macrium Relfect but wouldn't know how to boot with it. My only Windows disk is Win7 one that was upgraded a few years ago. The drive is actually an external m2 enclosure so could I try on a different computer and not risk mucking up this one ?
I know you can boot from a flash drive but I don;t have one with the necessary files.
If you have Macrium installed, you can make a Rescue Boot USB Flash drive
Creating rescue media - Knowledgebase 8.0 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase
You can also boot into Safe Mode and try to remove them that way.
Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10
Why not try the usual commands as Administrator:
Code:takeown /r /d y /f C:\folder.000 icacls C:\found.000 /reset /t rmdir C:\found.000 /s /q
Before making a boot drive, tried garlins suggestion. First Win-R didn't give access so I tried Power Shell.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> takeown /r /d y /f S:\Found.000
SUCCESS: The file (or folder): "S:\Found.000" now owned by user "WIN10-PC\Ian".
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> icacls s:\Found.000 /reset /t
processed file: s:\Found.000
Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> rmdir s:\Found.000 /s /q
Remove-Item : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '/s'.
At line:1 char:1
+ rmdir s:\Found.000 /s /q
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Remove-Item], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>
The I tried without the switches
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> rmdir S:\Found.000
rmdir : Cannot remove item S:\Found.000: You do not have sufficient access rights to perform this operation.
At line:1 char:1
+ rmdir S:\Found.000
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : PermissionDenied: (S:\Found.000irectoryInfo) [Remove-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveFileSystemItemUnAuthorizedAccess,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>
Is there anything else I could try ?
You're running from PowerShell, so PS thinks the "rmdir" command is the built-in alias for Remove-Item – instead of CMD's rmdir.
From PowerShell:Code:cmd /c rmdir "S:\Found.000" /s /q
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