Folder name _PWF6A~D cannot be deleted

I made some inquiries and found that someone who was staying at my place in Dec 2015 did try to load a Mac OS on my machine (Windows 7 at that time). So, one part of the mystery is solved. Now to get rid of that folder still remains. (Not the worst thing if it is just there benignly), But I would like to know how I can alter that folder so it can be removed.

If the folder was being locked by anything the error message would be more generic, e.g., “Access denied”.

I doubt this is the case as macOS cannot write to it, but if the device is NTFS formatted the following RD command tends to have a high success rate in deleting stubborn folders like this.

Code:

rd /s /q "\\?\C:\path\to\folder"

Note the syntax carefully. The full path must be used, and tab completion helps.

That worked!! I just used a drive letter, G:\\_ etc. BUT why does this RD work with /q /s and not RD itself? THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RonNewYork said:

That worked!! I just used a drive letter, G:\\_ etc. BUT why does this RD work with /q /s and not RD itself? THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi RonNewYork,
Glad you got this solved. Please mark the thread as solved so that others can benefit from this. FYI, only the thread started can do this.
Bob