Speeding up deletes of large groups of files?

Recently I upgraded my HP h8-1070t (i7-2600 @ 3.4 GHz, 16 GB RAM) by replacing the conventional hard disks with a pair of Samsung 860 Evo 2-TB SSD's, configured as C: and D:. In the process I also did a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro.

Today I noticed that the D: disk was at risk of getting full, and initiated deletion of all its files. They added up to 17,900 files totaling 1.2 TB. A notice appeared stating that the deletion would take 3 hours, 25 minutes.

Is there any way to speed up deletions in situations like this? I regularly run processing software that creates big sets of files that aren't needed long-term.

Thanks!

Could I just go to a command prompt and execute:

del /f/q/s "d:\xyz"

?

The batch file looks like it would be handy, but I'm always a little nervous about editing the Registry.

Thanks. I'm running that command right now, and it looks like it's taking overall about the same amount of time per file as the Windows GUI delete.

Do you have the impression that deletes with Ultra Virus Killer are a lot quicker than this?

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Meanwhile, I just hit on a really fast approach that will work for me at least for the time being. Since I want to nuke the entire D: drive, I can simply go into File Explorer and do a quick format on the drive. This gets rid of everything very quickly. Obviously, it wouldn't be an option if there were anything on that drive I wanted to retain.

Frank O said:

Today I noticed that the D: disk was at risk of getting full, and initiated deletion of all its files. They added up to 17,900 files totaling 1.2 TB. A notice appeared stating that the deletion would take 3 hours, 25 minutes.
Is there any way to speed up deletions in situations like this? I regularly run processing software that creates big sets of files that aren't needed long-term.

If you want to delete ALL files and folders, format the drive. It will take seconds to do it.