PCTech Forums

I'm running Win2000 and I routinely clear out my temp folder. I
encountered a problem the other day with some files that I can't delete. I
can't rename them, cut, copy, or do anything to get rid of them. In the
temp folder under the current user in local settings, there is a copy of the
Internet Temporary Files folder. Within that folder there is the
Content.IE5 folder and then 4 folders within that one with folder names like 0L23GH6F. When I try to delete the entire Temporary Internet File folder or any of the sub folders I get the following error:
Error Deleting File or Folders
Cannot Delete SITE_M~1.HTM
Make sure you specify the correct path and filename.

I went through each folder and deleted all the files except for the the four
.htm files that won't delete in the folders under the Temporary Internet
Files folder. I've tried rebooting and that hasn't worked, using a spider
HD cleaner, gone into safe mode, and tried to going into the command shell and deleting from there, but that hasn't worked either. Has anyone encountered something similar and know how I can delete these folders out of my Temp folder.
Thanks in advance for any help.
-Dman100-

If safe mode won't even work, have you tried booting to the recovery console & deleting from there? If you've still no luck it may be worth runnning a chkdsk just in case the files have got corrupted in some way

Hi Restek,
Thanks for replying to my post. I appreciate the help. I did run a check disk and no errors were found.

I haven't tried booting to the recovery console and deleting the files. I've never done that before. How do you boot to the recovery console? I'll give that a shot.

Thanks again for the help!
-Dman100-

Here's the MSKB article that tells you how and gives you a list of commands and switches.

brad

I tried copying an empty temp folder over the original, but it just replaced the files into the new temp folder and I couldn't delete the temp folder because it still had the problem files in the sub directories.

I did find an interesting piece of software called wholockme, which showed that the files and folders are being locked by IE from the following path:

c:\WINNT\Explorer.EXE

Do you know how I can unlock the files from IE or this path? Once I can do that, then I should be able to delete the files with no problem. Thanks.
-Dman100-

This might work for you. If you have Xteq Systems X-Setup installed then execute it and goto Internet/Internet Explorer/System/Advanced Option #1 and uncheck "Enable disk caching (aka "Temporary Files")". You will probably need to reboot your PC but once you do hopefully you will be able to delete the TIF folder out of the Temp folder. If you do not have Xteq you can download it from this link:

http://www.xteq.com/

You will have to use the attrib command on your “Local Settings” folder
From inside the recovery console
In windows 2000 you have to do it one line at a time like this:

attrib -r C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings
attrib -h C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings
attrib -s C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings
Once you do that you should then be able to delete the folders.

You might have to use the attrib command on the folders that you want to delete.

Once the folders are deleted you should reset the attrib to the “Local Settings” folder:

attrib +r C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings
attrib +h C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings
attrib +s C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings

Hi Gecko,
Thanks for all the information. When I launch into the recovery console, I can change the directory to C: from C:\Winnt, but when I try and change the directory to say c:\documents and settings I keep getting "access denied". I get the same message if I try to change the directory to any other directory as well.

I can use the dir command and view the contents of the directory, but if I try and change the directory to a new folder, I get the "access denied" error message.

For example:
I start the recovery console and begin at:
c:\Winnt
I use the command cd .. to switch to the parent directory.
so now I'm at c:\
I can use the dir command and see the directory listing
now, if I use the command "cd documents and settings"
I get access denied
this occurs for trying to access any folder and it also occurs in the c:\Winnt directory

I have no idea why that is happening? Any ideas? Thanks again for the help.
-Dman100-