Cannot delete a file with a too long name

Try substituting the folder in which the file resides for a drive then
try deleting the file from the substituted drive. At the Command Prompt:

SUBST x: "c:\Program Files\Some Program Name"

To delete the substituted drive:

SUBST x: /d

John

horst wrote:

> I found that I still have a "Sandboxie" folder although I had
> uninstalled it.
> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
> delete a file because its name was too long.
> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
> No way to rename, move or delete it.
> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
> Any suggestion please?
> Thanks
> Horst

In news:%23CmD0zSzIHA.2208@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
horst <hweXXX13 DeleteThis @bluewin.ch> typed:

> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
> delete a file because its name was too long.
> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
> No way to rename, move or delete it.
> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
> Any suggestion please?

Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:

dir /x some*

will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:

del somehe~1

Drag and drop it into the RECYCLED folder and forget about it.

On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
> In news:%23CmD0zSzIHA.2208@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
> horst <hweXXX13 DeleteThis @bluewin.ch> typed:
>
>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>> Any suggestion please?
>
> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>
> dir /x some*
>
> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:
>
> del somehe~1
>
>
Dear friends,

thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!) 111
characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2005/12/15/504240.aspx (only for
those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and the
whole path!
Thank you again
Horst

"horst" <hweXXX13 RemoveThis @bluewin.ch> wrote in message
news:OBj1WStzIHA.2360@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
>> In news:%23CmD0zSzIHA.2208@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
>> horst <hweXXX13 RemoveThis @bluewin.ch> typed:
>>
>>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
>>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>>> Any suggestion please?
>>
>> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
>> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>>
>> dir /x some*
>>
>> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:
>>
>> del somehe~1
>>
>>
> Dear friends,
>
> thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
> But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!) 111
> characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
> i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
> Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
> http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2005/12/15/504240.aspx (only for
> those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
> And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
> C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and the
> whole path!
> Thank you again
> Horst

John's suggestion would have worked very nicely, provided that
you access the "undeletable" file from drive X:, not from drive C:.

On 15.06.2008 13:00, Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
> "horst" <hweXXX13.RemoveThis@bluewin.ch> wrote in message
> news:OBj1WStzIHA.2360@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> On 13.06.2008 19:48, h.stroph wrote:
>>> In news:%23CmD0zSzIHA.2208@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
>>> horst <hweXXX13.RemoveThis@bluewin.ch> typed:
>>>
>>>> So I decided to delete it but I got a message telling that it couldn't
>>>> delete a file because its name was too long.
>>>> Actually there is a a .htm file whose name is 111 characters long.
>>>> No way to rename, move or delete it.
>>>> I got the same error when I tried to delete it in the DOS window.
>>>> Any suggestion please?
>>> Assuming a file named "somehelluvalongfilenamethatstoolongtotype", in a
>>> command window take advantage of the legacy 8.3 convention:
>>>
>>> dir /x some*
>>>
>>> will show you the 8.3 filename e.g. "somehe~1" which you can then delete:
>>>
>>> del somehe~1
>>>
>>>
>> Dear friends,
>>
>> thank you all for your suggestions, though none did work.
>> But luckily I realized that while the name of the file was only(!) 111
>> characters long, the whole path was 160 characters long!
>> i.e. 160+111=271 way more than the maximum allowed length (260)!
>> Although the calculation is more complex as shown in
>> http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2005/12/15/504240.aspx (only for
>> those who really want to enter into the details of the matter!)
>> And so I renamed the 160 character long path to just
>> C:\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\ and then I was able to delete the file and the
>> whole path!
>> Thank you again
>> Horst
>
> John's suggestion would have worked very nicely, provided that
> you access the "undeletable" file from drive X:, not from drive C:.
>
>
I was just curious to see if you are right: I recreated the file
(restoring it from a backup) and used John's suggestion.
Actually the command
SUBST x: /d
just eliminates the path x: but not its content.
So I tried in the DOS window (as it is not accepted in the command line)
DEL p:\*.*
and it worked IMHO only because the total length of the path+file name
was now reduced to about 111 characters.
Horst