I have done this before, but have been unsuccessful this time in deleting a large folder. I need to make more space available on an external drive. I have tried safe mode; no success. Googled for process and found many, but no success or too complicated. I don't want to go too far and disable my system. I recall a utility that cleanly removes files/folders, but can't find it. BTW I'm running a dual boot Win 7 and Win 10.
Help. Thanks.

Edit: Just checked the properties of the folder and files. All have ZERO bytes. WTF?

Try this.
http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-take-ownership-and-get-full-access-to-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/

Behind every good computer... is a jumble of wires 'n stuff.

Zero bytes? It appears you have nothing to delete, or space to retrieve

Shelly

This was just pointed out elsewhere, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html.

And then there is that little thing that Shelly said .


Are you sure you even need a utility to delete said folder?
Have you tried opening an Admin level instance of (what?) Windows Explorer (can you do something like that?) or your File Manager?

That alone might be sufficient.


A slick utility for finding directory sizes/largest files, http://antibody-software.com/web/software/software/wiztree-finds-the-files-and-folders-using-the-most-disk-space-on-your-hard-drive/.

Likewise, Everything (mentioned here recently ) can also identify files &/or directories by size - in an instant. (You'll want to enable indexing of file & folder sizes, & 'fast size sort'.)

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

Newegg.com's new image gallery layout sucks in the hugest way imaginable too !
And now they're using JavaScript to "turn" pages to boot ! SUCKS

File Shredder should do it. Can permanently erase just about anything.

http://www.fileshredder.org/

Does the folder or any of the files in it have excessively long FULL pathnames? That can cause problems, but can sometimes be solved by reducing some part of the pathname.

No excessively long FULL path names and, unfortunately the File Shredder doesn't touch it either. I will just ignore it for now. Thanks for the input.

I too have a 0 byte "file" that I can't get rid of. I suspect there are no files, just rogue FAT table entries.

What's the file & where (& OS) & what message do you get when you try to delete it?



(At one point in time, I had 1000's of 0-byte files, but they were taking up too much space, so I deleted them all .
<Actually, I do have 2,379 0-byte files & 6,001 directories that are containing nothing.>)

--------------------------------------
BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

Newegg.com's new image gallery layout sucks in the hugest way imaginable too !
And now they're using JavaScript to "turn" pages to boot ! SUCKS

The file is named 39165500708107 and contains 23 files with numerical names starting with 1037 to 3082 (with gaps between numbers) plus another file named Graphics; all of which display the following when attempting to open.


When attempting to delete I get:



However, noting the message on the first image to continue, I clicked on continue and one of the numerical files opened and I was able to delete the contents. I hadn't gotten this far previously, but I can open each numerical file, delete the contents, and go on to the nest one. The files seem to be fonts.

Will report back with success/no success. Thanks Steven for giving me the push that solved the problem.

Edit: Success! The process is a bit tedious, but I opened each numerical file, selected and deleted the contents, and then deleted the files within and went in to the next, The files seem to be a collection of fonts.




The folder and its contents are history. My compulsive constitution is satisfied.

Attachment #1, (jpg file)
Attachment #2, (jpg file)
Attachment #3, (jpg file)