Long story, but Ive got a file here i cant do anything with. Wont delete, rename, nothing.

Unable to set attributes and reads as having a 0 size.

Name it carries is as above..

___.ptf


Any ideas on how to lose this thing?

Oh, I checked and its not anything that is running.. its a remnant from a program that has been removed.


t_bare

Try to rename the file, to have all legal charactors instead of that line. If the line is actually a number of underscores you might be able to do it. then delete it.

No luck..

I get a message saying "Cannot delete file: File system error 1026"
when attempting to delete it,

and "Cannot rename file: File system error 1026" when attempting to rename.


Combing the web right now to see if I can find any info.


t_bare

boot up on safe mode and try again

Try this... it usually works with files having naming convention erros and other such problems:

1. Either isolate the file in its own folder (by moving all of the other files to a different folder), or else write-protect all of the other files in the folder. This can be done by doing a "select all", then Ctrl-clicking on the bad file to deselect it, and then right-clicking on one of the selected (highlighted) files. Choose Properties and then set the Read-only attribute. Note that this must show as a dark "X" on a clean background -- a greyed background indicates that some but not all of the files currently have this attribute set. it may take more than one click to set it for all (selected) files.
   
2. If using the write-protect method above, verify that this protection is set by checking various files in the folder for the read-only flag.
   
3. If using the file isolation method descibed at the beginning of step #1 above, simply delete the folder containing the bad file.
   
4. If using the write-protect method, do a "select all" followed by a "delete" -- this will remove all non-read-only files regardless of their names.
   
5. In some instances, it may be necessary to do the deletions at a command prompt. Follow the instructions for isolation or protection as in step #1 above first. Then bring up a command prompt and navigate to the folder containing the bad file. Once there, execute a del *.* within that folder.
   
6. Once the file is gone, undo the isolation/protection established before to be able to work with any remaining files.

Wont delete from safe mode either.

Tried setting the attributes as suggested by Chris, but no joy.

Have yet to do the isolation method, will try that asap and post back.

Any other ideas appreciated.

What about a file shredder? Would that be doable?


t_bare

Do you by any chance play Nascar Racing 2002? Or other similar racing games with track editing capabilities?

hammer worked for me when i had that problem...

The problem is caused by the file having an illegal name under DOS rules.If Chris' suggestion does not work, try moving all other files from that folder to a safe place, and run a deltree from pure DOS for that folder. Afterwords, recreate the folder and move the other files back to it.

Fixed..

Thank you Drive Image 2002.


As a matter of fact Chris, I do have Nascar 2002, but cant get it to run properly.

Was you gonna suggest I take the 2 car and just repeatedly run over the file til it gave up?


Thanks for your help folks, but restore did the trick of course.


t_bare