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XP problem square!

Cliff_Jordan
Grafter
Posts: 228
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

XP problem square!

Yesterday while archiving some folders using SyncToy  it failed on a particular folder because of an " Illegal characters in path".
I found the cause of this problem to be shown in a sub-folder as a square which I could not delete, rename or move. I managed to isolate it by moving everything around it to a new folder and renaming the folder and sub-folder but there it sits (as shown below) and could be there for ever unless someone can shed some light on the problem.
What is it? Where did it come from? How can I get rid of it?  Undecided
Cliff
5 REPLIES 5
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: XP problem square!

right click on the file name, check its properties, reset them as necessary.  that might help.  Going back a few years I had some files that the standard file transfer wouldnt deal with, I used Laplink and that could (Not free),  I now have http://www.freecommander.com/ which can do things the M$S cant do
Cliff_Jordan
Grafter
Posts: 228
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: XP problem square!

Thanks for the link to FreeCommander - looks as though it could be quite useful, but unfortunately not for this problem  ...and there are no properties of this item to change!
hadden
Grafter
Posts: 486
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎27-07-2007

Re: XP problem square!

Have you tried opening a DOS window and deleting the file from there?
You may need to try a mask in the filename, eg. "del *."
pd
Grafter
Posts: 235
Registered: ‎09-05-2008

Re: XP problem square!

Try right-click followed by rename and then delete it.
David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: XP problem square!

It could be that its in a different language than English, if Windows XP doesn't have the right language pack installed it will display the file as a square, have you been visiting any sites which use a different language set, mainly Japanese/Chinese or other languages which do not use English lettering?
If you want to get rid of it, try the RD command with the /s switch, so rd directory /s (it apparently replaced deltree, as its through cmd.com rename it from My XX to XX or something)
Quote
Removes (deletes) a directory.
RMDIR [drive:]path
RD [drive:]path
    /S      Removes all directories and files in the specified directory
            in addition to the directory itself.  Used to remove a directory
            tree.
    /Q      Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to remove a directory tree with /S