XP Folder Housekeeping Question

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One of my backup HDDs has a couple of folders left over from some backup copying in recent years. These folders are empty except for each having an empty (0 bytes) System Volume Information subfolder. Is there any way to delete these? I’ve tried unchecking Read Only and also deleting them from Safe Mode, but no luck. The drive also has its own Sys Vol Info folder. Thanks.

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It sounds like a rights issue. The security needs to be set. Right click on the folder, select properties, then Security. Click the Add button, then type “everyone” (without the quotes) in the box. Give “Everyone” full control. Then you should be able to delete the folder.

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You might need to get rid of the Recycle Bin on the drive first. To do that, empty the Recycle Bin then right click on its icon and choose Properties. On the Global tab choose “Configure drives independently”, then on that drives tab choose “Do not move files to the recycle Bin”. You can now delete the Recycle Bin from the drive.

You can then delete the System Restore folder. Go to the System Restore tab in System Properties, click on the drive letter of the backup drive, click the “Settings” button and choose the option to “Turn off System Restore on this drive”. You should then be able to delete the folder.

If the drive is removable, both the Recycle Bin and System Restore folders are liable to return when the drive is plugged back in though.

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Thanks to both repliers.

Star Lounger – Properties doesn’t look anything like you describe (XP/SP3 Home). No Security tab. Were you referring to somewhere else?

Tim – I got to the part about deleting the Recycle Bin on the HDD, but after that am getting an Access error message when trying to delete the two old folders that have Sys Vol Info folders or, alternatively, deleting the Sys Vol Info sub folders within those.

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Folders and their contents sometimes resist all efforts at deletion from within Windows. Or, for that matter, copying, if you’re trying to back up open files on the system drive (usually C:).

To get such files or folders copied or removed, I’ve relied on alternate boot disks. You have to set up your computer’s BIOS to allow booting from your CD/DVD drive or from a USB stick. You can then boot from any of several possibilities, but the one I would recommend is … Linux.

You can set up Ubuntu, Knoppix, Puppy, and most other Linux distributions to boot from a CD/DVD and run entirely from that disk. It’s called a “Live CD” feature. That will allow you to manipulate Windows NTFS file system disk partitions as you please. No Windows files, obviously, will be locked out from changes, so one must be extremely careful.

I use Linux often enough for such tweaks that I have Linux Mint installed on a separate partition, with its coming up as a choice under the XP boot menu when I reboot. It’s saved my bacon on dozens of occasions.

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Definitely Unlocker, I’ve used it many times in similar situations.

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