Deleting files
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Deleting files
I recently fixed, for a friend, a win 10 (upgraded from win 7) laptop.
After trying several fixes, I reinstalled a clean win 10 and reinstated the saved files.
I had a problem with some video files which were recorded (via a usb pctv stick) tv programmes.
They would not delete (not required and using about 100gb of space) and I decided to look at the ownership of those files.
The owner (looked same for all) was a long, seemingly random, stream of characters, numbers, and letters (maybe 40 - 50 in total) and, try as I may, I could not take ownership of those files even by mounting the disk in my win10 machine and looking at them on it, including using an administrator command line from a dos prompt.
Linux would not mount the disc, reporting the ntfs system as corrupt.
This got me thinking as to where these files had obtained their ownership - some were "inherited" from the win 7 system but others were from since win 10 was installed.
Have any of the gurus on here observed this "phenomenum" or have any idea where the ownership may have come from?
Thanks in advance.
After trying several fixes, I reinstalled a clean win 10 and reinstated the saved files.
I had a problem with some video files which were recorded (via a usb pctv stick) tv programmes.
They would not delete (not required and using about 100gb of space) and I decided to look at the ownership of those files.
The owner (looked same for all) was a long, seemingly random, stream of characters, numbers, and letters (maybe 40 - 50 in total) and, try as I may, I could not take ownership of those files even by mounting the disk in my win10 machine and looking at them on it, including using an administrator command line from a dos prompt.
Linux would not mount the disc, reporting the ntfs system as corrupt.
This got me thinking as to where these files had obtained their ownership - some were "inherited" from the win 7 system but others were from since win 10 was installed.
Have any of the gurus on here observed this "phenomenum" or have any idea where the ownership may have come from?
Thanks in advance.
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This problem has been noticed by many users of Windows 7 & 10. The usual method of being in Administrator mode, right clicking and entering into the file properties to change the ownership details and/or delete the files just doesn't seem to work.
What does sometimes work is to copy another file you don't need and that you do have permissions for, into the directory with the corrupted, unwanted files. Select the files you want to delete and the extra file, edit the permissions as a group and then delete all the files. Obviously you must be logged in as Administrator while doing this.
That seems to be the most successful method to date. All the files should be deleted and the disk space recovered.
As to why the files are not directly recognised, it may be that their content is corrupted in some way or that they are temporary copies made by the operating system as the files were being edited or some other operation which was corrupted or interrupted before completing. If Linux can't read a file, it probably is genuinely corrupted or damaged.
What does sometimes work is to copy another file you don't need and that you do have permissions for, into the directory with the corrupted, unwanted files. Select the files you want to delete and the extra file, edit the permissions as a group and then delete all the files. Obviously you must be logged in as Administrator while doing this.
That seems to be the most successful method to date. All the files should be deleted and the disk space recovered.
As to why the files are not directly recognised, it may be that their content is corrupted in some way or that they are temporary copies made by the operating system as the files were being edited or some other operation which was corrupted or interrupted before completing. If Linux can't read a file, it probably is genuinely corrupted or damaged.
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Thanks for that, I hadn't found the "add a file" suggestion, despite extensive googling (probably asking the wrong question), but will bear it in mind.
I think the installation was beyond hope anyway.
The original problem I was trying to fix was that win 10 just wouldn't update - it wouldn't move on from build 1511 - the updates refused to install.
I wondered whether it was that there was not enough space on the hard drive (there should have been) and deleting the unwanted 100gb+ may have helped the situation.
The laptop is a fairly basic, 2011 model, is probably past it's "sell by date" and struggles a bit with win 10.
Tried to persuade the lady owner to move to mint but she didn't want to do that - can women be Luddites!!?
Thanks again
I think the installation was beyond hope anyway.
The original problem I was trying to fix was that win 10 just wouldn't update - it wouldn't move on from build 1511 - the updates refused to install.
I wondered whether it was that there was not enough space on the hard drive (there should have been) and deleting the unwanted 100gb+ may have helped the situation.
The laptop is a fairly basic, 2011 model, is probably past it's "sell by date" and struggles a bit with win 10.
Tried to persuade the lady owner to move to mint but she didn't want to do that - can women be Luddites!!?
Thanks again
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The failure to update is a known issue. I believe there has been a patch issued to fix the problem.
The majority of users suggest downloading the ISO update file and burning it to a DVD and using that to install the latest version of Windows 10. That may be the easiest way to go.
The majority of users suggest downloading the ISO update file and burning it to a DVD and using that to install the latest version of Windows 10. That may be the easiest way to go.
