I have a folder on one of my hard drives, P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\src\Keystone
, which I want to delete but cannot. I have tried numerous different ways to change/reset permissions and I still cannot delete this folder.
PS P:\csharp\aperture> whoami
azuread\mikelloyd
PS P:\csharp\aperture> rm -Recurse -Force .\keystone\
rm : Cannot remove item P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\src: The directory is not empty.
At line:1 char:1
+ rm -Recurse -Force .\keystone\
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (src:DirectoryInfo) [Remove-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveFileSystemItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
rm : Cannot remove item P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\: The directory is not empty.
At line:1 char:1
+ rm -Recurse -Force .\keystone\
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\:DirectoryInfo) [Remove-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveFileSystemItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
PS P:\csharp\aperture> rmdir .\keystone\
Confirm
The item at P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\ has children and the Recurse parameter was not specified. If you continue, all children will be removed with the item. Are you sure you want to continue?
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"): A
rmdir : Access to the path 'P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\src\Keystone' is denied.
At line:1 char:1
+ rmdir .\keystone\
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : PermissionDenied: (P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\:String) [Remove-Item], UnauthorizedAccessException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveItemUnauthorizedAccessError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
PS P:\csharp\aperture> icacls.exe .\keystone\ /reset /T
processed file: .\keystone\
processed file: .\keystone\src
.\keystone\src\Keystone: Access is denied.
Successfully processed 2 files; Failed processing 1 files
I don't have read privileges.
It can't show the owner:
If I try to change the owner, I don't have permission to view or edit the object:
What is really strange is that I created the folder with my user, so I should be the effective owner. I have tried to delete the user as Administrator, but I can't do that either. I can't even delete the folder as NT\System
:
P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\src>whoami /user
USER INFORMATION
----------------
User Name SID
=================== ========
nt authority\system S-1-5-18
P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\src>rmdir /S Keystone
Keystone, Are you sure (Y/N)? Y
Access is denied.
How can I delete this folder that I created?
Best Answer
Try out this: First, check if your User Account is Administrator. Run cmd as administrator, type in
takeown /f P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\src\Keystone
, this should give you ownership of the directory. lastly, typermdir /q /s P:\csharp\aperture\keystone\src\Keystone
if it still doesn't work, try the same steps in Safe Mode. I hope this helps.