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I've got a rather large number of files on my windows drive that have a colon in their name. (These came from unpacking some unix archives.) When I try to delete them, windows (XP) complains that the file does not exist, and refuses to delete it. This happens when trying to delete or rename it from explorer or the command line. Still, chkdsk does not complain about those files nor fix the problem. Any ideas how to get rid of them?

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Will it let you rename them or move them to a different location? If you can move them, try putting them all in one directory, then deleting that directory. – nhinkle♦ Jul 19 '10 at 18:16

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You may be able to use this syntax (per Microsoft KB 320081):

del "\\?\c:\path_to_file\bad:name.ext"

See also this serverfault question on the same topic, "delete file containing invalid characters in windows".

I think the old "ntfsdos" sysinternals utilities could remove/rename these files as well, but these are no longer available post-MS acquisition.

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@Hello71 (to @Ruggle Humsteader) - new users can't comment, they can only answer (they presently need 50 rep points for that: superuser.com/faq ). They can comment on their own questions and answers, though. (Just so other new users aren't confused by your request.) – michael_n Mar 29 '11 at 14:28
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Have you tried booting from an Ubuntu live cd and deleting it from there?

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Another alternate that you may want to try is to bring in CygWin, a bash shell for windows. This would allow you to apply UNIX commands to your DOS folders.

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If you regularly deal with unix files on a windows machine, it's always a good idea to have cygwin installed. Otherwise it might suit you better to boot and delete the file from a linux live CD when the situation arises. – Marnix A. van Ammers Jul 19 '10 at 19:42
Unfortunately, I have tried cygwin, and that does not help. 8-{ Even cygwin is not able to remove the files. – hstoerr Jul 20 '10 at 7:02
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cygwin tools still relies on the windows API to delete files. If the Windows API refuses the filename, nothing can be done from Windows with standard file tools. I also recommend to access the filesystem from an alternate OS. – dolmen Mar 26 '11 at 21:09
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You should be able to delete them using the same OS and/or application that you used to create them.

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No, the original post says (and my own experience agrees with) that these files were created simply by unpacking unix archives on a windows file system. In short, the windows file api allows files to be created (albeit via 'tar' using msys/cygwin/mks/whatever) that there is no way to delete via the same windows api. – michael_n Jan 15 '12 at 8:24
@michael_n If you can create the file then you can also delete it. Even if DeleteFile somehow doesn't work, then you can always use FILE_FLAG_DELETE_ON_CLOSE together with CreateFile... – Pent Ploompuu Jan 17 '12 at 17:38
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probably no need to digress much further, but I think you've misunderstood the original question when suggesting to "delete them using the same OS and/or application used to create them". They were created with Windows OS and "tar" (e.g. cygwin) or 7zip or whatever. So: there is a tar file; you unpack it on windows; a file is created with a funky character in the name; it can't be deleted (easily) in windows. Re-implementing 'tar' CreateFile to delete_on_close isn't an option. It's not a programming related question. No offense, but this answer just isn't in the right ballpark. – michael_n Jan 23 '12 at 9:21
That being said, my previous comment should not have said "windows api" twice. So I definitely contributed to the confusion there. Rather, there are utilities on windows that create files that can not be deleted by these same utilities, and in turn can't be deleted (easily) by any other windows utilities. (Understandable, since "tar" and "7zip" and other archivers typically don't delete files, they just create files.) – michael_n Jan 23 '12 at 9:24

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