Resolved Deleting mutiple files

Hi all,

I forgot.

I have a ton of files all over the place on two HD's (C;D;E;G;H;I)that I want to delete with a command.

I know the highlight\shift\r-click\delete method, but I'm looking for a command prompt from the run line to do it.

I think I remember something about "del tree" something, but, like I said, It's been so long I forgot how to do it.

I've got the first part down: Start| Run | CMD, it's what to fill in after that?

 

Its "deltree /y {filenames} ".

But it won't work in Vista or Win 7 as the deltree.com is not there.

 

Have a look at this link:http://www.computerhope.com/delhlp.htm
MS DOS Delete syntax for XP. Cheers Neil.

 

del would also do the trick but it won't delete empty sub directories. deltree would delete everything.

 

Thanks Arie for that. Didn't venture beyond rd before.

 

Thanks for the info.

So, I have hundreds of files on all drives named "*.abc" (where the * is the various file names — but they're all the .abc extension). I click Start | Run | CMD and type in: "del tree /y *.abc" (without the quotes) and all files that are "*.abc" will be deleted from all drives?

 

No as has been posted Del Tree (or deltree) is no longer an option.

Use Del with the /s switch

ie

Code:

del /s *.abc

Will delete all *.abc files from the current directory and below. Chris be carefull when doing this. I suggest you type

Code:

del /?

and make sure you understand what you are doing before you proceed.

 

Hi wildfire,

So, to delete all .abc files on all drives I click Start | Run | CMD and type in:

del /s *.abc

Correct? That'll delete all .abc from all drives, bypassing the Recycle Bin?

As far as being careful, I hear ya loud and clear. All the files I'm looking to delete are cloaked files that I no longer need.

I've been computing for so long that I've forgotten more than I remember "” or something like that.

 

That would delete files only from the current partition [usually C:]. To delete from other partitions/drive you would have either to give drive letters or change to that drive first.

 

I think it would be easier for you to use WinXP Search function. Have it start at C:, set it to go through all folders, and have it search for *.abc and then delete what it finds.
Command prompt deletions can be very dangerous for the novice.
But these are the commands you are looking for.
c:
del /s *.abc
d:
del /s *.abc
e:
del /s *.abc
f:
del /s *.abc
g:
del /s *.abc
h:
del /s *.abc
i:
del /s *.abc
Be careful for typos.

 

Slight amendment to marks instructions, as MS OS's remember current directories for each drive/partition use CD \ after changing drives to ensure you are in the root directory.

Anyway as Mark also pointed out this is a very dangerous command so use with great caution.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for the information. So, I'm going to have to change the directory for each drive. There isn't an all-in-one command (like: C:\;D:\;E:\ del / *.abc) is there? I know in e-mail that different addresses need to be separated by a semicolon, but I take it it doesn't apply here?

 

You could create a batch file and list all the commands you want to run in it. Save it to your chosen location and run it from there.

 

Code:

FOR %I IN (A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO DEL %I:\*.ABC /S

Should work, remove any drive letters from the list you don't have/want to delete (eg Floppies, CD Drives etc).

 

Code:

for %x in (c d e g h i) do del %x:\*.abc /f /s /a

 

One little thing, when using variables in a batch file, we need to use the double parenthesis signs, else you get an error. When typing in manually you only need the single parenthesis sign.

Code:

for %%x in (c d e g h i) do del %%x:\*.abc /f /s /a

 

Hi all,

I apologize for the tardy reply, but, I've been suffering from and extreme, acute case of ennui.

Anyway, let me be sure I understand this:

I open Notepad, I paste in the above (for %%x in (c d e g h i) do del %%x:\*.abc /f /s /a), save it as a .bat file and that'll delete all the .abc files on both HDs on my computer, correct?

OK, I think I just answered my question. I created 6 files and named them ".abc ". I cut and pasted each one into each drive (C, D, E, G, H, I). I saved the file above as a .bat file and ran it. I did a Search and there were no .abc files on any drive.

Am I cool???

 

Always a good idea in situations like this to - as you did - create dummy files to practice a command line execution routine on. At least that way, if the command doesn't quite run as planned, there's no real harm done.

 

Another way would be to insert an "echo" between the "do" and "del ":

Code:

for %x in (c d e g h i) do [color=red]echo[/color] del %x:\*.abc /f /s /a

Or, if in a batch file:

Code:

for %%x in (c d e g h i) do [color=red]echo[/color] del %%x:\*.abc /f /s /a