Can't delete folder with Period at end of folder name

I have two folders which have periods at the end of their names. When I try to access them to delete them I get a "can't find folder" error message. How can I delete these folders?

 

You have not told us how you are trying to Delete.
It seems Windows does not think the folders are on your PC.
Rename and remove the "." ?

 

Windows Explorer displays the folder on my hard drive. I can right click on the folder and try "Rename" and it replys with, "Cannot rename file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." I try delete and it says, "Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." I go to the DOS prompt and type RMDIR temp. and it replies, "The system cannot find the file specified." I try RMDIR *.* and RMDIR * (the folder I'm trying to delete is the only thing left) and both times it replies, "The file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. "

 

When you right click|click Properties on these folders is the Read Only attribute checked? Try unchecking. (I assume Hidden is not checked since you are accessing.)
Hope someone else will join in if that does not help.

 

Welshjim

For the life of me , I can't create a folder and name it with a period on the end. Windows simply ignores the period. I change it to read only and I have no problem rename or delete.

The only suggestion I can make to David Deley is to try delete from the DOS prompt.

There is a possibility that the folder was put on your computer by a virus or spyware. Have you considered this?

Where are the folders? Desktop? Under C: Drive?

 

Folder not set to Read-Only or Hidden. I think it was created with a Web Site Downloader program I tried, possibly written in Java or Javascript, but I don't think the source code was included. There must be a way to write a C or C++ or Java program that accesses the File and Record Management System in a manner which gives you enough control and power to mess things up. No viruses or spyware, I already checked with Norton and Ad-Aware.

I'll see if I can find the Web Site Downloader program that did this to me, but I think I already removed it after testing it so I'll have to do some searching to find it again.

 

I believe it was the Venky Website Downloader 1.0 from CNet shareware site that created these folders with names ending in a period.

http://download.com.com/3000-2377-10120108.html?tag=lst-0-23

 

You don't say what file system you are using but if FAT32, you can boot with a 9X boot disk and get rid of them.

My personal preference would be to use deltree.exe which you can get from anyone with a 9X system. The exe is small and should fit nicely.

I'm not even sure rmdir will work if you are booted with a 9X load.

 

It's NTFS. Originally a NT4 FAT32 system 8GB hard drive partitioned into 4 2GB drives. On upgrade to Win2K I converted it to NTFS but kept the 4 partitions of 2GB drives structure. So now it's NTFS.

 

You could try booting to the recovery console. That is as close to a command line, nothing much running, DOS-like environment you are likely to get with a 2K system. You may be able to delete from there.