I am looking for some help in writing a batch script. What I want to do is suppose that I have a text file with contents as: 1)a 2)b 3)c 4)d Now in some folder C:\Output I have some files with extension say .1 I want to delete all other files from that folder Output apart from the files listen in the Text file. That means I want a script that would leave only those files which are listed in that text file and delete all others. Help would be highly appreciated. Thanks and Regards screamoon

Hi Scremoon @echo off for /f %%a in (Files.txt) do attrib +h Output\%%a del Output\*.* for /f %%a in (Files.txt) do attrib -h Output\%%a

As I understand you have used the Hidden attribute. You deleted all others which are not hidden and after deleting removed the hidden attribute. May I please ask as to what part of the script is comparing the file names in the text file to those of the file names in the folder ? screamoon

I tried the above script It is deleting all the files. screamoon

The FOR command will do an operation for every line in the txt file. "for /f %%a in (Files.txt) do SOMETHING" The variable %%a contains the string read from Files.txt So this: for /f %%a in (Files.txt) do attrib +h Output\%%a Is like: FOR every line GET "STRING" in (Files.txt) do COMMAND on "STRING" This would fix the problem del Output\*.* /A-h This will delete all files except the files that has the Hidden attribute Still, im not so sure if that FOR command can handle filenames with spaces between then. You should check that out. Might be the FOR command needs to modified somewhat.

I modified my script as you suggested Shr0Om. But still I am getting this error : ( screenshot of the error I am getting ) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/scream123456/error.jpg i.e. a File Not Found Error And my file names are going to be like: 000000fa4a02cf80-0000-0cf5-94050a25 The names do not contain spaces but would be having a "-". screamoon

Hi Scremon The Files you don't want deleted are in the Files.txt file which from the above would contain... 1)a 2)b 3)c 4)d If these files are hidden a del command would should not see them. Then unhiding them again should make then visable again.