Hi everyone. I took some files from the internet (using my win98 computer) and put them on my old laptop which is running win 3.11. Some of the files that I copied into win 3.11 had underscores in the filename and/or folder name. When I try to delete these files in File Manager, an error message comes up saying "File Manager cannot delete C:\image_br : File Manager cannot find the specified path." I've already tried to delete the file and/or folder (have both) using the dosshell program. Any ideas??? Thanks in advance

Have you tried using plain old DOS? del image_br.* or del image*.* The underscore is a legal DOS character (spaces aren't), so the problem must lie elsewhere. Have you checked your HDD with scandisk or similar utility? - possibly the files have allocation errors.

My mistake. The files from the win98 computer had spaces instead of underscores. I have tried to delete from the old plain dos command line. After searching this site, I think I found the answer (I hope NOT). (http://computing.net/windows31/wwwboard/forum/1033.html) It may be that the LFN's are from a 32 bit environment TO a 16 bit environment. In order to delete these, I may have to reformat the HD. But even the files in the folder aren't deletable. Because of the folder name, file manager can't find them. If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't get in this kind of mess. By the way, scan disk does not find anything wrong. Paul

Well, I would take that advice with at least one grain of salt - sure reformat would work, but somewhat of a drastic solution. The problem is due to the illegal DOS character in the file/folder name - not, I don't think, due to any 32/16 bit LFN crossover. I've used 3rd party filemanagers to rectify similar situations (XTree, PC Tools etc). Have you tried deltree using wildcards? For example, if the folder name was 'image br' then try: deltree /y c:\imag*.* - assuming of course that there are no similarly named folders that you want to keep. Not sure if that would work, but worth a try. Possibly Norton Disk Doctor for DOS (1999 or later), if you can get hold of it, would correct the problem.

In the dos environment, folder (directory) and file names follow the eight-three architecture. (12345678.123). as an example, say you have a file/folder named My Special files(.ext if a file name) which you want to delete. When you type out the delete command, drop the space and enter the first six characters, then add a tilde and the number 1. ie; del myspec~1(.ext if a file). If it's a directory, use the deltree command to delete the directory ~and all its contents~. deltree myspec~1

You might get on easier with a file manager like DOS Controller.

Thanks all. The deltree command worked.