How can I use MS-DOS to delete a file no questions asked?

[rapture333]

I have about 233MB left in a 250GB harddrive. I remember theyre being a DOS command to delete folders no questions asked. What is the command structure? I need to delete a certain backup that I'm no longer using.

 

[Zoron]

Windows won't allow you to delete?

 

[br3nd064]

This has happened to me before. Just restarting the computer and trying again sometimes works.

 

[Nils]

First, if your drive is formatted NTFS you cannot deleted it from DOS.

If it's a FAT or FAT32 drive, use the 'del' command to delete files. If you're deleting directories, you will need the 'deltree' command, which you will have to download because it isn't included anymore with windows NT (suppose you're not using Windows 98/95 anymore?). Once you got it, copy it to the root of the bootable floppy/CD/DVD/Flash drive/... and you can use it in DOS. Surf the web for the correct command syntaxis or use the /? switch.

TIP: Once in DOS, use the 'dir' command to find out where the file exactly is because drive letters will probably be different than when in Windows.

hope this helps

 

[pat mcgroin]

attrib will get rid of the backup.

Zero in on the file name and use either cmd from windows or the run button from start menu

Then type attrib -h -a -r -s c:\filename.xxx /s
type exactly as shown
c:\ represents the directory the backup is in.
It could be c:\folder\folder\folder|filename.xxx /s
The /s at the end makes it apply to all subdirectories.

Ps this works on entire directories much as del *.* so be careful about the directory and filename(s) and be sure not to change anything that you want to keep

Then delete till your done