evil Pupil = File name specified too long

[chazzy2501]

I have a pupil whos go out of his way to make the longest file path ever and I can't remove it!

 

:\users\Students\06\06numpty\Trash\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\l\m\n\o\p\q\r\s\t\u\v\w\y\z\Did you notice that there wasn't a x\you\are\just\wasting\your\time\ha\ha\you were laughing at the x thing werent you\i know\food\you greedy person\all gone\owned\your having fun aren't u

 

I can't get beyone the folder your having fun aren't you I I try an delete it windows complains about the file name being to long. (probably means file path but that the error i get)

 

how do I remove it?

Edited March 5, 2010 by chazzy2501

[carnforthhigh]

map a drive as far down as you can get, that will let you get even further into the path. we have had this with a couple of our kids in the past.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320081

Edited March 5, 2010 by carnforthhigh

[AyatollahPies]

Just before said pupil is due to hand in some important work, why not rename all of the files in their home folder, in a similar manner?

[timzim]

You could also grab a folder near the right-hand end of the chain and drag it higher up (i.e. into a folder near the LH end), then delete the lot.

[bossman]

@chazzy2501:

 

Try this works great:DelinvFile - Utility for Deleting Invalid Files and Folders

[korifugi]

Yup - there is a maximum character length for any given filename. You can easily delete it by renaming the folders down to be less that 255 characters (including slashed and spaces).

[srochford]

Just before said pupil is due to hand in some important work, why not rename all of the files in their home folder, in a similar manner?

 

because the pupil is just being stupid whereas that would probably open you to disciplinary action?

[AyatollahPies]

because the pupil is just being stupid whereas that would probably open you to disciplinary action?

 

Friday jest.

[sonic1485]

Is it in a folder you can delete? I'm sure i've found ways to force delete them in the past

[chazzy2501]

using the mapnetwork drive technique I was able to remove it.

 

Yes it was just a folder.

 

I found it by looking at the crash dump of "strings.exe" whilst looking for flash games in excel docs.

 

I'll give the other techniques a shot if I find anymore.

[3s-gtech]

I've just done this by renaming the longer folders to a single character, enables you to get deeper and delete it normally. Usually not malice/idiocy that causes it here, but instead the fantastic folder structure which Studio 8 uses

[chazzy2501]

I don't know whether this is worth a new post but I'm still having trouble with strings.exe now it says

 

findstr: line 1503872 is too long.

 

it seems to have stuck rather than crashed this time which means I can't see what it's stuck on!

 

any ideas?

 

EDIT: it's not stuck it continued and found more! how can I find out what files it's talking about?

Edited March 5, 2010 by chazzy2501

[pete]

You can also use

\\?\path\to\filename

in a command prompt to delete or rename it.

 

So:

 

\\?\D:\users\Students\YearGroup\OdiousStudent\Trash\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h \i\j\k\l\m\n\o\p\q\r\s\t\u\v\w\y\z\Did you notice that there wasn't a x\you\are\just\wasting\your\time\ha\ha\you were laughing at the x thing werent you\i know\food\you greedy person\all gone\owned\your having fun aren't u

 

will work.

Edited March 5, 2010 by pete
removed student name