Windows 10: I've got a ghost file and can't delete it.Not even 'rmdir /q /s' helps

I turned off Shadow Copy on Windows 10 and was left with an undeletable 'traking.log'
Short story:
Filesize: 20kb
When trying to delete: 'File cannot be found!'

Long Story:
I am 'Owner' of the File and Parent folder(System Volume Information).
I even tried to delete it with a cmd prompt ran by 'System/NT-Authority'
(Thats above Admin Level, because its literally the running OS's 'Context')
I got Acess denied as response...

All File removal-/Disk repair tools failed!

Funny thing about it:
I can create subfolders and files in System Volume Information without problems, which will then behave almost exactly the same.(Can't be deleted normaly, but rmdir works on them)


I can't just delete System Volume Information itself tho, since one of its contents 'cannot be found' and therefor blocks the parent folder from getting modified-.-

:)

 

Accidentally Deleted Important folders.

Actually it says the system can't find the file but that file exists.

I renamed it successfully without any errors, and I can open it, there's a folder inside it with zero bytes.

Then deleted it, nothing happens but the file exists.

[ UPDATE to the First post : I forgot what I did and in that shocking moment, I closed the command prompt.

I was thinking about it all night and recalled what I typed. In local disk D, "
D:\rmdir /q /s . " ]





Thinking of the file name LRB Timelapse, I tried the first line

" 06/27/2016 05:52PM <DIR>
. "

as " rmdir /q /s . " , nothing happend, then tried " rmdir /q /s .. " ,
then 4-5 lines of something came and meanwhile I checked the folder, got shocked and closed command prompt.

So my mistake is those Two Dots whichdid all those.

Anyone please help with the command I typed " D:\rmdir /q /s .. " and what is wrong with that command.

 

I have a ghost file that looks like it's 100% undeletable. Help.

I have two files in my downloads called "installer.exe.". I tried deleting in the traditional way and it didn't work. I tried deleting it from non Administrator mode CMD and it didn't work. And i also tried deleting with Administrator mode CMD and still
it didn't work. Not i used "rmdir /q /s" and "del /q /s" and it didn't work. I tried restarting my computer and it just doesn't delete it. The files don't have a icon, and i can't do anything with the files. Help?

 

Oh cool! I'm not the only one who was confused about this file.

I've encountered this before. I don't use System Restore on my 2 external drives, yet the System Volume Information folders are created anyways. I always deleted those folders, and they never re-appeared back in the XP days. Yet yes, tracking.log is un-deletable from these folders for some strange reason. I remember a while ago, I boot into Ubuntu to deleted these files, yet they re-appear when I start up with Windows. I don't know how to fix this. It would be nice not to see the System Volume Information in those drives, because it's useless there.

 

Hey, pepanee. I'm gonna try to delete it via Ubuntu, just to see what happens...

 

Sure, please post back here after you see what happens. Hopefully this time Windows isn't so procrastinating about it being deleted and keeps it deleted. Last time I tried this was at least more than a year ago. Maybe things have changed.

 

Hi,

"Task Scheduler/Microsoft/Windows->System Restore"
You may disable this task but I don't know if it helps you.

 

Hi werby, thanks for the reply. I'm not the Original Poster, so I wouldn't know what the Original Poster's preference is.

Yet for my preference: I don't want to disable that Task because I use System Restore on my main drive (that has the operating system), just not my external drives. I'm not saying that the following is something that I require, but it would be nice: To remove those folders from the 2 external drives, since every single file and folder on those drives are created and customized by me, implying that there shouldn't be an operating system files or folders on there. Whereas System Volume Information is an operating system folder.

 

You can delete the System Volume Information folder, but windows will just recreate it. Probably not a good idea to delete it on a System Drive, unless you have to *Smile

Open Command Prompt as Administrator
Attrib -s -h -r "X:\System Volume information" /S /D
rd /s /q "X:\System Volume information"

Note: X = Drive Letter

 

In general you don't mess with the contents of the System Volume Information folder. Leave it be.

And ... is a 20 kB "traking.log" file such a problem? If your drive is 1 TB, this file wastes 0.0000019% of the total storage. I don't really see a problem.

 

Nope, it came back...

...even though I already have this disabled. Weird.
---------------------------

Did NOT work, tried it before.

Two questions:

One: If you dont see the problem and dont have anything to participate, then why do you comment here?

Two: Who is in charge of my computer? Me? Or my OS? I think I have the right to do whatever I want with my system folders.

And if i tell my OS to get its hands of my Data drives, I expect it to follow my instructions.

 

Darn! I was hoping it would've stayed deleted. I would've went into Ubuntu and fixed this issue as well. It would be nice to figure out what program/service is creating those files. Also, seeing those on every single removable USB stick that I have is annoying. I miss the days when I used to see nothing in the root folder of a USB stick when it is empty. But now every single one has the System Volume Information folder, and tracking.log, on it.


... and just an extra note: Honestly, I completely understand how your response was to margrave55. Obviously you have the goal to remove that file from your computer. Yet that person 'suggests' not to do that. It completely goes against what you are initially aiming for. That is very annoying and completely unhelpful. I'm not attempting to sound like an ass about it, but it's completely true; I'm on your side about this. margrave55's suggestion is not helpful at all.

 

Well pepanee,

I was hoping to find a way to get rid of these files in a 'legit' way. I dont need them because i do backups on my own, i know the services nessecary for Windows to create them and will ultimately deactivate the RegEntries for them if there is no other way; Essentially deactivating them, if you want I can share with you what I learn in the next few days of experimenting with my own Windows installation.

 

Sure thing! That sounds good! I hope you find what's locking that file in place. =)

 

Couldn't work on this for a while, but I'm back now, and getting closer to a solution

As a short update:

It turns out SystemVolumeInformation isn't JUST used by ShadowCopy.

More specific the file tracking.log isnt even part of it(if you disable shadowcopy, it actually stops creating a mess on your drives).

The folder SystemVolumeInformation is a shared space for, well, Information about the Volume, created by System
(I always wondered why it wasn't just called "Shadowcopy" since Windows uses this name everywhere besides for this folder)

These Informations include Shadowcopies of important files, but aren't limited to it.

The file tracking.log is part of Windows's user tracking functionality...
[Edit]
I'm gonna formulate this less intense: This specific log keeps trank of created remote links.
In case you move the source, provided that the source was on a different computer than the created link because it only keeps track of remote links, the funtionality will try to keep the link intact by changing it accordingly.

Its therefor useless on most home PCs
[End Edit]

I heard of it long ago and windows even has an inbuild logviewer for this, but i completly forgot it existed.

I managed to get it disabled, but Windows keeps recreating two other files as well.

I didn't mention these before because they are deletable and i obviously thought this is ONE problem, not multiple Problems

The files are:

MountPointManagerRemoteDatabase (has no file extention)
and
IndexerVolumeGuid (also has no file extention)

I'll see if i can get safely rid of them too them too before i make any conclusions

I heard that those files might be important on boot time tho and need to be created but i didnt research that enough



I did however painfully find out that simply removing the driver from the registry that windows needs to run shadowcopy results in a bluescreen with the error "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE"

Which is a brutal lie from windows, because trying and successfully reading a boot device's registry to execute this service means that windows HAS access to the boot device... also the functionality to throw BSODs in the first place is on the Hard drive as well