Vista x64 / Cannot Delete Files - File Name Too Long

[michaeltee]

Hello,

I recently transferred a large quantity of files from my XP machine to my Vista x64 machine. All went well except for a small group of successfully transferred (Thunderbird) .eml files that cannot be opened, moved, copied, deleted, or renamed on the Vista machine.

If I try to delete the entire containing folder I get the following error:
This folder contains items whose names are too long for the recycle bin.

If I try to delete, open, copy or move the files themselves I get the following error:
The source file name(s) are larger than supported by the file system. Try moving to a location which has a shorter path name, or try renaming to shorter file names before attempting this operation.

The right-click context menu does not display the "rename" option (although rename is available for other files)

Anyone know how I can get rid of these?

 

[shinybeast]

Can you move the folder to the root of the drive as in "C:" ? That may shorten the path enough to get them deleted. When you delete them hold the shift key to bypass the recycle bin.

 

[michaeltee]

Thanks for the suggestion but no, I can't seem to move the files or the folder anywhere. I'm able to rename the folder but that's about it. I should also mention that there is a folder hierarchy associated with this issue. The structure looks like this:

PARENT (empty)
↓
SUB (empty)
↓
SUB (empty)
↓
SUB (empty)
↓
SUB (empty)
↓
SUB (contains the above referenced files)

 

[shinybeast]

You could try renaming all the subs to 1 character names. Otherwise, I'm at a loss other than attaching the drive to another OS that can handle it and delete from there.