How to VIOLENTLY delete files from NTFS partitions?
From time to time, a person decides that his operating system is too screwed (constant errors, crashes, slowdowns) and decides that he wants to reinstall it FROM SCRATCH, i. e. make sure that no traces of the system remain.
From time to time, a person decides that his operating system is too screwed (constant errors, crashes, slowdowns) and decides that he wants to reinstall it FROM SCRATCH, i.e. make sure that no traces of the system remain.
One simple way to do it would be to format the partition, but what if there are a few gigs of valuable stuff on that partition and no way to move them / back them up (no additional partitions, no recordable media with enough storage capacity)?
If it was something running of FAT32, I'd simply boot into DOS mode with my Win98 boot disk and delete all the system files manually:
C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINNT - GONE!
C:\Program Files - GONE!
C:\*.* - GONE!
C:\Documents and Settings - GONE! (after moving all the vital stuff to another folder)
Simple, no?
But how do I do it when my OS is installed on a NTFS partition with all its file permissions and protections?
Any simple way?
One simple way to do it would be to format the partition, but what if there are a few gigs of valuable stuff on that partition and no way to move them / back them up (no additional partitions, no recordable media with enough storage capacity)?
If it was something running of FAT32, I'd simply boot into DOS mode with my Win98 boot disk and delete all the system files manually:
C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINNT - GONE!
C:\Program Files - GONE!
C:\*.* - GONE!
C:\Documents and Settings - GONE! (after moving all the vital stuff to another folder)
Simple, no?
But how do I do it when my OS is installed on a NTFS partition with all its file permissions and protections?
Any simple way?
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Hi dr_st,
You may also find this interesting:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
It allows read-write access to NTFS for the purpose of registry editing and password resetting, but you could also use it to rename or delete previous Windows install directories.
(By the way, I don't think you have anything to apologise for in your initial post -- clearly AlecStaar did not comprehend the question correctly.)
You may also find this interesting:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
It allows read-write access to NTFS for the purpose of registry editing and password resetting, but you could also use it to rename or delete previous Windows install directories.
(By the way, I don't think you have anything to apologise for in your initial post -- clearly AlecStaar did not comprehend the question correctly.)
It's ok, I know what was said as I already read the thread in its entirety.
Just to clarify the part of my post that you replied to -- the essence of his initial question was how to delete files that a running system always has open, and thus locked from deletion. He wasn't asking for general purpose deletion solutions, and therefore had no need to apologize for his initial question getting answers from you that didn't solve his problem.
Hope this clears up what I meant.
Just to clarify the part of my post that you replied to -- the essence of his initial question was how to delete files that a running system always has open, and thus locked from deletion. He wasn't asking for general purpose deletion solutions, and therefore had no need to apologize for his initial question getting answers from you that didn't solve his problem.
Hope this clears up what I meant.
Yeah, I add my apologies into the mix as well, as I kind of caused the thread to get off-topic.
Not sure if Alec or anyone else for that matter mentioned this, but if you want a semi-GUI for the DELTREE (exclusively for removal of 'Program Files' and 'Windows/WINNT') you may want to look at Bart's PE Builder.
And again, I'm sorry, hopefully there's no hard feelings or anything. My only reason for posting at this site is to help others, and hopefully my semi-offtopic posts can someday be useful to another reader.
Cheers.
Not sure if Alec or anyone else for that matter mentioned this, but if you want a semi-GUI for the DELTREE (exclusively for removal of 'Program Files' and 'Windows/WINNT') you may want to look at Bart's PE Builder.
And again, I'm sorry, hopefully there's no hard feelings or anything. My only reason for posting at this site is to help others, and hopefully my semi-offtopic posts can someday be useful to another reader.
Cheers.
Quote:You may also find this interesting:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
It allows read-write access to NTFS for the purpose of registry editing and password resetting, but you could also use it to rename or delete previous Windows install directories.
Ah, nice! Thank you.
Well, I never did assume there would only be one tool (NTFSDOS) that can do it. It's really a task that often needs to be done by administrators or plain "power users" such as myself.
Quote:(By the way, I don't think you have anything to apologise for in your initial post -- clearly AlecStaar did not comprehend the question correctly.)
No, he didn't. But that was in part because I didn't formulate it in the clearest way I could, so I will not try to dodge guilt here.
Quote:Lastly, there is NTFSDos but this costs money for the FULL model.
And the free read-only model is useless for my case, although for the sake of rescuing files to another HD it might be just right.
Quote:It's ok, I know what was said as I already read the thread in its entirety.
Wow! That is some work!
Quote:Just to clarify the part of my post that you replied to -- the essence of his initial question was how to delete files that a running system always has open, and thus locked from deletion. He wasn't asking for general purpose deletion solutions, and therefore had no need to apologize for his initial question getting answers from you that didn't solve his problem.
Again, to me and to you it was clear what I wanted, but re-reading that first post of mine I realized that indeed I left too many options to misinterpret it, thus I apologized.
Quote:Not sure if Alec or anyone else for that matter mentioned this, but if you want a semi-GUI for the DELTREE (exclusively for removal of 'Program Files' and 'Windows/WINNT') you may want to look at Bart's PE Builder.
It was the first thing that was offered (by Curley_Boy, see the beginning of thread). I actually tried it, but never did get it to install - it seemed to want an XP CD with SP1, and I didn't have one at the time. Too much trouble for the likes of me, so I ditched it. Now I have NTFSDOS if I just want to do what I started this thread for and ERD Commander 2003 if I want a graphical rescue environment.
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
It allows read-write access to NTFS for the purpose of registry editing and password resetting, but you could also use it to rename or delete previous Windows install directories.
Ah, nice! Thank you.
Well, I never did assume there would only be one tool (NTFSDOS) that can do it. It's really a task that often needs to be done by administrators or plain "power users" such as myself.
Quote:(By the way, I don't think you have anything to apologise for in your initial post -- clearly AlecStaar did not comprehend the question correctly.)
No, he didn't. But that was in part because I didn't formulate it in the clearest way I could, so I will not try to dodge guilt here.
Quote:Lastly, there is NTFSDos but this costs money for the FULL model.
And the free read-only model is useless for my case, although for the sake of rescuing files to another HD it might be just right.
Quote:It's ok, I know what was said as I already read the thread in its entirety.
Wow! That is some work!
Quote:Just to clarify the part of my post that you replied to -- the essence of his initial question was how to delete files that a running system always has open, and thus locked from deletion. He wasn't asking for general purpose deletion solutions, and therefore had no need to apologize for his initial question getting answers from you that didn't solve his problem.
Again, to me and to you it was clear what I wanted, but re-reading that first post of mine I realized that indeed I left too many options to misinterpret it, thus I apologized.
Quote:Not sure if Alec or anyone else for that matter mentioned this, but if you want a semi-GUI for the DELTREE (exclusively for removal of 'Program Files' and 'Windows/WINNT') you may want to look at Bart's PE Builder.
It was the first thing that was offered (by Curley_Boy, see the beginning of thread). I actually tried it, but never did get it to install - it seemed to want an XP CD with SP1, and I didn't have one at the time. Too much trouble for the likes of me, so I ditched it. Now I have NTFSDOS if I just want to do what I started this thread for and ERD Commander 2003 if I want a graphical rescue environment.
It seems as though a solution has already been found. But here is another idea.
Try download a version of knoppix linux that has full nfts read/write support Kanotix. Just download the ISO, burn, and pop it in your CD drive (Its a live CD, there is no installation, it runs fully from the CD). You just boot up and it gives you a full linux graphical distrobution that has the ability to read and write to your ntfs drive. You can then delete the windows directory and leave the stuff you actually want.
Give it a try, I us Knoppix all the time while building systems, its much easier to do a full burn in test of all the components before putting windows on.
Try download a version of knoppix linux that has full nfts read/write support Kanotix. Just download the ISO, burn, and pop it in your CD drive (Its a live CD, there is no installation, it runs fully from the CD). You just boot up and it gives you a full linux graphical distrobution that has the ability to read and write to your ntfs drive. You can then delete the windows directory and leave the stuff you actually want.
Give it a try, I us Knoppix all the time while building systems, its much easier to do a full burn in test of all the components before putting windows on.
Originally posted by kref1:
Quote:It seems as though a solution has already been found. But here is another idea.Try download a version of knoppix linux that has full nfts read/write support Kanotix.
Why, thank you too! I actually have a Knoppix CD. A friend, who's a Linux freak has insisted on giving it to me. I don't know if it has Kanotix, though. I must admit shamefully, that I feel much more comfortable with DOS than with Linux, though.
Quote:It seems as though a solution has already been found. But here is another idea.Try download a version of knoppix linux that has full nfts read/write support Kanotix.
Why, thank you too! I actually have a Knoppix CD. A friend, who's a Linux freak has insisted on giving it to me. I don't know if it has Kanotix, though. I must admit shamefully, that I feel much more comfortable with DOS than with Linux, though.
DR_ST, you may be interested in knowing that the Offline NT Password & Registry editor that was linked to above was just updated a few days ago, apparently fixing a bug that could happen when writing back to the NTFS partition.
So should you use it, I would recommend an upgrade. I just happened across that page a few days ago, and it's definately a great, great tool.
Cheers
So should you use it, I would recommend an upgrade. I just happened across that page a few days ago, and it's definately a great, great tool.
Cheers
