Deleting a folder in the folder tree

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2004 Mar 04, 18:14

So, Morning Star, it seems you are the only one who can do this, and the rest of us want to know your secret settings. ref. earlier posts in thread, including:

you wrote:Same result as you: both x2 and m$ exp have open handles to the dir. I delete. But it doesn't stop the deletion, and I am fairly sure it shouldn't. It doesn't stop m$ exp, and I think Nikos will confirm (when he returns) that it should not stop x2 either....

& if you can't identify what permits the operation or not, maybe Nikos has some ideas? ...

Post by **nikos** » 2004 Mar 04, 18:48

not a clue!

Brig · Post by **Brig** » 2004 Mar 04, 19:32

I just tried deleting a folder (located on my hard drive) from the tree. I right-clicked the folder name, held down Shift to bypass the Recycle Bin, clicked Delete, and it worked. The focus jumped all the way up to "Desktop," but it worked.

Then I tried deleting a folder (called "test") on a network drive: same procedure as above, got this message:

Cannot remove folder test: Cannot find the specified file.
Make sure you specify the correct path and filename.

Nevertheless, it worked--the folder was deleted.

For whatever it's worth.

JRz · Post by **JRz** » 2004 Mar 04, 20:44

Hooray!! Brig, you solved the puzzle!!

It's the recycle bin which is acting up!!

I can confirm the findings of Brig about a local drive. When you bypass the recycle bin, either by holding down SHIFT when deleting (from the context menu or through the Del key, no difference), or by disabling it all together ("do not send to recycle bin on delete" enabled), the delete operation from the tree has no trouble at all.

On a network drive is a different matter. Since the recycle bin is never involved in delete operations from a networked drive anyway, the delete should always succeed (and does in my case). The message Brig gets probably will also show up on his system when using M$ explorer to do the delete operation from its treeview. Am I right, Brig??

If I'm right, this has to do with your windows installation (which version??), so cannot be helped with respect to X2.

I did notice a problem with removing from the tree on a network share which isn't attached to a drive letter (Network Neighbourhood). When I create a single folder which is empty and then delete it, everything looks fine. The folder is deleted without trouble and focus goes to the next higher level (the share itself) and the pane shows its contents.
When I create a folder and put a subfolder and a file in it and follow the same procedure by deleting it from the tree, X2 crashes with an access violation

I'll send you the dbmon output by pm Nikos, because it is quite large

That's it for now...

Brig · Post by **Brig** » 2004 Mar 04, 21:42

JRz wrote:. . . On a network drive is a different matter. Since the recycle bin is never involved in delete operations from a networked drive anyway, the delete should always succeed (and does in my case). The message Brig gets probably will also show up on his system when using M$ explorer to do the delete operation from its treeview. Am I right, Brig??

Correct, sir. M$ Explorer behaves the same way for me. And I'm on Win2K, sp 4. The only difference between M$ and x2 (in this case) is that when I delete a folder from the tree in x2, the focus jumps up to Desktop rather than the next level up; e.g., if I delete "folder2" from this path, c:\folder1\folder2, M$ moves up to "folder1" but x2 doesn't.

Glad my two cents helped. Thanks!

Morning Star · Post by **Morning Star** » 2004 Mar 05, 00:28

JRz wrote:It's the recycle bin which is acting up!!

Well well. I guess it never really crossed my mind to mention that I always do a real delete vs. pseudo delete (ie. really move it to some hidden space wasting folder)...

Good detective work guys...

JRz · Post by **JRz** » 2004 Mar 05, 06:41

It's all in the details

Post by **nikos** » 2004 Mar 05, 08:56

deleting folders straight without possibility of undoing is spooky
but it is your data!

Morning Star · Post by **Morning Star** » 2004 Mar 08, 22:02

I always hated the idea that windoze knew better than I what was going on, and needed to protect me from myself... If I no longer need the folder, then I want it gone. Not sort-of-gone. Not pseudo-gone. Gone.

I have worked this way for years, and only once have I ever really made a serious mistake, and deleted something I really did need... and its for occasions like that that I keep r-studio installed.

Brig · Post by **Brig** » 2004 Mar 08, 22:17

I agree with Morning Star, I never understood the Recycle Bin. Files and folders are either worth keeping or they aren't. I too have worked this way for many years and have never--really, never--regretted it.

One more off-topic comment: an era is coming to an end with Nikos's decision to make x2 shareware at some point soon. Sadness. But it's his baby, he deserves to have it work for him.