Delete a folder that won't let me even take ownership?

Question

Windows 8.1. Admin account.

I have a hard drive installed that I use for media (ie. not system files, etc). I was testing various screen capture programs and one of them created a couple of folders that I now can't get rid of.

In the past when I run into this kind of problem, it is fixed by either changing the permissions or, when that fails, taking ownership and then changing the permissions. But in this case, it won't even let me do that!

Right-Click -> Properties -> Security:

You must have Read permissions to view the properties of this object

OK, so click Advanced. Can't do ANYTHING.

Beside "Owner" is:

Unable to display current owner _Change

Clicking Change yields:

You do not have permission to view or edit this object's permission settings

No option to do anything!

I'm really having a wtf moment and could use some help.

I can't even tell how much room these things are taking up as it won't even give me that information!

Edit: I think I've determined that it was the program Camtasia which did this. I installed their trial software and subsequently removed it after determining it wasn't what I was looking for. Looking at their forums I see mention of these folders, but the answer is that they "should" auto remove on their own. No suggestions on how to get rid of them.

Solution

The file is probably actually deleted, but a handle to it is locked in memory someplace and won't release until the system is shutdown.

Simplest thing to try first: Reboot the system.

Once it's done rebooting, see if the file still exists and if it does try deleting it again.

If you're still having problems after that, then perhaps check out the answers at this SU question:

• File I can't take ownership of

Comments

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

Seems simple, but have you tried rebooting yet?

[bcsteeve]

Man, now I feel duuuumb. Thanks for your help, rebooting did it. And during the reboot process I saw why. A rogue process from that uninstalled program was still running, no doubt locking those folders. Still, strangest permissions issue I've ever run across.

[Mark Jeronimus]

I had the same problem, but rebooting didn't work. Luckily I had a Linux PC at hand. For those who don't have (live) Linux but have a space USB stick, you can make one in 5 minutes: ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows (choose lubuntu)

[Petr Újezdský]

Finally, I was unable to delete Steam games backup (the Disc_xx subfolders). Thanks for this tip!