Cannot delete file. Says "Item Not Found Could not find this item Verify this item's location and try again."

Anonymous
2010-01-01T14:35:26+00:00

Cannot delete file.  Says "Item Not Found Could not find this item Verify this item's location and try again."

I had this file sent to me from my friend - it's a word document I had on their computer.  So I tried using Disk Cleanup to delete temporary files, temp internet files, and downloaded program files.  Doesn't work.

When I check properties, there is no security tab, so I can't transfer ownership that way.

I also don't want to experiment using the Command Prompt way of transferring ownership since the file's name is several sentences long.  I can't rename it either, of course.

Windows 7, a week in and I've already got a stupid glitch which has already wasted an hour of my time.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2011-01-25T20:37:12+00:00

What i did was create a notepad file that was blank and saved it at the same location as the file that wont go away.  once saved.  I right click the new file and rename it to the exact name as the problem file.  Be sure to change the file extension (ex: .doc)

ex problem file: word.doc

new file: word.doc

as long as they match eachother exactly you should see the problem file disappear and once thats gone you can delete the new file created.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-07-25T05:22:16+00:00

    Have you already received an answer?  After having this happen to me i believe i may have found a cure :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-05-06T18:14:16+00:00

    I have the same problem except it is a folder with nothing in it anymore that I can not delete.

    I can not move the problem folder around alone. I can move or copy the folder it is in, but the original folder stays at the original location regardless. And the new folder at the new location does not contain the problem folder...Got that:) 

    I can add files and folders to to the problem folder, then delete the files and folder I added...just can not delete this one folder.

    The tricks described above do not work because it is folder I guess.

    There is a "space" after the folder name where the "dot" would be if it was a file name. I can not rename. If I try to delete the space I get an error message that the file has the same name as the original.

    I guess I could just hide it somewhere forget about it, but after just a couple of days with Windows 7, it is just frustrating that this glitch has occured already!

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-05-06T19:38:57+00:00

    ok...found this solution on another forum and it worked...many thanks to someone named BRASH!

    Actually I skipped all the moving and renaming the "parent" folder. Just do the dos command renaming thing....

    http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/27924-could-not-find-item-when-deleting-files-2.html

    "i had this problem with a folder that had an incredibly large name and i think some files were inside of it that had the same filename..i couldn't delete or rename or do anything with it. i couldn't even go into it to see if anything was inside.so i tried the advice here and none of it worked either.but i got it eventually.. and here is what i did:since i couldn't move that folder, i renamed and moved the folder that held it (parent folder) to the number "1" and moved it to the root of the drive and it let me.. thus making the total filename/directory structure a little shorter.. I dont know if that was needed but thats what i did.Then i tried to delete that problem folder again and it still didn't work.. and still couldn't rename it to something shorter.. so then i tried something else.I ran "cmd" and in DOS i went to the directory "1" that was holding the problem-folder and then i typed "dir/x" to get the 8.3 format of the folder.. and tried "del <foldername>" and it didn't work.. Then i tried the rename command.."Ren <8.3foldername> <new shorter foldername>" and guess what? it worked!!!!!it actually let me rename it and then i closed DOS and went back to explorer and now it's acting like a regular folder that can be deleted or whatever again. "

    There are more options in that posting but this is the only one that worked for me...

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-05-05T12:24:16+00:00

    Wow the notepad trick did the trick.  I had tried tirelessly to get rid of this non-existent file and nothing worked until I found your suggestion - THANK YOU!

    I would like to add, however, that the file I was attempting to delete didn't actually have a file extension.  Just a "." after the name with nothing following.  So when I created the notepad file initially, nothing happened as it didn't match exactly.

    My solution was to enable "view extensions", then delete the "txt" extension on the file I created but still nothing.  The final step was to edit the file I created by pressing F2 and simply adding a "." and bang, the two files joined and I deleted it with ease.

    Thanks a million!

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