hey justsomeguy,
i guess i gave you information which was for windows 98 but when it comes to
windows xp things work a bit differrently. i got to know that just now
through my own research though.

ok first the folder that we are looking for is "recycler" and its not in the
windows folder rather its on the c drive itself. what you need to do is to
check a few options first. like for one you need to go into the folder
options and first select show hidden files and folders as well as uncheck the
option below that is hide protected operating system files.

once you have done this now just type in your run box "cmd" and press enter.
On the command prompt first come back to the c:\ prompt using cd\ and after
that use cd recycler to get to this folder.

next, use the dir /ah to list all the hidden folders that we have here.
these will be long alphanumeric names.

now you will need to go into each and every folder, use the attrib command
to check the attributes of all files present in that folder as well as to
list them. now use the attrib command to unhide them and then delete them.
but make sure you dont delete the desktop.ini file in any of these folders.

Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year
yogi

"JustSomeGuy" wrote:

> Carol, Nice try! Good idea...wish it worked, but...unfortunately, showing
> hidden files doesn't reveal the problem files stuck in the Recycle Bin.
> They're still invisible. So there's no way to get the file to appear so as to
> select it. I suspect it will take some kind of registry hack to repair this
> one...
>
> "Carol2" wrote:
>
> > Just taking a stab at this, but it can't hurt anything....... right
> > click on the Recycle Bin & choose Explore. Go to Tools>Folder
> > Options>View & put a mark in the box by Show Hidden Files & Folders.
> > Now..... Try right clicking on the file & choose Restore..... Then go
> > to the file's original location & rename it to something shorter &
> > delete it again. If the problem is as you stated, you should be able to
> > delete it with the shortened name.
> >
> > Carol2
> >
> > "JustSomeGuy" <JustSomeGuy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:0A174658-6B2A-4AF2-8D74-38C8A58223A9@microsoft.com...
> > > In XP Pro SP2, I deleted a file that had a path that was excessively
> > > long.
> > > Now I have that file (and a bunch of others) stuck in the recycle bin.
> > > The
> > > bin looks empty but when I try to Empty Recycle Bin, i get the
> > > message,
> > >
> > > "Are you sure you want to delete these 26 items?" (that I can't see)
> > >
> > > When I say Yes, i get:
> > >
> > > "Cannot delete [my big long filename]: The file name you specified is
> > > not
> > > valid or too long. Specify a different file name."
> > >
> > > So, How can I force-empty the Recycle Bin...?
> >
> >
> >