Comments on: Delete files older than certain number of days

By: manus

manus — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:05:43 +0000

Hi there.
Thanks for the info.
I was wandering if there is a way to find the files (older than 2 years in my case) and print them out in text document or something readable to send the customer.
Thanks in advance.

By: James Clements

James Clements — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:44:06 +0000

Hi cici. I have just looked and tested what the command that you used above and the syntax is correct. It actually works fine for me! I wonder if there is a problem with the '@' symbol if you have copied/pasted the command? (I have seen issues where the character set appears different when pasting into the command prompt - especially with things like quotes e.t.c)

I assume you have tried typing it all out as well?

By: cici

cici — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:20:32 +0000

I am running this on WinServ 2003, but I keep getting this error:
ERROR: Invalid argument/option - '/q'.
Type "FORFILES /?" for usage.

If I take out the /q, then I'll get
ERROR: Invalid argument/option - '@path'.

I don't see anything wrong with my command. Any idea?

Here's my command:
forfiles.exe /p c:\data\log\ /s /m *.* /d -365 /c "cmd /c del /q @path"

Thanks in advance

By: Seth

Seth — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:32:21 +0000

PROBLEM #38: Hi,

I tried to running this in my system(WIN-XP operating system), for some reason it is NOT deleting any files.
I didn't had forfiles.exe in my system, I downloaded from the net and placed it in D:\forfiles.exe and tried to run forfiles command from command promt, but no success.

SOLUTION: for windows XP, use forfiles.exe (for 2003). This works.
Example: forfiles.exe /P "C:\DATAHOUSED\SORT" /S /M *.vot /C "cmd /c del /q @path"

By: kantzy

kantzy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:03:18 +0000

This tool deletes the files but leaves the folders. So is there a way to delete the folders(empty) as well using this command ?
Note that the "Modified date" of the folder changes to the command run date once the it has deleted the files.

I managed to delete the empty folders by following the below links
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,803393,00.asp
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/04/17/8399914.aspx

By: lebisol

lebisol — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:55:43 +0000

Hi James,
Actually it turns out is the the syntax perhaps diff. version for win2000.
I was using win2000 kit on win2000 adv. server and what did work was:
forfiles -pC:\Folder\ -m*.* -d-7 -c"cmd /c del /q @FILE"

Thanks for posting this, it geared me in the right direction.
Awesome!

By: James Clements

James Clements — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:02:11 +0000

Hi lebisol. I believe the issue you are experiencing is caused by the fact you are using forfiles.exe from Windows Server 2003 on Windows Server 2000. I have updated the post to include download links for relevant versions.

By: lebisol

lebisol — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:16:05 +0000

@Praveen
Same here on the win2000 server....nothing gets deleted.
Then again...it IS windows...
Thanks!

By: Ralph

Ralph — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:06:00 +0000

AWESOME !!! Just what I was looking for !!!!

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:01:57 +0000

Praveen, i'm in the same boat as you..but when i ran it on my windows 2003 machine it worked fine...i think it's something to do with the forfiles not being part of XP