Difficulties deleting entire contents of a directory

[aleph01]

Hi forum!

The library where I work redirects all public My Documents and items to be burned to CD into a directory, C:CD.  We've been using a .vbs script to delete the contents successfully until Windows 8.  I need a script to simply delete the entire contents, files and folders within that CD directory.

FileDelete ("C:CD") deletes the files but leaves any subfolders a patron may have created.

I've tried

DirRemove ("C:\CD\", 1)
Sleep (1000)
DirCreate ("C:\CD\")

but the CD directory either isn't created, or is not accessible due to our patron profile restrictions.  This is true even if I use another script to run the intended script as an administrator (using RunAs).

I created another directory in which I created a CD directory to use in this way

DirCopy ("C:cdSourceCD", "C:CD", 1)

but I still get the same results.

Am I overlooking the ideal command for this or is there a better approach?

Thanks for any input.

_aleph_

[BrewManNH]

Try adding #RequireAdmin to the script, if the user is an admin you need the correct permissions to delete a folder from the root of the C: drive.

Easier way to do it, don't use the root of the C: drive to store the folder any longer, since Vista+ has restricted access to deleting/adding folders in that location it's no longer a good idea to do this.

[JLogan3o13]

I would use first do a FileDelete(<directory> & "*.*") to get rid of all the files. Then I would do a _FileListToArrayRec, create an array of the folders, and delete wth recursion.

Edit: Missed the root of C: reference. If that is the case, then I would also add #RequireAdmin as BrewManNH suggests.

Edited March 4, 2015 by JLogan3o13

[aleph01]

I was unaware of restrictions on the root of C:.  I actually do have #RequireAdmin, it seems my copy and past skills are weak today  .  I guess we'll go with FileDelete until I get a chance to check out _FileListToArrayRec.  Thanks for the help.  I may be back if _FileListToArrayRec boggles my mind - I'm not the sharpest at working with arrays.

Thanks again,

_aleph_

[aleph01]

JLogan3o13,

I had a little trouble figuring how to reference the array elements, and I know it probably doesn't look like much to you, but I'm very happy with myself for figuring this out.  Thanks for the  _FileListToArrayRec tip.

#include <Array.au3>
#include <File.au3>
#RequireAdmin

FileDelete ("C:\CD\*.*")
Sleep (1000)

Local $aArray = _FileListToArrayRec("C:\CD\", "*", $FLTAR_FOLDERS, $FLTAR_RECUR, $FLTAR_SORT)
;    _ArrayDisplay($aArray, "Sorted tree")

If @error Then Exit

For $FLDR = 1 to $aArray[0]
    DirRemove ("C:\CD\" & $aArray[$FLDR], 1)
Next

[aleph01]

Sorry,

I spoke too soon.  While I am happy to have worked out how to reference the array, this works wonderfully on my system, but not on the public computers - the subfolders remain.  It must be a permissions thing.  Can someone think of any way I might be able to get this to work where I need it (on the public machines?)

Thanks,

_aleph_

[JLogan3o13]

What you have looks good. One suggestion I would offer, if you set the last parameter ($iReturnPath) to $FLTAR_FULLPATH, you can do something like this in your For loop:

For $i = 1 to $aArray[0]
    DirRemove ($aArray[$i], 1)
Next

Other than that, it looks great.

[JLogan3o13]

If you need to run it as a specific account, look at RunAs in the help file. You may be forced to do two scripts, one to run the delete, and one to run the first as your local administrator account.

[aleph01]

Sorry to flip-flop on ya'll so much.  I went back to using a RunAs script to start my Delete script and it's now working on the patron machines.  So, our computer reservation software couldn't call .vbs scripts, so we had it call a .bat file to start the .vbs.  Now we're in a mixed  environment, so calling the .bat file isn't going away soon, as it works great on the XP systems.  But on the Windows 8 systems, we have a .bat file calling an Autoit.exe calling another Autoit.exe.  This is how documentation becomes so important.

Thanks, all.

_aleph_