What's the fastest way to delete a large folder in Windows?

Brent_Plump_11766 0
Viewed 487127

I want to delete a folder that contains thousands of files and folders. If I use Windows Explorer to delete the folder it can take 10-15 minutes (not always, but often). Is there a faster way in Windows to delete folders?

Other details:

  • I don't care about the recycle bin.
  • It's an NTFS drive.
file-management windows-xp windows
6 Answers

Using Windows Command Prompt:

rmdir /s /q folder

Using Powershell:

powershell -Command "Remove-Item -LiteralPath 'folder' -Force -Recurse"

Note that in more cases del and rmdir wil leave you with leftover files, where Powershell manages to delete the files.

spdenne_117210

use fastcopy, a free tool. it has a delete option that is a lot faster then the way windows deletes files.

Admin1

use the command prompt, as suggested. I figured out why explorer is so slow a while ago, it gives you an estimate of how long it will take to delete the files/folders. To do this, it has to scan the number of items and the size. This takes ages, hence the ridiculous wait with large folders.

Also, explorer will stop if there is a particular problem with a file,

user_264630

and to delete a lot of folders, you could also create a batch file with the command spdenne posted.

1) make a text file that has the following contents replacing the folder names in quotes with your folder names:

rmdir /s /q "My Apps"  
rmdir /s /q "My Documents"  
rmdir /s /q "My Pictures"  
rmdir /s /q "My Work Files"

2) save the batch file with a .bat extension (for example deletefiles.bat)
3) open a command prompt (Start > Run > Cmd) and execute the batch file. you can do this like so from the command prompt (substituting X for your drive letter):

X:  
deletefiles.bat
Admin1
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