General Discussions

you can also turn it into a virtual drive using subst via a command prompt, and from there it should be easier to work with also.

And the last suggestion is this, edit the registry to boost the Max_Path amount way above 255 (assuming you have a 64bit OS).

So basically, if I want to change the oil I need to disassemble the filter and drain the oil through the tail pipe...using only a hammer. Why Microsoft allows a directory with a path that exceeds the character limit to be created in the first place is beyond me. And then they won't allow the directory to be deleted without jumping through all sorts of hoops...

Tired rant about Microsoft aside, thank you for the assist. Like I said, I've tried various shell commands to no avail. I'm rather familiar with the various government-level defense IT systems and procedures for operating them but transitioning from military IT to civilian IT work has been a big adjustment. It's almost like they're two different disciplines. Though most of the noticeable differences lie in the procedures private sector companies use for dealing with the everyday snags that come up.

Yeah I know what you mean, if you have limits why allow them to be bypassed.

If you could get an App that simply deletes the parent directory's FAT entry, the rest would be gone. A HDD sector viewer may be good for that, but looking for the entry out of many hundreds of thousands would not be fun.