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Answer» Hi,
I have hundreds of unneeded backup files taking up space on my external hard drive. I have been DELETING them one at a time which is taking forever. They are each listed individually on E: rather than in a folder. If they were shown in a folder, I could just delete the whole folder. I have not yet been able to find a fast way to delete them as a group rather than one by one. They are grouped together. Is there a fast way to delete whole batches of them at one time instead of one at a time? I have WINDOWS XP Pro.SP3.
Thank you,
beachguyOpen the E drive in windows explorer and choose detail view (right click on empty space go to view then details). This is the easiest way to see all of the files if you have a lot. You want to select all of the files that you want to delete and then delete the whole group.
To just select certain files, hold down the Ctrl key and select each file by a single left click. You can then delete all of the files that you have selected at once.
To select a whole group of files, hold the Shift key and select the first file then scroll down to the last file that you want to select with the Shift key still held down. Now you will have selected everything between the first and last file. You can delete all of them at once now. If you're absolutely sure that you don't want any of those files you can press Shift+Delete and they will all be deleted without going through the recycle bin. Be careful with this because all of those files will be permanently erased.
Quote They are grouped together.
What does this mean?
Quote from: JJ 3000 on June 12, 2010, 02:29:06 AMTo just select certain files, hold down the Ctrl key and select each file by a single left click. You can then delete all of the files that you have selected at once.
To select a whole group of files, hold the Shift key and select the first file then scroll down to the last file that you want to select with the Shift key still held down. Now you will have selected everything between the first and last file. You can delete all of them at once now. If you're absolutely sure that you don't want any of those files you can press Shift+Delete and they will all be deleted without going through the recycle bin. Be careful with this because all of those files will be permanently erased.
ANOTHER technique, where all files in a folder are to be selected, is to click somewhere in the folder and the hit Ctrl/A. This selects all files in the folder. To unselect individual files, hold Ctrl and click on the file. Hi to all those who replied,
The Info. provided as to how to delete unneeded back up files was right on target. I am deleting the files I no LONGER NEED much more quickly now. I found the 1st suggestion worked great. Open to E:> click on the 1st file to be deleted while holding down the shift key. Scroll down to last file to be deleted while still holding down shift key. Then, when you get to the last file hit shift/delete and all the highlighted files will be gone. Thanks again for speeding up this process, I appreciate all the suggestions and it worked!!
beachguy
Quote from: beachguy on June 12, 2010, 02:15:58 PMI found the 1st suggestion worked great. Open to E:> click on the 1st file to be deleted while holding down the shift key. Scroll down to last file to be deleted while still holding down shift key.
Did you try my technique? It's even easier. Again, Ctrl/a selects all.
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