Utility for DOS Erase

anyone knows of a utility able to completely some choosen directories from disk such as /program files or /windows but able to save other directories?
basicly what I want to do is format my disk but without delete some directories (backup is not an option) the data that I want to save is about 50 Gb, basicly I want only to delete those 3 directories /documents & settings
/windows /program files, any suggestion?

 

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As far as doing this in DOS, I don't think so. The question is, why don't you just select these directories and delete them from within Windows????

 

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It is actually possible to move Program Files, and Documents & Settings to another drive/partition. I a few months back did exactly that to increase the room available on C:, admittedly the folders require a registry alterations to maintain the system integratey and allow you to execute programs or save settings etc.

As most will suggest, if you are looking to tweak/alter XP then check out:
www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

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no what I need to do is to erase everything within c:\ but save a few directories wich contain movies and mp3 to an overall of 50 Gb

it is impossible to delete c:\windows or c:\program files within windows
and in DOS, doing it manually would take for ever since I cannot delete directory trees, only delete the files and remove the directory.

what I really want is to erase everything in C:\ but save only my directory with movies and mp3 (without any backup)

 

Well you could get partition magic, split your current partition in two.
Leave C: the way it is but move all your movies/mp3's to D: (or what ever you call it)

This will allow you to completely format/reinstall windows and the you can access your movies/mp3's in the other partition when it's done.

 

Why can't you back it up? Stryder has a good idea with the partition for the backup. Then you could copy the files from the D: partition back to the C: partition if you want.

I don't think you will be able to delete your windows directory, even in DOS. I'm pretty sure I've tried this before. There are still going to be files that are in use, but not as many. And through DOS, it is harder to delete system files and hidden files.

Here's what I would do. If you know much about computer internals, and have a second computer to play with, and you are out of options (it is a bit drastic, but it works; I speak from experience):
1) take your hard drive out of your computer
2) put it into a second computer as a secondary drive. It won't boot from this drive, so you won't have any file sharing problems.
3) from Windows on the drive that you booted with, you can access your drive and delete anything you want from your drive.

And then if you want to use that drive for booting up on your computer, you will need to reload your OS.

The hardest part of this is getting the other computer to recognize your disk. You have to make sure to set the jumpers properly, and make sure the BIOS recognizes it.

 

it's to boring, I think partition magic would have to do the job, either way, I need a computer always connected to the net, so, I cannot really do that with my the other

 

i often look at www.sysinternals.com, their Process Explorer is just great.
I am not sure what you want, but they might have it.

 

Use the DOS deltree.exe program. It's an oldie but a goodie. Alternatively,
it's not rocket science to create a simple directory walker program that's
DOS based (I am sure it could be whipped up in < 30 mins with the old
Borland C++... or TASM if you're picky).

 

Wow, I hadn't though of that. This is actually a really good idea. If you know any programming, it should be extremely easy to do. You can even use QBASIC if you want (if you have a compiler for it).

But then, you will still run into the problem of not deleting c:\windows because of file-sharing by windows.

Basically, there is no way to delete c:\windows without a format. You can delete c:\program files\ but I don't reccomend it (you will end up with registry entries that can't be used).

So, really, your only option is to somehow back up the data you want to keep and then format your drive. The only ways I can think of backing up this much data is to do my harddisk swap idea, use Stryder's partition idea, or put in on CD's.

 

If he loads from a command interpreter exclusively then Windows will not
have an opportunity to complain about any files being in use (simply because
it will not exist as an executing set of software).

Whatever he intends to keep could be put into a reduced size partition and
then Windows could be installed into a new partition. Once everything is
up and running the contents could be moved, the older partition deleted,
and the newer partition expanded.

Of course you are absolutely correct that any actualy executables / libraries
that use the registry would not be usable; hence, only data should be the
concern of for backup.

It all sounds like such a royal pain in the butt though. I would consider
USB storage / CD burns / Zip Disks / etc. and then nuke the whole OS
from scratch with a low level format.