Illegal Characters in path

Question

I have a CD that have some folders with illegal names like : <<setup>>, null ,etc
These folders contact some files that run properly. I want to run or copy them but I can`t.
I use System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(Path) and also FileCopy but it return an error :
Illegal characters in path. Is it possible to copy these files from these kinds of folders ?

Thank you for your help

Answer 1

Illegal characters in path simply means that the file path contains an illegial character, the illegal characters are:
\ / : * ? < > |

EDIT: oh i see, HOW DID YOU GET THEM ONTO A CD IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?!?!

Answer 2

Mooshy wrote:

I have a CD that have some folders with illegal names like : <>, null ,etc These folders contact some files that run properly. I want to run or copy them but I can`t. I use System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(Path) and also FileCopy but it return an error : Illegal characters in path. Is it possible to copy these files from these kinds of folders ? Thank you for your help

 

Try this to delete illegal names. Add a listbox and set its visible property as false:

 

Code Snippet

Dim change As String

Dim file1 As String = "C:\Users\Alessio\Documents\ci.a<.txt"<O.TXT"< P>

 

 

Code Snippet

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

 

Try

Process.Start(file1)

 

Catch ex As Exception

MsgBox(ex.ToString())

 

If file1.Contains("<") Then

Dim words As String = file1

Dim s As String

Dim split As String() = words.Split(New [Char]() {"\"})

 

For Each s In split

Me.ListBox1.Items.Add(s)

Next

 

Dim number As String

number = Me.ListBox1.Items.Count

change = Replace(Me.ListBox1.Items.Item(number - 1), "<", "")

My.Computer.FileSystem.RenameFile(file1, change)

file1 = Replace(file1, "<", "")

Process.Start(file1)

End If

 

Finally

MsgBox("The new name of the file is" & " " & change)

End Try

End Sub

 

 

Hope it helps.

 

Ale N.

Answer 3

Thank you for your post. But I think you didn`t notice to these things :
1- I have a folder with Illegal characters not a file.
2- These files are on CD, so I can`t change their names.
3- I want to get files names from this folder and copy them. Not run them !

But thank you anyway

Answer 4

Mooshy wrote:

Thank you for your post. But I think you didn`t notice to these things : 1- I have a folder with Illegal characters not a file. 2- These files are on CD, so I can`t change their names. 3- I want to get files names from this folder and copy them. Not run them !

 

Thank you Cameron and Ale for your friendly help.

 

Hi Mooshy,

 

I think you firstly need to do this action in DOS command line manually or programmatically:

copy all files and subfolders (from that folder on CD containing illegal characters) to a legal folder

       Xcopy SourceFolder  DestinationFolder

 

Execute Dos command line in VB.NET:

Code Snippet

 

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        Process.Start("Cmd.exe", "/C Xcopy SourceFolder  DestinationFolder")

        ' /C parameter means exiting Cmd.exe after executing command

    End Sub

 

Trackback: http://forums.microsoft.com:80/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2907940&SiteID=1

 

Then you can iterate/read all files and subfolders under a folder like this:

Code Block

Imports System.IO

Imports System.Collections

Imports System.Collections.Generic

 

Public Class Form1

 

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

 

        Dim arrFiles As ArrayList = New ArrayList()

        Dim arrDirs As ArrayList = New ArrayList()

        Dim dirpath As String = "D:\MyFolder"

 

        'Retrieve all files in the directory

        Dim strFiles() As String = Directory.GetFiles(dirpath)

 

        'Retrieve all sub directories in the directory

        Dim strDirs() As String = Directory.GetDirectories(dirpath)

 

        'Add all files to the ArrayList

        For Each name As String In strFiles

            arrFiles.Add(name)

            MessageBox.Show(name) 'It will show the file with full file path.

        Next

 

        'Add all files to the ArrayList

        For Each name As String In strDirs

            arrDirs.Add(name)

            MessageBox.Show(name) 'It will show the subfolder with full folder path.

        Next

 

    End Sub

 

End Class

Trackback:

http://forums.microsoft.com:80/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2178642&SiteID=1

http://forums.microsoft.com:80/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2334820&SiteID=1

 

 

Best regards,

Martin

Answer 5

Martin,

Your answer is very helpful. However, is there a way to get only the SUBFOLDER names WITHOUT THE PATH?

Although thread is hold, hoping to get a response.

Thank you very much,
Neil

---

neil

Answer 6

Yes, it is a simple matter of string manipulation. Check this out:

 

Dim teststr As String = "http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/thread/7cac830f-a67e-4e34-a9e7-f719240154ca"

 

 

Dim teststr2 As String = teststr.Substring(teststr.LastIndexOf("/") + 1)