I've recently updated my site hugely. It used to rely on an old
database system of a series of small text files sitting in a folder. I
wasn't too SEO-concious, so I didn't really stop Google from indexing
them. Now the site's updated to use SQL, those old text files, and the
folder they were in, no longer exists.

I requested it be removed from the index, since Google was giving me
warnings about the text files returning 404s. Well of course they
would, they aren't there any more. But I've been denied removal from
the index of these references.

One of the allowed reasons for removal states "Make sure the content
is no longer live on the web. Requests for the page or imate you want
to remove must return an HTTP 404 (not found) or 410 status code."

Every last one of the warnings in Webmaster Tools is reporting a 404
for these documents, and yet I'm denied removal of them? Doesn't make
sense. I'd rather Google didn't continue to link to scrappy content
that doesn't even exist on my site any more, but taken the proper
steps doesn't seem to have worked.

Hi, Disco--

If you're requesting removal of the whole directory at once, you need
to block that directory in your robots.txt file in order for your
request to be accepted.

You could also submit each of the text files in an 'Individual URL'
removal request, which should be successful if they're all returning
404s. 404s aren't enough for a directory removal, however, since it's
possible for a directory to return a 404 status code, but still serve
out other files underneath it. This help topic gives the details:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=61062

Hope this helps!

Thanks very much for your help! I'll get on it.
-Disco

Are you SURE that's happened?

Google asks you to back up a removal request with some proof that the
page is yours.  A robots.txt entry, deleting the file, or adding a
noindex tag.  Since they're text files, the last one is inapplicable.
So it's robots.txt or deletion and a deliberate 404.

So you have to check.  Have you done a site: search to check if the
pages really _ARE_ still in the index.  And I mean their actual
content, not just the title line in SERPs?  It seems that 404s, once
reported on the Webmaster Console, can take some little time (!) to
clear.