Q about deleting files and folders older than a certain date

[Mike Leone]

Can somebody verify something for me, please. We have a VM with literally millions of files on it. Finally I've been told that I can delete anything older than 500 days ... which is still a couple million files to get rid of. So here's the thing ...

This is obviously a structure with a lot of sub-folders.

i.e.

E:\ps\0_DC_loan>dir /s /b
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily\59_Comb_Fin.xlsx
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily\New DC Files
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily\Old DC Files
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily\Union_Comb_Fin.xlsx
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily\New DC Files\216638_141225_150202_F0132421 ck dt 1.2.15-new.xlsx
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily\New DC Files\216638_141225_150202_F0132421 ck dt 1.2.15.txt
E:\ps\0_DC_loan\Cecily\New DC Files\216638_141225_150202_F0132433_U ck dt 1.2.15-new.xlsx

and so on ...

So the question is ... some of those sub-folders may have files that shouldn't *yet* be deleted. 

Fine.

If I do 

$AllFiles = @(Get-ChildItem $ProcessingFolder -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Force)

Then loop through $AllFiles, checking the $_.LastWriteTime against my target date, I can do

Remove-Item

BUT ... what if that entry is a directory? I may not want to remove the whole directory, because there may be files in there I want. Or will there? Will the LastWriteTime of the directory be updated, if a newer file or folder is written into it? ("Yes" is what I think)

Basically, am I safe to remove a directory that has a LastWriteTime in the period I want, because any file/folder in there (or *under* there) should have a LastWriteTime in the period I want?

In the example above, the folder "New DC Files" would have a LastWriteTime in the period I want to get rid of, as long as EVERY file or folder *within* "New DC Files" is within my time period. If any file/folder under it is newer, then "New DC Files" folder itself would not be deleted (along with the newer file, of course).

I'm trying to make sure I don't leave empty directories behind, as well as not inadvertently deleting any file/directory newer than the time period I am interested in.

Since I never doubt that I'm missing some concept ... what am I missing here?

--

Mike. Leone, <mailto:tur...@mike-leone.com>

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[Belanger, Xavier B]

Hi,

According to the documentation you can exclude directories using the appropriate attribute:

Get-ChildItem -Attributes !Directory

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/get-childitem?view=powershell-7.5

If that is not available for the Powershell version that you're using you can also use this:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.psIsContainer -eq $False}

Sincerely,

-- 
Xavier Belanger

IT Security Architect | CISSP | Office of Information Security

University of North Carolina Wilmington

 

---

From: ntpowe...@googlegroups.com <ntpowe...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mike Leone <tur...@mike-leone.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2025 15:41
To: NTPowershell Mailing List <ntpowe...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [ntpowershell] Q about deleting files and folders older than a certain date

 

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[Michael B. Smith]

On ps 5.1, use -DIR to GCI. Of course, the psIsContainer also works, but is slower.

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[Wright, John M]

You should be able to use the -File parameter to only capture files.  The only drawback is that you may leave empty directories.

 

--

John Wright

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502.708.9953

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24 Hour Helpline 1.800.928.8000

  

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From: ntpowe...@googlegroups.com <ntpowe...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Mike Leone

Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2025 3:41 PM
To: NTPowershell Mailing List <ntpowe...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [ntpowershell] Q about deleting files and folders older than a certain date

 

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[Markus Klocker]

what about
 gci . *.* -rec | where { ! $_.PSIsContainer }

should only get files this way.

hth
    Markus

[Mike Leone]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2025 at 8:10 AM Wright, John M <John....@newvista.org> wrote:

You should be able to use the -File parameter to only capture files.  The only drawback is that you may leave empty directories.

Thanks. Yes, that was my biggest worry, leaving leftover empty directories.

UPDATE: I spoke to the application owner, I had the filepath to be cleaned up wrong. Apparently there is only 1 folder, and all files are in it - there are no sub-folders in this folder. It's effectively just a big old dump pocket for scanned images, no further organization (in terms of sub-folders, etc).

Which then makes my life immeasurably easier, as I just need to cycle through 1 folder, checking just each file date, and deleting as appropriate.

But it's good to know, for the future!

 

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