Remove certain folders recursively? - powershell

Question

I've a folder structure that looks like this
-2018
--01-Jan
--02-Feb
--etc
-2017
--01-Jan
--02-Feb
--etc
Is there a way to delete all directories that are over 7 years old (according to this naming structure ... not according to Creation / Modified Date etc)?
So if I ran it in August 2018 I would be left with
-2018
-2017
-2016
-2015
-2014
-2013
-2012
-2011
--08-Aug
--09-Sep
--10-Oct
--11-Nov
--12-Dec
So the 2012 - 2018 folders would remain untouched.
Any folder 2010 and earlier would be deleted.
And any folder within 2011 '07-Jul' or smaller would be deleted.
Thanks
P

Answer 1

I first created a comparable folder structure using this code:
##
## define enum for months
##
enum month {
Jan = 1
Feb = 2
Mar = 3
Apr = 4
May = 5
Jun = 6
Jul = 7
Aug = 8
Sep = 9
Oct = 10
Nov = 11
Dec = 12
}
##
## create folder structure
##
New-Item -Path c:\ -Name Testdata -ItemType Directory
2018..2005 |
foreach {
New-Item -Path c:\Testdata -Name $psitem -ItemType Directory
$path = "c:\Testdata\$psitem"
1..12 |
foreach {
$name = "{0:00}-{1}" -f $psitem, [month]$psitem
New-Item -Path $path -Name $name -ItemType Directory
}
}
That gives me an easy structure to test. I'm assuming that your year folders are subfolders of something. If they are in the root of a drive that works as well.
To delete the folders:
enum month {
Jan = 1
Feb = 2
Mar = 3
Apr = 4
May = 5
Jun = 6
Jul = 7
Aug = 8
Sep = 9
Oct = 10
Nov = 11
Dec = 12
}
$date = Get-Date
$year = $date.Year - 8
##
## delete evreything 8 years or older
##
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Testdata -Directory |
where Name -le $year |
foreach {
Remove-Item -Path $psitem.Fullname -Recurse -Force -Confirm:$false
}
##
## if Month -ne January
## need to delete some months
##
if ($date.Month -gt 1){
$path = "C:\testdata\$($year+1)"
$month = $date.Month -1
1..$month |
foreach {
$mpath = "$path\{0:00}-{1}" -f $psitem, [month]$psitem
Remove-Item -Path $mpath -Recurse -Force -Confirm:$false
}
}
I'm making an assumption about the three letter abbreviations you use but you can easily change the enum.
The code gets the current date and gets the year minus 8. It loops through your top level folder and gets the folders that are less than or equal to the year you've defined. They, and their contents, are force deleted. Only thing that could stop the deletion is if you have one of the files pinned open.
If the current month is January there's nothing else to do. Otherwise create the path to the -7 year folder and calculate the last month you want to delete. Loop through the months, build the path and force the deletion of the folder and its contents.
The bulk of the work is done at the year level with a quick clean up of the months. I'd suggest testing against a number of months to check the logic is what you need.

Answer 2

Okay, this is very simple and it will require you to do some coding and using a nested loop essentially. What you need to understand is how to use the Get-Date verb. So a sample that will remove all data recursively before 2011 would look like this
# Set your Path
$MyFolderPath = "C:\MyPath"
# Define the object to hold the folders (We are only looking for Folders not files)
$folders = Get-Childitem -Path $MyFolderPath -Directory
# Loop through each folder
foreach($folder in $folders)
{
# Using a cast to integer compare the Year using the folder name with the
# Get-Date function -7 years from this year
if([int]$folder.Name -lt (Get-Date).AddYears(-7).Year)
{
# Now remove the entire folder recursively without prompting.
Remove-Item $folder.FullName -Recurse -Force -Confirm:$false
}
}
Now to achieve it to the level of the month. I will let you play around with a nested loop and get through to that level. I hope this helps you...