Powershell Remove-Item item is Null when using get-childitem - powershell

Question

I am having trouble with the following script, which liberally makes use of pipelines:
$date = Get-Date -date "12/31/2010 00:00 AM" -format MM-dd-yyyy
$TDrive = "C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop"
(get-childitem -path $Tdrive -recurse -force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) |
?{ $_.fullname -notmatch "\\Alina_NEW\\?" } |
?{ $_.fullname -notmatch "\\!macros\\?" } |
?{ $_.fullname -notmatch "\\DO_NOT_DELETE\\?" } |
Where-Object {$_.LastAccessTime -lt $date} |
Remove-Item $_
I am getting the following error when I run this, meaning that the $_ is null:
Remove-Item : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Path' because it is null.
At line:13 char:13
+ Remove-Item $_
+ ~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Remove-Item], ParameterBindingValidationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorNullNotAllowed,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.R
emoveItemCommand
What I am not understanding is, why would the path ever be null? This is all one fluid pipeline, and the value of $_ should persist through the entire pipeline, should it not?
My only thought is that when the where-object finds a file that is not less than that date, it returns null through the rest of the pipeline. I believe this error happens pre-execution, however, so there is a more fundamental problem here.
The point of this script is to delete all files not in the directories listed, that are older than 12/31/2010.

Answer 1

Two things. First, you'll want to Remove-Item Foreach of the files gci finds. Second, Remove-Item takes a path. Try something like this:
$date = Get-Date -date "12/31/2010 00:00 AM" -format MM-dd-yyyy
$TDrive = "C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop"
(get-childitem -path $Tdrive -recurse -force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) |
?{ $_.fullname -notmatch "\\Alina_NEW\\?" } |
?{ $_.fullname -notmatch "\\!macros\\?" } |
?{ $_.fullname -notmatch "\\DO_NOT_DELETE\\?" } |
Where-Object {$_.LastAccessTime -lt $date} |
% {Remove-Item $_.FullName -WhatIf}