Permission errors in PowerShell

Question

I am new to PowerShell. When trying to write a simple script that deletes the contents of a folder and then fills it with files copied from a different folder, I always get a PermissionDenied error.

Details:

+ remove-item <<<<  D:\path\* -recurse
    + CategoryInfo : PermissionDenied: (save.gif:FileInfo) [Remove-Item], IOException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveFileSystemItemUnAuthorizedAccess,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand

Where is the problem? I am able to manipulate both folders through Explorer. The error occurs both when running from a script file and from shell (using Windows PowerShell ISE). The ISE process runs under my account. I'm running Windows 7 Professional and am a local administrator.

Edit: After Richard's suggestion, I tried the verbose mode (which seemed to have no effect).

PS Z:\> $error[0] | fl * -force

PSMessageDetails      : 
Exception             : System.IO.IOException: Not Enough permission to perform operation.
TargetObject          : D:\path\file.txt
CategoryInfo          : PermissionDenied: (D:\path\file.txt:FileInfo) [Remove-Item], IOException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveFileSystemItemUnAuthorizedAccess,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
ErrorDetails          : Cannot remove item D:\path\file.txt: Not Enough permission to perform operation.
InvocationInfo        : System.Management.Automation.InvocationInfo
PipelineIterationInfo : {0, 1}

I don't see anything of much use there (but thanks for the tips anyway).

Edit 2: Okay, here's the script source:

remove-item D:\path_A\* -recurse
copy-item D:\path_B\* D:\path_A\

That's it. The remove-item seems to throw at every file.

Answer 1

Have you try :

remove-item D:\path_A\* -recurse -force

Answer 2

In addition to reasons mentioned in the above posts, i've observed that "Access Denied" error is thrown when the file is being accessed by a separate process (In my case, i had to stop the server before Rename-Item could be run successfully).

Answer 3

After this error (and assuming at that point in it the most recent error):

$error[0] | fl * -force

will expand the details of the error and exception. That should give you more information.

Another thing to do is to switch on verbose logging

$VerbosePreference = "Continue"

to get more details about specifically what operation is being performed when the error occurs.

Finally PowerShell ISE includes a debugger which allows you to step through your script.