How to avoid that rmdir removes only last folder on Windows?

Question

I have a folder structure:

C:\foo1\foo2\foo3\foo4\foo5

I want delete that folder completely by:

C:\>rmdir /S foo1

Respectively rmdir /s foo1, rmdir /S /Q foo1, rmdir /s/q foo1, rd /s/q foo1, rd /s/q "C:\foo1" do the same.

But, not the wohle folder foo1 is deleted. Only foo5 is deleted, with the result message:

foo1\foo2\foo3\foo4 - The directory is not empty.

I repeat the command rmdir /S foo1. Now foo4 is deleted. I have to repeat this step 5 times until foo1 is completely deleted.

But the description of param /S is:

Deletes a directory tree (the specified directory and all its subdirectories, including all files).

What is the reason that only the last directory is deleted but not the entire directory structure?

Using cmd as administrator does not change the result.

Answer 1

The reason of the problem was Windows Explorer, which looks into C:\foo1\foo2\foo3\foo4\foo5. And the same in C:\foo1\foo2\foo3\foo4 and so on. Surprisingly, the deletion is forced when the rmdir command is called multiple times.

The effect was for me additionally reproducable and not reproducable. Interestingly one PC with Windows version 1903 had this effect, another also with version 1903 hadn't this effect.

I want delete the directories via batch file reliably. The method which I use now:

for /l %%i in (1, 1, 5) do (if exist foo1 (rd /s/q foo1))

Respectively on command-line with %i instead of %%i:

for /l %i in (1, 1, 5) do (if exist foo1 (rd /s/q foo1))