How can I speed up the deleting of very large directories on XP?

"I usually delete huge directories from the command line. It bypasses the Trash and is typically much faster. You should be careful and check the command you type twice, so as not to accidentally delete something really important.

The easiest way is to use rmdir:

rmdir /S /Q C:\My\Directory\Name

You need /Q to stop rmdir asking you if you're sure or not.

If some files are currently open by some process, they and the directories they contain naturally won't be deleted. There are tools that can help you understand which process locks the file, but it's a different story from this one."

"Press SHIFT + DELETE to delete files/directories while skipping the recycle bin.

Note: You cannot recover these files, but it's faster!"

I don't have a huge directory handy to test this out on, buy try using shift+delete to delete the files. This step skips the recycle bin, which ought to save you some time.

"Keep your trash can close to empty. Putting items in a full trashcan takes much longer.

Windows will quickly move items into the trash until it fills up. After that it needs to delete the oldest items in the trash to make room for new items. This process is very slow."

FastCopy includes a delete option. I haven't tried it that much myself but it may a fast alternative.