thanks Boris - i am using VFP9 like you.

if i understand 'help' correctly

asort(ladir,3) would sort on date of directory - from the evidence i see displayed running this program,
the order looks correct now. Is this logical way to proceed?

k

fso = CREATEOBJECT("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
lnNum =adir(ladir,'c:\\vault\FP*','D')
asort(ladir,3)
FOR nCount = 1 TO lnnum - 0 && Loop for number of databases
? LADIR(nCount,1)+" Erased"
*fso.DeleteFolder("c:\vaniermu\vault\&ladir(nCount,1)")
ENDFOR