Access is denied creating text file in cmd & weird "if exist" problem - batch-file

Question

For a batch file project of mine, I had to create two text files if they didn't already exist. For some reason the 'if exist "example.txt"' didn't work. What I mean by that is:
if not exist "example.txt" goto :label
wouldn't go to 'label' when the file did not exist. So, i presumed the file must be existing already (from my previous tests). The thing is that
if exist "example.txt" goto :label2
always went to 'label2', even though later in the script cmd could not find the file, and the folder is empty except the batch script (the file didn't exist). I decided I'd test the label for if the file didn't exist anyway. when I used the break> command to create the text file, it came back as access is denied. It did the same thing with the following code which i used to enter information:
>> "example.txt" echo 0
and with
del/f "example.txt"
I am a full administrator on my computer, the code I use works in other batch files I have created. I have tried running cmd in administrator (same outcome). Specifying the directory works no better in this case than using current directory. I'm wondering what is the cause of this is.
Anyway, here is the full batch script.
#echo off
title Folder Safe
color e8
if exist "infocj.txt" goto start
goto MAKESOURCE
:MAKESOURCE
rem notes: access is denied. this means that createproc doesn't work (createproc relies on makesource).
break>"infocj.txt"
attrib +s +h +r "infocj.txt"
break>"setupcj.txt"
>> "setupcj.txt" echo 0
attrib +s +h +r "setupcj.txt"
goto START
:START
echo what safe do you want to unlock (number only)
set/p "loc=>"
if exist %loc% goto LOCK
if exist Locked%loc% goto UNLOCK
echo there is no safe hashing to %loc%. do you wish to create a new safe? (y/n)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==y goto createpass
exit
:LOCK
cls
For /f "tokens=%loc% delims=;" %%i in (infocj.txt ) do set pass=%%i
echo enter password to lock Safe %loc%
set/p "qaz=>"
if not %qaz%==%pass% goto END
ren %loc% Locked%loc%
attrib/d +h +s +r Locked%loc%
exit
:UNLOCK
cls
For /f "tokens=%loc% delims=;" %%i in (infocj.txt ) do set pass=%%i
echo enter password to unlock Safe %loc%:
set/p "qaz=>"
if not %qaz%==%pass% goto END
ren Locked%loc% %loc%
attrib/d -s -h -r %loc%
exit
:createpass
echo enter password:
set/p "pass=>"
cls
echo confirm password:
set/p "npass=>"
cls
if not %pass%==%npass% (
echo the passwords you entered are not matching
timeout /t 2 /nobreak > NUL
goto createpass
)
goto createproc
:createproc
rem this stuff is screwed because the stuff under makesource is not working properly, but even if I do all that manually, a lot of this still returns access is denied
for /f "tokens=* usebackq" %%a in ("infocj.txt") do set inf=%%a
set inf=%inf%%pass%;
attrib -s -h -r "infocj.txt"
del/f "infocj.txt"
break>"infocj.txt"
>> "infocj.txt" echo %inf%
attrib +s +h +r "infocj.txt"
for /f "delims=" %%b in ("setupcj.txt") do set stp=%%b+1
md %stp%
attrib -s -h -r "setupcj.txt"
del/f "setupcj.txt"
break>"setupcj.txt"
>> "setupcj.txt" echo %stp%
attrib +s +h +r "setupcj.txt"
echo your locker hashes to the number %stp%
pause
exit
Thanks in advance for your answers. This one's got me truly stumped.