Undeletable files?

[smoking hat]

Hello-

First off, fantastic site. Just browsing the forums today has taught me a lot about the nature of p2p, spyware, adware, etc. I've downloaded adaware, search and destroy, avg, and a myrida of p2p programs in an attempt to decide which is(are) my favorite(s). In short, I appreciate this community and those who inform the uninformed.

Now! That being said:

I recently deleted all of the adult material off of my computer - it's just not worth all the baggage that comes with it. However, I have this one file that cannot be deleted. It always gives me an ! and a notification that the file is in use by another program which, to my knowledge, it is not. I've used the search feature, as I have a feeling this is a common problem, but was not exactly sure what keywords to use in order to get my answer. So any suggestions?

Again, hello and greetings to all. Glad I found this place.

[PowerMan57two]

What I do when this happens to me is just restart the computer and try to delete it. If that doesn't work, then boot into safe-mode and try deleting it there.

However, make sure it isn't a file your computer needs or something. That would be bad to delete it.

[PowerMan57two]

Oh, and to boot into safe mode you need to press one of the F1 - F12 keys on top of your keyboard. I'm not sure which one it is since I haven't done it in a while, but maybe like F10 or F11. I can't quite remember.

[Lehk]

you should try navigating to the folder with the command line
Start>Run type cmd
then
cd "documents and settings\your name\my documents\pr0n\" (use the actual directory)
then
del "*.*"
then
cd ..
then
rmdir pr0n\

[cwboy220]

hit F8 to boot into safe mode

[smoking hat]

thank you all kindly for the timely responses.

[Induna]

I think this is a common problem with XP. Some files will not budge at all. And it's mostly video files. You always get that annoying message about file being used by another program.

What I did was cut and paste the file into a different folder, then delete that folder. But sometimes I would still get that message, so I've found that if you change the file extension to .jpg or .txt that you can then remove it. To do that you need to go to tools>folder options>view, then uncheck 'hide extensions of known file types'.

[shawners]

is it that your file sharing program has it in a shared folder or in its play media section on that program. Some times when it list on your folder its at the extra details, it wont allow a deletion

[RACKnRAIL]

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html Try this!

[YWD67]

I think this is a common problem with XP. Some files will not budge at all. And it's mostly video files. You always get that annoying message about file being used by another program.

What I did was cut and paste the file into a different folder, then delete that folder. But sometimes I would still get that message, so I've found that if you change the file extension to .jpg or .txt that you can then remove it. To do that you need to go to tools>folder options>view, then uncheck 'hide extensions of known file types'.

Did the samething here. You are right it is an XP problem, and it was a video file. Screwed around with it for 3 days till I changed the extension. XP can be a twitchy bitch some times over the smallest problems.

[begoodbebad]

This isn't exactly an XP problem, it's a Real Player problem. I'll stick my neck out and say that Smoking Hat has or had Real One/Real Player installed. It's horrible software which can cause a few problems but let's deal with this one (it's easy to do):

Open Real Player
In Real Player: File>Open>Browse
Locate the file you can't delete and highlight it
Don't click OK, instead right-click and then use the delete option.
Watch the file vanish forever
If you never install Real One/Real Player you shouldn't experience this. I have come across one avi file that couldn't be deleted in this manner, it was on a friend's machine and I believe it had been a partial download from WinMX and also it had had a virus attached and the AV had failed to restore the file on removing the virus...it got deleted in dos eventually.

[Fr3dY]

I think the easiest way to delete those files is creating a text file with notepad,
and overwrite the file to be deleted with the dummy text one, and then delete the
file without problems.

[SanDiegoKid]

Sometimes windows explorer (the explorer.exe process) is still "using" the file when you confirm a delete. If you have the task manager open highlight the explorer.exe process. Just single-clicking on a file can cause explorer's cpu usage to go up a few percent. Even then it's impossible to delete the file. Wait a few seconds for the cpu usage to go to zero, then confirm the delete.

or

Open a command window then go to START --> SHUT DOWN COMPUTER. Hold down shift control alt and click CANCEL. This will shut down explorer and allow you to delete files with the command prompt. then type explorer in the command window when you are done to restore windows.

[Betamax]

If it's an avi file that's the problem, then it's probably the same problem I had. Windows is not lying when it says the file is still in use because there's a process involved in decoding avi's which becomes 'stuck' when it encounters some corruption. The command prompt solution is one option, but if it doesn't work then try:

Start regedit and remove the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D9 4-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32.
------------------------------------------------------------
note: Make a backup of your registry before you try this. Use at your own risk.

Also, I think that disabling the preview pane in Windows reduces a similar kind of problem.

[Stownplayer]

I would recommend opening task manager and killing any process that does not usually run. If your not sure then do a google search for normal processes. After killing the strange process , delete the file and restart. Also make sure you don't have some kind of spyware or virus running.

[depri]

Uhhh what do you think the build-in taskmanager is for ?
In windows XP you can press <CTRL><ALT><DEL> to open up the taskmanager.
Go to the " running processes" tab and see if you can find the program that is using your undeletable file. (this could be a mediaplayer or other mysterious program)
If you succesfully identified the right process then just end its task.
After this the file should be deletable.

You also might want to edit your msconfig.
You can do this by going to >start>run then type msconfig
Goto the startup tab and see if there is something you DON'T want to be running when windows starts and uncheck it.

That's all and this way you don't have to reinstall windows :)
It might be a difficult the first time but if you get more experienced with this its much better and fast then all other solutions mentioned in this thread.

[shawners]

IF all else fails.. Let the REFORMATTING BEGIN!!! =)

[depri]

IF all else fails.. Let the REFORMATTING BEGIN!!! =)

THAT'S SO TRUE :(

But if you reinstall, just try another OS for godsakes. Microsoft products are equal to programs in BUG-state ...

[Brycen257]

Some things I have done that worked :

1. Rename the file (and/or change the file extension) and move the file to another location.
Many times doing this will allow you to delete the file. Then restart your PC.

2. Try installing the free program regcleaner. Many times even though a program has supposedly been deleted, there are still traces left in the registry and using regcleaner to identify these entries and then delete them is fast, efficient and painless.