Cannot delete file

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gaz
  • Start date Start date
G

Gaz

I've got a DivX file that can't be moved or deleted - I
get the message "Cannot delete file - it is being used by
another program or person". Now, I know why that message
usually occurs... but nothing is using the file! even
fresh from a reboot, I get the same message. The only
thing that starts up when XP does (aside from all the
background system processes, obviously) is the volume
control panel, the eject hardware thing, and Kerio
Personal Firewall. It's the only file which behaves like
that. Anyone got any ideas?

Any help appreciated.
 
Have you tried rebooting and then trying to delete it? Have you tried
starting in Safe Mode and deleting it there. Boot the system, start hitting
F8, select Safe Mode from the menu when it appears and press enter.
 
One workaround that has worked for me on undeletable files - and I'd still
really like to know how they add that attribute, if anyone knows - is to
right click it and uncheck all the properties, then create a new folder,
drag the file into it, then delete the folder.
Maybe that'll do it.
Chek
 
Gaz said:
I've got a DivX file that can't be moved or deleted - I
get the message "Cannot delete file - it is being used by
another program or person". Now, I know why that message
usually occurs... but nothing is using the file! even
fresh from a reboot, I get the same message. The only
thing that starts up when XP does (aside from all the
background system processes, obviously) is the volume
control panel, the eject hardware thing, and Kerio
Personal Firewall. It's the only file which behaves like
that. Anyone got any ideas?
Click to expand...

Couple of things:

First, try this registry hack to help speed things up:
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1209/

Second, to erase these files, you may want to try this:
Reboot.
Without accessing any GUI listing of the directories, open a command prompt.
Browse (using CD, DIR and such) to the directory in question in the command
prompt. Once there, get a directory listing and then type:

delete "filename of file you want to get rid of.extension"

and it should erase the file. It seems Windows XP is reading the file
information of the movie/mpg/avi/blah blah files all the time.. If anything
is wrong/weird/etc - it may not let go for you to erase it. Thus, in a
command prompt, this does not happen. The reboot simply clears things up
first.
 
Thanks to everyone for their help. In the end I got rid of
the file by saving a blank notepad file as a same-named
file, chosing to overwrite the old (undeletable) one, then
deleting that.
 
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