Cannot delete a file?
Jun 2, 2005 at 10:58 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 15

jlo mein

In some place that's not Canada ....the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
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i downloaded a video file and it seems to be corrupt or something, as when i open it in WMP it does not play.

I have tried deleting it but it says it is in use by another program. I have looked in active processes under Windows Task Manager and there doesn't seem to be anything running that is using this file.

Anybody have any recommendations?

(i just finished scanning with AVG and Ad aware and nothing happened.)
 
Jun 2, 2005 at 11:06 PM Post #4 of 15
oh yeah,and empty your browser cache files (and stop trying to download ****
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Jun 2, 2005 at 11:17 PM Post #5 of 15
I find if you delete the file through the save as dialog in a player such as wmp or media player classic, you can almost always delete the file successfully. There is a registry fix out there to disable the explorer preview that causes this error, though I haven't tried it myself. I wouldn't really recommend playing around with the registry
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Jun 3, 2005 at 12:35 AM Post #6 of 15
yeh go into safe mode and try deleting it. or go into task manager and end process explorer.exe so start menu disappears and in task manager, run "cmd" and manually try deleting it "del filename.xxx" - i think that may work
 
Jun 3, 2005 at 12:44 AM Post #7 of 15
Quick solution: reboot and try to delete.

If that doesn't work, reboot in safe mode and try to delete.

To enter safe mode, reboot your computer and hold down F8 right before windows starts loading - it should give you a menu with safe mode as an option.

If you still can't delete it (very unlikely), try a boot disk with hard drive support and delete it via dos commandline.

-dd3mon
 
Jun 3, 2005 at 3:21 AM Post #8 of 15
I don't know why or HOW this works but sometimes if I place the unmoveable file in a newly created folder then delete then it gets deleted. This only works sometimes. I've done this in Windows 98 (first) and XP Home SP1... other than that, a restart or safe mode like others have suggested work for me.
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Jun 3, 2005 at 4:52 AM Post #10 of 15
I had this problem with movie files I had downloaded. I couldn't delete it through safemode or anything else i tried. I eventualy got it i found a forum and they gave me something to copy and paste into the start->run window. From what i remember it removed a registry file that told you what bitrate and stuff like that video files were. When you go to the folder where the video was in it would load those into memory and wouldn't let you delete it is how i understood it. I'll see if i can find it.
 
Jun 3, 2005 at 6:26 AM Post #12 of 15
There are also programs that load upon boot-up, before other processes, that are designed to delete just such files that won't delete once windows fully starts. Can't remember one off the top of my head, but I've had to use one once, and it worked fine.
 
Jun 3, 2005 at 7:17 AM Post #14 of 15
Wow thanks for all the replies so quickly!!!

I rebooted in safe mode and tried deleting it...same thing happened. I then opened WMP, clicked file > open > then tried deleting the file through that window and miraculously it worked!!!

Thanks for all your responses. AND TO MAKE THINGS CLEAR: i don't know what you guys think i was downloading but it was a star wars episode III bootleg hehe...i watch it a lot...and i've paid to see it in theatres twice already.
 
Jun 3, 2005 at 7:31 AM Post #15 of 15
Such problem happens frequently and is a windows bug, to solve it, simply:

Select the file in the folder, press CTRL, select2 or 3 other files in the same folder, then unselect the file you want to delete still using CTRL and clicking, unselect the other 2-3 files, select the file you want to delete again, press delete.

That should do the trick
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A bit of explaining: with windows XP (maybe older versions too not sure) for pictures and video windows shows you a preview on the left side of the window. When you have the file selected and cant delete it because it is in use, it is because the preview settings are still loaded by windows for that file. Selecting a few others and deselecting them will help cancel those settings and let you delete the file you want.

You've solved the problem but in case it happens again you'll know next time
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