Cannot delete file

Scruff

Was trying to make some room on the hd and was deleteing a load of files but one of them keeps telling me that i cant delete the file because its being used by another application, which i know it isnt as i even started in safe mode and tried to delete it and i cant open it. So it must be corrupted somehow.
How can i delete it or is it going to be stuck there permenantely?

jay-me

what was the filename? and ext?

Scruff

it was a .avi file.
actually think there is a .zip file i had the same problem with before that i never managed to remove.

jay-me

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6130-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=26902&messageID=302327

Mr E

Windows XP can take a couple of seconds to do calculations on an AVI (movie length, etc.), which it then displays in the status bar. Click the file in explorer, wait a couple of seconds for the status bar to update, then try to delete it.

Scruff

cheers jay-me! The last method on that link worked, had tried all the other ones before.

This last solution is a bit technical and if you are unfamiliar with command lines, you may want to call it a day and leave the file you’d like to delete alone.

- Close all applications.
- Click Start > Run > type in cmd > OK, this will open a command line interface and leave this window open.
- Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and click on the Task Manager button > Processes Tab > Select explorer.exe > click End process button > this will kill all running apps in Windows including your task bar. Do not close the Task Manager window.
- Go to the command line interface, find the file and delete it.
- Go back to the Windows Task Manager, click File > select New Task (Run) > type in explorer.exe > click OK. That should bring back your task bar and you’re all done.

Ta!

Fr0g

There is a free program called unlocker that should delete the file if nothing else works. can't remember the website just google for it.

KerranJast

Another handy little trick is to open a blank notepad file and save it over the file you can't delete. Once thats done delete it.

bardcom

Check out this link:
http://www.techzonez.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-8442.html

Which suggest this fix:
=-=-=
All you have to do to fix this problem is delete the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesCLSID{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}InProcServer32

This prevents explorer from loading shmedia.dll which is used to provide you with properties of AVI (DivX) files. My understanding is that due to the way DivX files are encoded, XP has trouble collecting the properties and gives you the file in use message when you try to delete them.
=-=-=

sprinkles

I have a similar problem

I try to delete "my music" folder which only contains 1 file called "it all starts here..."

Whe I clik delete I get:

Cannot delete the file "it all starts here"...: Cannot find the specified file

Make sure the correct Path..

Any ideas???

mukki

a good trick is to rename the file or its folder and reboot, should let you delete it then (never know why it will let me rename it but not delete it but i have seen that happen a lot)

sprinkles

Tried it its still doesn't work.

Any other ideas???

rmacm

If you are viewing the folder in Thumbnail view XP sometimes won't let you delete the file as its trying to generate an image to place in the Thumbnail. If you switch to a different view by clicking on the View button and picking something like Details or List and then try delete it. A friend of mine had this problem before and that solved it.

Cheers
Rory

sprinkles

Cheers, but still no use. Its something to do witht he file in the folder the "it all starts here...." not even sure where the file came from. I was my music folder until I tried to move it found this file and shifted all my music into a diff folder.

humaxf1

A nice way to delete stubborn files like .avi, is to do the follwoing...

Make a Bart PE Live CD (all the details are on www.nu2.nu/pebuilder).

This CD is bootable from which, an operating system created from XP, loads.

Sooooo, because the OS loaded from the CD, not the hard drive, all files on the HDD are not in use, especially your .avi

Also handy for deleting infected files reported by antivirus progs, but which cannot be deleted by the AV prog.