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cannot delete file in windows xp?!

M

mOrphine

Senior member
hi i need some help with deleting two files in windows.

whenever i try to delete them, windows xp tells me the file is being used by another person or another program and wouldnt let me delete them.

i've tried booting into safe mode and it still doesnt work. i cant imagine any programs that might be "using" the files. i cant boot up with floppy since the partition is in ntfs, and anyway, i dont have a floppy installed on this machine.

incidentally, the two files are "ut2004-betademo.exe".

can someone please help me out, it's becoming quite ridiculous.

thanks in advance.
 
Try deleting it via the command line. (try via the command line in safe mode too).

Start > Run > 'cmd' (enter) > (navigate to the directory the file is in) > 'del file-name.exe' (enter)

Or boot with the Windows XP CD in the drive, go to the Recovery Console, and try deleting the file there (command line interface)
 
i've tried deleting in safe mode and it doesnt work either, but havent tried safe mode's command line.

i tried booting from the winxp cd, going into recovery console, but i couldnt change directory to \documents and settings\

it tells me "access denied" even though i logged in as admin.

🙁
 
Originally posted by: mOrphine
i've tried deleting in safe mode and it doesnt work either, but havent tried safe mode's command line.
i tried booting from the winxp cd, going into recovery console, but i couldnt change directory to \documents and settings\
it tells me "access denied" even though i logged in as admin.
🙁
Click to expand...

Recovery console only gives access to the windows root and root of the drive. Try (from a cmd prompt) renaming the file to something else. After reboot trying deleting the renamed file.

Best,
Bill
 
just tried that suggestion, from the command line in windows xp, it wouldnt rename, gives me the same error.

i guess i'll try it from safe mode later but i don't have high hopes 🙁
 
Download Handle v2.10 from www.sysinternals.com.

Run it from command prompt like: handle ut2004

This will show which process has ut2004-betademo.exe in use. Then kill this process from task manager.
 
Originally posted by: LS
Download Handle v2.10 from www.sysinternals.com.

Run it from command prompt like: handle ut2004

This will show which process has ut2004-betademo.exe in use. Then kill this process from task manager.
Click to expand...

thanks for the suggestion, i'll keep that in mind if windows ever does this again :disgust:
 
One other note: if you use Direct Connect this was a common problem with older versions of the program. It would basically "lock" a file so you couldn't remove or delete it. Was fixed in the latest (2.20) version. Not sure if thats what happened for you but thought I'd throw it out since you got a fix that helps me too 🙂
 
Originally posted by: bsobel
Originally posted by: mOrphine
i've tried deleting in safe mode and it doesnt work either, but havent tried safe mode's command line.
i tried booting from the winxp cd, going into recovery console, but i couldnt change directory to \documents and settings\
it tells me "access denied" even though i logged in as admin.
🙁
Click to expand...

Recovery console only gives access to the windows root and root of the drive. Try (from a cmd prompt) renaming the file to something else. After reboot trying deleting the renamed file.

Best,
Bill
Click to expand...

I only mention this as another alternative approach to the problem. In WinXP Pro you can enable the policy that allows the recovery console to have access to all directories and removable drives. That should have worked in the case, shouldn't it?

Ernie
 
Originally posted by: Dundain
One other note: if you use Direct Connect this was a common problem with older versions of the program. It would basically "lock" a file so you couldn't remove or delete it. Was fixed in the latest (2.20) version. Not sure if thats what happened for you but thought I'd throw it out since you got a fix that helps me too 🙂
Click to expand...

yeah that's what happened to me

i was able to boot to command prompt only and delete the files though
 
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