"Delete this file no matter what you peice of crap" command in Windows XP?

[chrisms]

I tried going in command prompt, and in Windows Explorer, to delete this media file I have (450mb). My C: drive is all out of space so I really need this gone. Every time I try to delete it Windows tells me it is being used (even immediately after startup, when nothing is running).

Is there a command I can do to just delete the file no matter what? Windows won't let me do anything to it.

 

[helpmeout]

Have you tried starting in safe mode and deleting it there?

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: helpmeout
Have you tried starting in safe mode and deleting it there?

What he said.

 

[saber800]

If it still doesn't work, use a boot disk to the command prompt and delete the file.

 

[tjaisv]

and if you need to you can download a DOS boot disk here

I think I had this problem once as well too. Don't remember what I did, I think I went into Task Manager and just started shutting down processes.

 

[VicodiN]

Look at how helpful this forum is... You all beat me to the punch

 

[eklass]

format c: | echo y




that should do the trick

 

[tjaisv]

what does that command do?

 

[Willoughbyva]

You don't want to format your hard drive so disregard the format c: answer. What is the name of the file? It isn't a swap file or anything is it? Do you know if you hard drive file system is fat 32 or ntfs? Is it Win 9X or windows xp?

 

[Smilin]

There is a fix for this!!!!!


problem is I don't know what it is.
Do a search for 'delete' and 'file'. This topic came up in the last month and there's a wierd registry hack you have to do before you delete the file.

 

[Rav3n]

If you think there is something you should do in the registry, then just open up regedit and do a search for the file in regedit and delete every entry that comes up. If its not a vital system file, then you are good to go. However, I have never had a problem deleting a file when I booted into safe mode - something mentioned much earlier in this thread. To do that: start your computer and hit F8 before the Windows Logo comes up (I just usually hit F8 repeatedly until my computer beeps at me) - it will take you to a menu - select Safe Mode. When you get into safe mode, a message telling you you are in safe mode will come up, press OK. Go ahead and delete your file - you should not have a problem at all.

 

[Tal]

Deltree? I always goto dos on a boot floppy and do a deltree command.

IE( deltree c:\command.com )


FAT32 only of course.
you can boot to safe mode with command prompt with WinXP and do a similar thing.

 

[Antoneo]

My friends have had this problem before as well in WindowsXP. They had a movie that refused to delete. Like most people in this thread, I suggested to use safe mode. In safe mode, the same error message was seen, however when my friend played another/different file (of the same extension *.avi) inside of windows media player, and then tried deleting the file with the problem, it worked.

 

[Codewiz]

VERY SIMPLE SOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click you start menu. Then click run......

From there click on the browse button and go to the file you want to delete and highlight it and press delete.

The problem is with media files and explorer using the file to create a preview.

 

[soltrain]

Codewiz - you are truely a genius. I had a stupid movie sitting on my computer that wouldn't delete either - even in safe mode. Your method worked instantly.

Can anyone tell me why my computer will suddenly run very slowly for about 5 minutes whenever I browse to a certain directory (full of movies), or run one of these movies? I've defragged multiple times, but it doesn't help. Is it just because it's full of large files?

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: soltrain
Codewiz - you are truely a genius. I had a stupid movie sitting on my computer that wouldn't delete either - even in safe mode. Your method worked instantly.

Can anyone tell me why my computer will suddenly run very slowly for about 5 minutes whenever I browse to a certain directory (full of movies), or run one of these movies? I've defragged multiple times, but it doesn't help. Is it just because it's full of large files?

I assume you are running WinXP. If that is the case then the reason it is running slow is because WinXP automatically tries to create previews for all the movies in a directory. There is a way to turn that off but I don't remember off the top of my head.

BTW, I am happy that the suggestion I posted worked. I know it works and I hope people see it before they do anything drastic to delete the file.

 

[Kartajan]

soltrain- easiest thing to stop the preview is to change your view to anything other than thumbnails.

 

[soltrain]

Hrm... sounds like it makes sense, but I never use thumbnail view. All the movies list in detailed view, and it slows the computer down massively. I'll look through the policy settings for some preview thing..

 

[flippo]

I've got the same problem with you when I download files from direct-connect
Try this solution:

I got from another source:

=======================================
The fix for Windows XP not letting you delete .avi

I've seen this coming up more and more all over the place so I figured I'd stick it here.

Avi files (divx) can be trouble in xp. there is a fix to let xp behave much better so it's possible to move or delete large avi files. The obnoxious bug in XP that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing any access to them is caused by bad behavior of shmedia.dll.

To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following
registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesCLSID{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files.

Just an extra note, if you do a "search" for this key it will not be found, look for it manually it is very easy to find. As always newbie or not, if you FUBAR your registry its your own fault. This fix does work, I use it and have applied it to many XP machines. Now go ahead and fix this royal pain in the ass!


RiG
===========================================

this solution works for me, hope work for you too.

Flippo