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Help - can't delete a file (aflash.exe)

B

bernse

Diamond Member
Running XP. I downloaded and unzipped AFLASH.EXE to my desktop (I needed to email it to a PC I am re-building). Now though, I cannot delete it. I always get an error that it is in use. It's just the DOS file.

I have re-booted several times, and I still can't delete it. I looked in my startup and kind find anything that would be "using" it right from a reboot. I've also tried diagnostic startup and I still can't delete it then.

Any ideas?
 
Can you move the file to say the root C:\ drive?

That way, if you boot up and do the whole console thing you can use del aflash.exe there.

If that doesn't work, try the good ol' drag-drop to the recycle bin (instead of shift-del). It's worked for me at times, as well as randomly shutting down processes from ctrl-alt-del's Task Manager.
 
Tried dragging to the recycle and that wouldn't, but it is letting me drag it to C:. I'll try to boot in DOS and see what happens. Thanks.
 
Delete it under "safe mode" and if that doesnt work pull up task manager and end the process. Then you may delete it.
 
Originally posted by: JBDan
Delete it under "safe mode" and if that doesnt work pull up task manager and end the process. Then you may delete it.
Click to expand...

I'm trying safe mode next. When I booted (or tried) to but with a DOS disk I couldn't see my HD.. probably because its NTFS I suppose.

I tried to find the application to kill it, but it doesn't show in my processes.... is safe mode for XP selected by holding down F8 like in Win98?
 
Got it. Booted to safe mode command prompt and deleted it from there. Thanks guys.

Any idea what could have been "using" that file every reboot?
 
You can always use Process Explorer by Sysinternals to view what process is using a certain file (Find/Find DLL...).
 
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