Help deleting bizarre files?

[dcloud]

I was dragged a URL from the address bar of my browser onto my 4GB OCZ flash drive, but then something odd happened. Somehow this one bookmark split into six other files and a folder, all with bizarre names (n3zo, `+$ngn, etc.). When I try to delete these weird files I get a warning message that says "Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk."

I have run my anti-virus software on the OCZ drive several times and it tells me there are no viruses. I even ran my spyware tools and had them scan the flash drive, but came up clean there, too. I was able to save the bookmark again (I put them in their own folder on the flash drive) without any problems.

If anyone has any idea about this weird problem or suggestions on how to get this bizarre file off my flash drive I would appreciate the help.

Thanks.

 

[Kreon]

How about wiping the whole flash drive

Maybe formatting it (can you format flash drives?)

 

[dcloud]

That's just it - I don't know. I already thought about reformatting it, but it's not a floppy disc. It's a flash drive and it was not cheap. I don't want to ruin it.

 

[Lord Evermore]

You can't ruin it by formatting it. And a floppy disk is way more damageable than flash. However a format may also not work, it might consider those files to be "in use" and refuse to format the drive.

Have you rebooted the system yet? That may clear up whatever is making the drive bork. Or did you even remove the flash card and plug it back in?

There's also Directory Snoop: http://www.tweaktown.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-2049.html

And there are ways to make Windows delete a file during bootup, before everything has loaded, so the file system isn't in use by anything.

 

[jkresh]

unlocker: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/ allows you to unlock any file (basically find any process using the file and stop it so you can edit/delete the file).