HOW DO YOU DELETE A FILE THAT WON'T DELETE?

[perplexed]

I have a vid clip that is not what it is supposed to be.that happens a lot.the problem is i can't get rid of this one.I have tryed to delete,rename,remove.....I scaned with anti virus and there is none.Any ideas how to get rid of this thing?? thanks, jim

 

[jliger99]

Are you using XP? If so, boot into safe mode.
Go to Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt.
Navigate your way to the file, and delete it manually.

Not that I have experience doing this or anything...

 

[GreatBarracuda]

Here you go

 

[XplosiV]

Or you could just delete it through the good old command prompt 😉

 

[1Cheap2Crazy]

Is it an .avi file? Is so, try here

 

[Lars]

You can delete those files through the file browser in Nero; for some reason that works fine.

 

[rainypickles]

see near the top of the topics, there is a search button. type the word delete and you will find other threads on this topic.

i'm not being mean. i read this forum a lot, and i've seen this question a lot recently. we should sticky one of the threads or put it in the anandtech faq.

 

[rh71]

I kill explorer thru task manager and delete the file (usually AVI) through command prompt afterward. You can re-start explorer by going to new task --> "explorer" within task manager.

 

[Psych]

Don't you guys think that the "Delete the Undeletable File" instructions should be a stickied note/topic?

 

[AtTheGates]

Originally posted by: Psych
Don't you guys think that the "Delete the Undeletable File" instructions should be a stickied note/topic?

Yes and also Task Manager's tiny footprint mode.

 

[Czar]

restart the computer,go to the directory where the file is, create two text files with names so they go before it and after it in the file listing, select all three files and press delete

this happens because windows is trying to read the length of the file and some other info but the file is broken and it just freezes and doesnt finish reading it

 

[Nikamichi]

Stop downloading pr0n.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Originally posted by: Czar
restart the computer,go to the directory where the file is, create two text files with names so they go before it and after it in the file listing, select all three files and press delete

this happens because windows is trying to read the length of the file and some other info but the file is broken and it just freezes and doesnt finish reading it

Czar hit the nail SQUARELY on the head. I've been fighting with a corrupt avi file for months, and that did it. Thx.

 

[Bojax]

Originally posted by: 1sikbITCH

Originally posted by: Czar
restart the computer,go to the directory where the file is, create two text files with names so they go before it and after it in the file listing, select all three files and press delete

this happens because windows is trying to read the length of the file and some other info but the file is broken and it just freezes and doesnt finish reading it

Czar hit the nail SQUARELY on the head. I've been fighting with a corrupt avi file for months, and that did it. Thx.

Yep, This was the best and easiest method for me as well

 

[vailr]

What about deleting the "undeletable" directories that MS WinXP pre-sp2 Hotfix updates put on NTFS-formatted hard drives? These folders have random names like "1ede1117586d9877aafeba08bb4767", and subfolders named "sp1".