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XP will not let me delete certain video files!

A

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Ok here is the gist of it:
I have been downloading a lot of divx files lately using direct connect and I'm archiving them on my computer. I have some that I have mulitple copies of or for other reasons wanted to delete. When I try to delete, it gives me a file is in use error and refuses to delete it. Well, I tried the obvious things and make sure that my file sharing apps were all off, media player was closed down etc. It has been a few weeks and they still cannot be deleted. I have tried turning off all my running applications and still no go. I now have several hundred MB worth of files that I can't delete. Is this a file system error maybe?
 


<< Ok here is the gist of it:
I have been downloading a lot of divx files lately using direct connect and I'm archiving them on my computer. I have some that I have mulitple copies of or for other reasons wanted to delete. When I try to delete, it gives me a file is in use error and refuses to delete it. Well, I tried the obvious things and make sure that my file sharing apps were all off, media player was closed down etc. It has been a few weeks and they still cannot be deleted. I have tried turning off all my running applications and still no go. I now have several hundred MB worth of files that I can't delete. Is this a file system error maybe? >>


do you have the little preview web view thingie turned on? because that opens the file and wont let you delete it while it's showing the preview thing.
 
This is a known bug. Reboot your computer and as soon as winxp finishes loading, you should be able to delete the file. You HAVE to delete it within like the first 30 seconds that winxp loads though, otherwise it will not let you.
 


<< This is a known bug. Reboot your computer and as soon as winxp finishes loading, you should be able to delete the file. You HAVE to delete it within like the first 30 seconds that winxp loads though, otherwise it will not let you. >>



Must be a porn protection scheme 😉
 
welcome to the club.

try this:

goto my computer, tools, folder options, view (tab), scroll all the way to the bottom and uncheck the 'Use simple file sharing' box.

u might also want to try loading XP in command line safe mode only, as administrator....then navigate to the directory, attrib -h -s -r the directory and delete the files.
 


<< This is a known bug. Reboot your computer and as soon as winxp finishes loading, you should be able to delete the file. You HAVE to delete it within like the first 30 seconds that winxp loads though, otherwise it will not let you. >>



thats kind of a ridiculous thing for a "Flagship OS" to do .. got a link ?
-neural
 
the only files i have seen which protect themselves are porn....or so i've heard 😛
it's not called this is it?
vouyer pokemon teen britney spears jennifer lopez xxx porn.mpg

😀
 


<<

<< This is a known bug. Reboot your computer and as soon as winxp finishes loading, you should be able to delete the file. You HAVE to delete it within like the first 30 seconds that winxp loads though, otherwise it will not let you. >>



thats kind of a ridiculous thing for a "Flagship OS" to do .. got a link ?
-neural >>




I don't have a link. I've experienced this problem first hand with videos that I've downloaded from Kazaa. Other people have had this problem as well and have posted on messageboards such as VCDHelp . It's probably a problem with file sharing apps. The only way we've been able to delete them is right after winxp boots.
 
Same thing happened to me, i got it to work finally by emptying the directory of other files, and then just deleting the directory itself. it was the only thing that worked for me. give it a shot.
-----Krugger
 
If all else fails you should have no problem deleting them from recovery console.

I have run into this problem with all kindsa different file on XP... damned annoying. I dont understand why MS has trouble with the simple things.... deleting files, shuting down, etc....
 
LOL on the porn jokes...it might just be what he wants to delete's...

anyways..i noticed the same problem when i made an image of my drive...the image is like 6gb..and i dont need it anymore...but the darn thing for some reason cannot be deleted...

i'll try some of the suggestions from here and see if they work...
 


<< DOS still here.

What about the command prompt? >>



it doesn't work that way, you are still in windows which means that porno file is still running the trojan or whatever it is that makes windows claim "you cannot delete this file because it is BEING USED BY ANOTHER PROGRAM"
going to dos makes everything shut down, nothing running in the background. you can delete whatever the heck you want in dos. man i miss dos 🙁
 
Actually it isn't pr0n(though not much less embarassing), I am actually collecting Star Trek episodes. I have about 50GB worth now. I am going to borrow a friend's FireWire Hard drive when I am ready and take them to school and burn them onto DVD-Rs at this faculty lab I have access to. At the moment I don't have a lot of space left, so I am trying not to move stuff around. Also, when you are using file sharing apps that much, fragmentation becomes a serious problem, especially with big video files, as the defrag utility has problems finding big enough gaps to move everything with. This drive usually ends up being 70+% fragmented and the performance can really start to suck, so I am trying to not mess with the files in it until I am ready to burn, other than freeing up more room to store stuff.
 


<< Try renaming them first to something short without spaces. >>




You can't rename these files. It gives the same message as when you try to delete them.
 
I've been having this prob too. I've found that I have "better" success when I open nero 5.5, and browse my comptuer in that program, I am then able to delete it "more often" Not always though.

You're right, Its really annoying
Cigar
 
This is caused by "out of spec" AVIs that cause Windows to choke when it tries to open the files to obtain information used for preview and for some of the data (file length, bitrate, etc) that can be shown in explorer.

To work around, open a command prompt. Then use task manager to kill explorer.exe, and switch back to the command prompt. Delete the files using good 'ole "del *.avi" -- or whatever. Then use task manager to restart explorer.exe.
 
XP is written with the NT code mind you, and is based on processes. I wouldn't be surprised if a smudge of Kazaa is running and it is feeding junk through the port, thereby not allowing you to use a file that is in actuality in use.


I delete stuff if Iclose the progs(all of them) down and shut down the processes...


Sometimes that"bug" still shows bloddy bastidious head..
 
Just move everything else out of that folder. Go to Start>Run and type in "cmd" to get to the command prompt. You will need some DOS skills to navigate to the folder with the troubled files. Then type del *.*


That should do it.




If not - take the HD out. Put it in another machine and delete it from there.
 
if you guy's have trouble deleting *.avi files under winXP
then this should solve your problem
open regedit (start/run/regedit)
fin the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32
and just delete it
after you're done with that - then you have no more problems with deleting avi's

done it my self - and it really works
 
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