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Won't Lemme Delete File

There is this file (a video I downloaded) and now it won't let me delete it. It freezes up the window when I try to delete it then I get a message that the file is being used by a program. And yes I have made sure there is no processes running and tried to delete it but still it won't work.

Just restart you're computer then delete it.

That doesn't work.
I've had this file for months on my computer and I have been trying to delete it for months.

It should just delete if its a video file, If its an EXE file or an executable thats a different story...

.When I select in folder options to show the extension it says it is an avi file and it won't let me look at the properties of the file. It's weird.

Do you have Norton Systemworks? There is a Wipe Data feature plus a lot of other stuff that you could try, or you can try deleting it through the command line, that has sometimes worked for me. Make sure also that Read-Only is unchecked.

I tried to do the read-only but the properties box just won't open to allow me to do so. I'll see if I can borrow my friends Systemworks software.

even wipe up couldn't delete it

Last edited by notasitseems, April 20th, 2003 06:28 AM (Edited 1 times)

Hmm, that is weird. Have you tried deleting it through the command line? Other than that, you could always format your hard drive.

Not positive if you are running Windows XP or not, but it's a known problem with the software. What sometimes works on my machines is to open the Task Manager and do an end task on explorer.exe (which will close the start menu and such, but will leave the task manager running). Then click file and then new task, click browse and find the file you want to get rid of, right click it and delete it. Then press cancel and type explorer.exe in the new task window and hit ok, XP will fire back up and all should be well.

This isn't always 100% though, I've had a few times where this doesn't work. You could then try restarting into safe mode and see if you can delete it.