delete a file

[Tuffgong4]

ok it's gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to everyone thanks a lot for all the help I appreciate all of it and especially to howling wolf that *.ext worked perfectly...thanks a lot everyone! I'll be clicking a lot of rep points for this post

 

[yoyo]

Regarding spaces in file and folder names - simply set the filename or path between quotes

C:\documents and settings\<username>\desktop> del "name name - name.rar"

 

[Tuffgong4]

ah another good tip...

 

[Howling Wolf]

ok it's gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to everyone thanks a lot for all the help I appreciate all of it and especially to howling wolf that *.ext worked perfectly...thanks a lot everyone! I'll be clicking a lot of rep points for this post

You're welcome, me glad I could add my two cents, for once...

 

[Hipster Doofus]

I really don't believe that we haven't got this one figured out as yet. I mean all the replies......which is good to see though. The answer is often quuite simple.

Deleting files - Access Denied Error

Just open NOTEPAD and then click on "OPEN". Navigate to the file in the little Notepad "explorer" window and right click on the .avi file and delete it.

OR this

Explorer.exe in XP has a bad habit of wanting to hang on to files, even when you have finished using them - therefore when you try to delete the file, XP will say "Access Denied".
This error occurs more often when working with media files - mp3, avi, mpeg etc.
TIP:
Close all open applications.
Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory with the offending files.
Then open the Task Manager and click on the Processes tab. select "explorer.exe" under Image Name. Click "End Process".
That will leave you with only the command prompt and the task manager running.
Now at the Command Prompt, its time to delete the file(s). Using the DEL command. Example c:>\movies\DEL movie.avi
Now the files are deleted, go to the task manager and click on the Applications tab. Click the "New Task" button. in the dialog, type explorer.exe and click OK.


For folders the command is 'rd'.

This works 9/10 times.

 

[fitz]

I can think of a couple ways to make this possible as I have come across this same problem to various degrees of difficulty.

1) Sometimes, I can just open a command prompt and delete it from there when the windows GUI wouldn't let me. Start/Run/cmd.exe - navigate to the directory and del <filename>. Spaces in filenames can be worked around either using the 8.3 name usually listed if you type "dir /x" or typing the full name with spaces with quotes around it (ie: "c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\My Documents")

2) You could start in safe mode and use the command prompt from there. Personally, I don't like doing this - it's almost like admitting failure.. Don't ask, it's an ego thing..

3) Use some free SysInternal utilities (either Handle: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/handle.shtml or Process Explorer: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml) to show you what process is holding that file open and kill it.. then delete the file

4) Use other utilites like microsoft's (unsupported) inuse.exe (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/inuse-o.asp) to replace the file in use with a Null file on the next reboot.

5) Load up Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) and load up a BASH shell and delete it from there. Umm... unless you know what Cygwin is and what a BASH Shell is, don't use this..

6) If all else fails, go burn a copy of Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net/) onto a CD and boot off it and mount your HD and delete the file. Again, if you don't know anything about unix and/or linux in particular, either choose a different option or learn it. Knoppix is a great way to learn it BTW since it is a self-contained live linux CD.

Hope any of these can help.

I can think of other ways.. but one of these usually works.