delete a file

Tuffgong4

The Donger Need Food!!!!
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is there any way to force delete a file...I downloaded a game demo using bittorrent to my desktop and now I can't delete...it says it is being used by an application or another user so I started up in safe mode but still can't delete. I tried cutting back on as many processes running but still couldn't delete it. If anyone has any help it would be much appreciated cause it's driving me crazy.
 
hehe.. I get the same issue from time to time.
Is this a set up file?

Sometimes you just need to be persistent in pressing the delete button. If not, try using a shredder program. OR, if you have another OS on your machine, boot into that and delete the file from there.
 
I had the prob on movie files mainly. I had to try pressing delete again and again over a period of around 2 mins (worse case) before it finally vanished.
 
well i will try that...I tried a shredder and everything...wondering if there is a something in dos you can do to get rid of it (command prompt)
 
Haven't tried that, but i guess it should work. as long as windows is NOT loaded.
 
oh well it's a lost cause...I've tried everything except using the command prompt since I don't know the right command but I can't think of anything I can't move it can't rename it can't do anything !
 
DOS commands:

cd\ - go to system's main directory e.g. C:\

cd\documents and settings\<username>\desktop - desktop folder for user.

del <filename.abc> - delete file
 
Try this click the file once to highlight it then use the key combination
Shift+Delete.

This bypasses the recycle bin so if you delete something this way the only way to get it back is a restore of the system.

This also works good for movie files that are to large for the Recycle bin to hold.

There is also a bug in XP that causes this sometimes this article talks about it.

http://www.support.microsoft.com/?kbid=826722
 
bush dogg said:
Try this click the file once to highlight it then use the key combination
Shift+Delete.

This bypasses the recycle bin so if you delete something this way the only way to get it back is a restore of the system.
Yep, that's what I usually do... but it just comes up with the same error message.
 
I delete files that wont go in safe mode if.
If that don't work I run>msconfig and close all service (unchecking them) and all startup items reboot and close any running applications (before ne says I closed it already, ram turbo forces itself to run again with hot keyboard at start up).

Then I delete.
 
The obnoxious bug in XP that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing any access to them is caused by bad behavior of shmedia.dll. This problem manifests itself by causing Explorer to read the entire contents of an AVI file, regarless of its size or location any time the mouse pointer is hovered over it, or an attempt is made to access it in windows explorer. This causes 'permission denied' errors when trying to simply move, copy or delete these files as they cannot be changed while Explorer has an open handle on them. This also causes a DoS situation where large AVI's are stored on remote shares and Explorer keeps reading the files from beginning to end each time they are accessed. To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32 This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files. This will not effect your ability to play files, get file attributes, or even view thumbnails.

did not find this out myself but it works.
 
ok well I've tried everything except what sraycoz suggested since it's not a movie file and still a no go...it won't budge...the only thing I have noticed is that after using the shredder the file is 0KB but just won't delete. It started from a bittorrent download...where do the temp files get sent when you click to start a bt download...I use abc
 
boot up in safe mode with command prompt and navigate to the desktop folder and delete it using del *.rar

i am having the same issue with an old file, just havent bothered to get rid of it yet
 
ming said:
DOS commands:

cd\ - go to system's main directory e.g. C:\

cd\documents and settings\<username>\desktop - desktop folder for user.

del <filename.abc> - delete file

so do this in safe mode

also I'm assuming that the command prompt doesn't like spaces in the names of files...is there something special I need to write in because it can't find the file
 
what do you do for spaces in a file name in the command prompt...keeps coming up that it can't find the file

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop\del name name - name.exe

oh yeah it's an sfx archive built with winrar (self extracting)
 
Tuffgong4 said:
so do this in safe mode

also I'm assuming that the command prompt doesn't like spaces in the names of files...is there something special I need to write in because it can't find the file
I have the same issue for various kind of files I want to delete, I usually open command prompt, navigate to the file I want to get rid of and, to bypass the problem with spaces in file names, I type the 3-4 first letters of the file name then add a *.ext (whatever extension it is) and the file vanishes for good...

What I don't understand is why explorer.exe won't let me delete what I want to and cmd does allow me to do it... Maybe what Sraycoz is the answer... ;)
 

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