'Cannot delete..' help needed

[shaun forsdyke]

Afternoon.

Im trying to delete a part dowloaded bittorrent file. Its 3DMark05_v120_installer.exe (not that it appears to be important) its part downloaded as it was downloading extremely slow so I stopped and downloaded it from another site.

When attempting to delete I get the following error

"cannot delete 3DMark05_v120_installer.exe it is being used by another person or program, close any programs that might be using the file and try again."

Ive temporarily deleted 3dmark05 and bittorent and that hasnt worked. Ive deleted all references to 3DMark05_v120_installer.exe in regedit. Ive tried deleting it in safe mode and tried to delete it whilst eliminating windows task manager processes. Still no joy.

I do remember when I choose the alternative download I choose to overwrite the original downloads file although that messed up and I had to download it again. I cant remember the exact details but I assume this is the problem. Although I dont understand why a program is still using this file.

Any ideas?

 

[Asus]

Any way to delete it within the program?
Otherwise you would need to close the program to delete it. Have you tried restarting your PC?
Sometimes files like that get corrupt and it's hard to figure out what is keeping it from being deleted.

 

[Laivasse]

I had a very similar problem when eMule created a corrupt preview of an avi file I was trying to download once. Like yours, it could not even be deleted in safe mode with no programs running.

The only way I found to delete it was to Google the DOS commands for deleting files, boot into Safe Mode with the command prompt, and delete the file without having Windows start up. It worked, anyway.

If you need to know how to use DOS to do it then I'm afraid I forgot the commands, cos I'm n00bface. Maybe someone else here can help out, or you can google it.

 

[dream431ca]

What that means is that windows is still using the program. so goto the taskbar and try to find the process and shut it off, or goto safe mode and delete from there. It should delete without question in safe mode.

 

[diluted]

I had this problem before too, I couldn't delete the file from Safe Mode either. What I did was boot into Windows XP, open a command prompt window, then hit ctrl+alt+delete and kill the explorer.exe process. Then go back to the command prompt window and delete the file with the del command.

 

[Laivasse]

I had this problem before too, I couldn't delete the file from Safe Mode either. What I did was boot into Windows XP, open a command prompt window, then hit ctrl+alt+delete and kill the explorer.exe process. Then go back to the command prompt window and delete the file with the del command.

Yeah, similar to my method. I think what that means is that the file is somehow being used by explorer.exe itself, constantly, and so cannot be deleted at all under normal circumstances in windows.

 

[WhiteZero]

Or try drag-and-droping the file into the trash bin. Oddly enough that has worked for me when I cant normally delete something.

 

[2Fast4U]

lol my friend has a 'hi.exe' file on his desktop and can't delete it. I have one too - 'area51_demo_fp.exe' in My Documents.

 

[psyno]

I had a very similar problem when eMule created a corrupt preview of an avi file I was trying to download once. Like yours, it could not even be deleted in safe mode with no programs running.

The only way I found to delete it was to Google the DOS commands for deleting files, boot into Safe Mode with the command prompt, and delete the file without having Windows start up. It worked, anyway.

If you need to know how to use DOS to do it then I'm afraid I forgot the commands, cos I'm n00bface. Maybe someone else here can help out, or you can google it.

Yep, booting into Safe Mode with Command Prompt is the easiest way to do it. The command is del <filename>. If you've never used a DOS prompt before, you can just use the file's absolute path, e.g. del "C:\Program Files\dumb program\broken file". You need the quotes if there are spaces in the path.

 

[Stigmata]

lol my friend has a 'hi.exe' file on his desktop and can't delete it. I have one too - 'area51_demo_fp.exe' in My Documents.

lol, the annoying file that won't leave you alone.

 

[duffers20]

you can sometimes use a dos console to delete stuff. Just navagate to teh folder and use the del command

 

[shaun forsdyke]

Thanks very much to all that provided helpful answers. Deleted it. Much appreciated.

Regards

Shaun

 

[JellyWorld]

I have quite a few undeletable folders lying around my hard drive.

 

[the_lone_wolf]

there is a program around called "wholockme" which enables you to view what processes are using a file and stop them...

what's good is that it's integrated into the shell, so you just have to right click >> "wholockme"