Can't remove a file on my computer. Help please? (1 Viewer)

[CristianManieri]

I seem to be unable to remove a selected file from my computer. It's an avi-file and every time I try throwing it away a message comes up saying another program or person(?) is using the file and it can't be removed before the other process is finished. But nothing that is open is using the file! I'm going nuts. Every program is shut down and still it won't go away. I scanned the file for viruses as well, but nothing wrong there.
It's a pretty big file so I need the space it occupies.

Anyone who can help me?

 

[Andre F]

Re-boot and try again. That should take care of it.

 

[Greg_Y]

Sometimes you can shell out to DOS and delete it that way. Start button > Run ... > type in "command"
go to the directory and then delete the file that way. But rebooting into safe mode should also work.

 

[Aaron Copeland]

If that doesn't work, boot into Safe Mode and delete the file.

 

[Steven K]

hehehe Ive heard too many people say "I tried to delete pagefile.sys cause it's taking up alot of space, but it wont delete!"

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Windows uses a lot of files that we don't know about. Try and delete the video player, or some directories that are empty.

Hopefully, you have a copy of DOS. It is a pain in the rear but works every time, if you know what you are doing. You might want to write down the directory that it is in before you reboot into DOS. Keep in mind that with the 7 character limit, a lot of files end with "~1".
I keep a copy of 'attrib.exe' handy too. I find the funiest part of this is that with 99% of them, after they are gone Windows doesn't miss them at all.

Glenn

 

[JasenP]

Search Google for a registry fix for this problem. I had the same problem and the edit I made in the registry cleared it right up. If you are running XP this might be fixed in the SP.

What OS are you using?

 

[CristianManieri]

I'm running XP. Where do I find this registry update?

 

[Ted Lee]

also check your task manager. you may have some program/process running that you're not even aware of.

also, check the 'msconfig' utility. (start/run/"msconfig") - it usually details what kind of processes run when you first bootup.