help! (1 Viewer)

[JeremySt]

Somehow, in the middle of a downloading frenzy, I managed to get a file that id dont want, and I cant delete it.

I was downloading several JPEGS to my desktop, and now I have one that I cannot delete. Right clicking it does not bring up the usual options that include the DELETE option. Instead, it only brings up:

preview
edit
print
preview
open with >
send to


opening the file only yeilds a "no preview available" in windows picture viewer. Opening it with other programs gives an error message. Shift + delete does nothing. disc cleanup does nothing, anti virus does nothing, adaware does nothing, spybot does nothing.

Help! how do i get rid of this!

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Sounds like corruption -- there's some kind of broken entry in the MFT, and either no file at all or only part of one. Defrag and then run CHECKDISC with the error-correcting options identified.

 

[SethH]

You might try booting into safe mode and deleting it from there.

 

[Rommel_L]

Either do it SethH's way or try deleting it in command prompt.

 

[brentl]

Grab a program called "move on boot", install, right click, then click "move on boot" and it should be gone.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html

Brent

 

[JeremySt]

brent,

I tried move on boot, and it works for other files, but right clicking the corrupted file still brings up the same options. All I see is

preview
edit
print
preview
open with >
send to


Booting safe mode didnt work either.

How do I run CHECKDISC, and how do I do it from the command prompt?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rommel_L]

Have you tried deleting said file in command prompt?

 

[JeremySt]

No. As i just asked in my last post, how?

 

[ChristopherDAC]

"Disk Check" and "Disc Defragmenter" are both Windows options under "Drive {} > Properties" on the "Tools" tab. alternatively, I think you can run them from the command prompt as CHECKDISK and DEFRAG respectively, but I haven't done it on an XP machine [read: in a long time] and am not sure.

 

[JeremySt]

I ran CHKDSK, no errors were found. I have yet to run defrag. Ill try that

 

[Paul Padilla]

In XP it's CHKDSK. Since XP only runs DOS emulation, you're not actually doing anything different than running it from Windows. It's really just a throwback to old school techies who see everything in command prompt form.

I'm not confident of it making a difference, but to answer your question on deleting, open the command prompt from Start>all programs>accessories.

type CD C:documents and settingsyour profile namedesktop
and press enter. If you're not sure what your profile name is, open My Computer and browse to the Documents and Settings folder.

type DEL file name and press enter.(Observe the spaces after CD and DEL)

To run checkdisk, open My Computer.
Right click your C drive and choose Properties.
Switch to the Tools tab
Click on Check Now
Place a check in both boxes to "Automatically fix..." and "Scan for and attempt recovery..."
You will be prompted that the disk check cannot be performed, etc...and would you like to perform the check the next time Windows is rebooted. Choose yes and reboot your machine.

The check will go through 5 steps and depending on the size of your hard drive, could take 30 minutes or more. When it's done, it will display a summary of any problems it found. Hopefully, once you get back into Windows, 1. You'll be able to delete the file...or 2. The file simply won't be there anymore.

Good luck.

Edit...I see you already ran chkdsk while I've been typing. I'm assuming that you ran it from the command prompt. If you use the method above it will perform a more comprehensive test.

 

[JeremySt]

ok, tried it all. nothing! :frowning: Time for a reformat of the hard drive?

 

[Paul Padilla]

Two things:

 

[Paul Padilla]

Sorry...misfire.

1. Am I correct that, going by your list, "Properties" is not available when you right click?

2. What is the name of the file? Try renaming and deleting.

3. Any other info about the file itself you can give us.

4. Can you/have you tried moving it to the recycle bin first?

5. Just to make sure, were your virus scan, adaware and spybot completely up to date when you ran them? Sometimes it's necessary to run them from safe mode also, but usually that just aids in removing problems it indicates it has no access to in regular Windows. Worth a shot, though.

6. (OK...I said, "two things" before) It's definitely a puzzlement, but is this file interfering with anything? Since the virus and spyware scans came up clean, unless you have a reason to believe it's harming something I wouldn't go to the trouble of wiping and reinstalling unless you're up for a project anyway. "If it ain't broke..."