How Do You Get Rid Of A File That Wont Delete?

[pearldiver6]

My understanding of such things is rudimentary, but my computer guru says when a file won't let itself be deleted, something is wrong. Could be, very wrong. As you said, rename the file, and then delete. Or, if that does not work, move it to another folder, then delete the folder. Keep "fucking about" with it and sooner or later you will succeed.

[rbn]

I didn't think about this before but have you tried running Scandisk? the CMD should be CHKDSK. You may have to boot in Restore Mode then choose Advanced and Command Prompt. then type

CHKDSK c:

If there is a HDD error, this should pick it up.

[Readerror]

Originally Posted by Oliverfr

Personally, I use good old Process Explorer, formerly by Sinsinternals, now under Microsoft's hood,

http://docs.microsoft.com/fr-fr/sysinternals/

Once the program is ran, control-F, type the name of your file that you cannot delete, or at least a part of the name, and you will find which program or system element hooked itself onto it, and you will know which one to close, so that control over that file is released.

The advantage of Process Explorer, in my eyes, is that it tells you who kept a claim on accessing your file. It helps discovering when a program doesn't work right, or understand that programs have weird idiosyncrasies the user must bear with.

You can use the MoveFile program from Sysinternals to schedule a file to delete on the next reboot too.