-=PCTechTalk=- Dealing with "undeletable" files in Windows XP/2000
- From: dktrfaustus@xxxxxxxxxx
- To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 17:02:22 -0000
[Posted to Troth's Tips page; a little trick which helped me out! -
Faustus]
The stability of the NTFS file system is of great benefit to most
XP/2000 users, but every once in a while you may notice that you
enounter a file that just won't budge!
This often happens with very large files; moving, renaming or
attempting to delete the file in Windows Explorer seems to have no
effect, and Windows pops up a warning message telling you that the
operation cannot be performed because the file is "already in use".
Well, if you know for a fact that the file is NOT currently in use,
this problem can be a real head-scratcher.
One way of deleting the file is to reboot the computer in Safe Mode
and delete it then, when the protection systems of the NTFS file
system are not in place. However, there is a much quicker way.
1. Press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] to bring up the Windows Task Manager.
2. Click on the "Processes" tab (if its not already showing), and
click the "Image Name" tab to sort the processes alphabetically.
Then, click on "explorer.exe" and click the "End Process" button.
This will close all open windows and System Tray icons, but don't
panic, you should get most of them back later!
3. Click on the Windows Task Manager's "File" menu and select "New
Task (Run...)".
4. Type the word "command" and a DOS window will open up.
5. Here's where a little DOS knowledge comes in handy. First, we'll
move to the drive where our problem file is situated. If it's on
"C:", you can skip this step. Move the command prompt to the
appropriate drive letter (e.g. "A:") by typing:
A: [Enter]
That is, the letter a (lowercase or upper, doesn't matter), followed
by a colon, followed by tapping the [Enter] key. This will move you
between disk drives in DOS.
6. Move to the folder where your file is situated. We do this in DOS
with the CD [Change Directory] command. If the file is in C:\Data\,
we would type:
CD \DATA [Enter]
More likely, however, your file is deeply nested in a series of
subfolders. In DOS, we must also truncate long file names; after the
sixth character of a file or folder name, Windows will chop off the
rest with a Tilde character (~) and an appropriate number. So, to go
to "C:\VeryLongFolderName\Folder\AnotherFolder\" we would type:
CD \VERYLO~1\FOLDER\ANOTHE~1 [Enter]
7. Once you are in the desired folder you can perform the operation
you want on your problem file. e.g. To delete it:
DEL FILE.DOC [Enter]
To rename it: REN FILE.DOC NEWFILE.DOC [Enter]
To move it: MOVE FILE.DOC C:\WINDOWS\
For more information on DOS file operations, check out this basic
tutorial: http://tinyurl.com/6gop9
8. Type "exit" and press Enter to get out of the command prompt
window, and back in Windows Task Manager, select "New Task (Run...)"
from the File menu and type "explorer". Click OK.
Hey, presto; things should be back to normal and your problem file
has been dealt with.
--
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