i cannot delete a file help!

[Rutkus]

ok i have a file that must have gotten corrupted and i cannot delete it. every time i try to delete it i an error window "Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk" i have tried in the command doing del /f "filename" and erase /f "filename" and nothing.

all the information that i have seen deals with folders and this is a file.

any ideas because i'm tring to backup some music and every time it gets to this file it stops the backup.

 

[redduc900]

Close all open programs...Start | Run | Type taskmgr.exe and click OK. Leave Task Manager open, and click Start | Run | Type cmd and click OK. Leave the Command Prompt window open, go to Task Manager and click the "Processes" tab; "End Process" on "Explorer.exe". Go to the Command Prompt window and navigate to the file that you'd like to delete, and enter del <filename>. Go back to Task Manager | Click "File" | New-->Task | Enter explorer.exe to restart the GUI.

The following MSKB article may also be of some help to you...

You Cannot Delete a File or a Folder

 

[Rutkus]

i get the error "The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." even though i tab over so it is the EXACT name that i want to delete, i also tried to copy and past the name from the explorer window and that did not work either.

 

[Robbie]

Scan for viruses.
Rob

 

[Rutkus]

i scan for viruses every day, its scheduled to. its an old mp3 file that somehow got corrupted on a system crash an now will not go away.

 

[awaysahmad4u]

its very simple to delete this file..
check the file's formate and name.. and then select another file of the same formate in another folder rename this file, give it the name of that currupted file, exactly the same name of currupted file then copy this file and paste it in the folder where that currupt file is you will be prompted for "do you want to over write this file click yes and that file will be replaced with the new and nice one file.. now you can delete this new file or leave it and listen it..
cheers....

 

[Rutkus]

the plot thickens.... when i copy and paste over the filename EXACTLY, it contains some kind of an invalid character so i cannot create a new file since windows will not allow me to. i cannot change the name of the original file either not even to change that one character.

 

[awaysahmad4u]

its very simple to delete this file..
check the file's formate and name.. and then select another file of the same formate in another folder rename this file, give it the name of that currupted file, exactly the same name of currupted file then copy this file and paste it in the folder where that currupt file is you will be prompted for "do you want to over write this file click yes and that file will be replaced with the new and nice one file.. now you can delete this new file or leave it and listen it..
cheers....
-------------------------------------
i don't know what you r saying but.. i am sure you are not doing it in proper way..

look for example the mp3 file corrupted on your hard drive is "boys.mp3" ok and its in the folder of SONGS. now go to another folder where another uncorrupted file of mp3 formate is present let suppose its name is "bailamos.mp3" , now what you have to do is rename the "bailamos.mp3" with the name of boys.mp3 . then copy this file and go to the SONGS folder and paste boys.mp3 file here. now we know that an old but corrupt boys.mp3 is already exist here, therefore a message will appear saying
This folder already contains a file named 'boys.mp3'
Would you like to replace the existing file

you have to click on "Yes"
the corrupt boys.mp3 will be replaced with the new boys.mp3 which is not corrupt, now you can do every thing with this new file what ever you want..

 

[Rutkus]

no, i tried doing EXACTLY what you said before. there is an invalid character in the title of the original corrupted file. so i cannot rename the original file that would be like including "/" in the filename which is not allowed in windows. this is what is preventing me from just copying one file over to another. am i being clear?

 

[webfreak]

this may sound dumb, but have you tried running scandisk? when it scans, it scans filenames and usually picks up invalid names and will fix the errors, if i remember correctly.

 

[Rutkus]

i think it tried to do that on its own, i haven't explicitly done that but i will try doing it when i get home. any idea how to run that or where it is located? or even better isn't there a hotkey to hold down on restart that does it?

 

[ThePerfectCore]

What's the exact name of the file?

 

[webfreak]

scandisk is usually under accessories - system tools in the start menu. come to think of it, i'm not exactly sure it's accessable from within windows if you're using xp. i know it's there in the 98 machine i'm on. i haven't used xp in a while since my pc died . maybe someone running xp could clarify this for us...

 

[ThePerfectCore]

I don't think Scandisk will help. I crashed hard once while loading a webpage, and it ended up writing the HTML file as a directory structure... very odd. I have folders that are named things like " <.inp", and Scandisk won't catch them.

 

[schismspeak]

Open command prompt, then type chkdsk. That will check it for errors though im not sure it will help, but you can try.. also you can download JV16 powertools and try to delete it with that. Use the search function within the prog or point it to the file and delete it, it just might work.

 

[athayer187]

I have found that if you copy the entire contents of the folder that the undeletable file is in into a temporary folder on your desktop, and then delete the entire folder, that usually cures the problem. Then all you have to do is make a new folder with the same name as the old one and cut and paste the contents of the temporary folder that you made on your desktop into that. Hope this helps.

 

[Robbie]

How often do you update your virus scanning software?
Rob

 

[schismspeak]

To elaborate what athayer said: copy all of your good mp3's to another folder; then delete the actual folder that the corrupted file is in, if that dont work, then do the first step as I stated, but instead, make another folder with the same name and move it to the same directory, and when it asks if you want to replace the folder with the new one you made select yes. And if that doesnt work try the program I suggested above.

 

[Rutkus]

ok, sorry i've been away, this is finals week and i haven't posted in a bit. I will try copying over my files to another directory and deleting it. chkdsk didn't work for some reason. the name of the file appears as a big square under windows explorer but in dos shows up as a character i've never seen before. the best way i can describe it is a "V" that has been filled in.

i'll check out those power tools a bit later, finals week sucks

robbie i'm 100% sure its not a virus. my system is always up to date with virus definitions it checks for new ones every day and runs a full system scan every night. i use norton antivirus 2004.

 

[webfreak]

Yeah I had finals last week. Finals suck. My grades weren't too good this semester, but I'm already looking forward to redeeming myself with a *cough*4.0 next semester... gotta bring that gpa back up. Good luck on your finals.