Unable to delete files

[xeretni]

need some help on a problem im having in xp

- SOMETIMES when i try to delete a file or directory, i get an error message that the file cannot be deleted because it is in use. in order to actually delete the files, i have to reboot.

-does anybody know how i can get around this. i have no idea why i get a message that the file is in use because it is not. this even happens when i try to delete EMPTY directories

[svgusta]

I have experienced this, and it was only some parts of the system I could delete. I found the reason to be my accounts rights on system....

[php]

it is actually in use, if it is an mp3 or an avi file. you see, when you click on settings, it will show you the bitrate. that's what it means by in use. if it's a corrupt or empty file with avi extension and you use the native winxp or some extra extension bitrate detection, it will reserve the file for itself, because it can't let it go (since it's corrupt). but I found a wonderful prog for this (and it's freeware):

http://www.gibinsoft.net/ it's called moveonboot. this utility is helpful, because often even after reboot you can't delete file, not even in safe mode, and one has to boot into recovery console mode, which sucks big time.

if you have probs with avi files, go to the registry and look there for "avifile", one of the subkeys which controls the bitrate has to be deleted, can't remember which one. if you have probs with other files, check that they are not in use - for example if somebody downloads from you in edonkey or kazaa, the file will be in use, but you might not notice it. or maybe it's still used by some prog that is in memory. in that case start the task manager and check whether some crashed programme like edonkey is still in memory, because edonkey likes to crash and then stay in memory, esp. if it still hashes the files

[Dark Hodou]

You can try this out, it works for me.

1. Open up a command prompt and the task manager.
2. "End Process" for explorer.exe
3. Navigate with the command prompt to the file/folder and delete it. (ex. for a file - DEL video.avi ; for a folder - RMDIR Movies)
4. When done deleting whatever, you the have two choices:
1. If you dont want to reboot, open explorer.exe
2. Reboot

That should solve your problem.

[zen]

Wot files or directories are you trying to delete??

[Shadey]

xeretni - sometimes it isnt enough to close the document/file sometimes you have to close the program you used to open the document/file in order to release it.

its worth checking to see if the process for the program u used is still in memory even if u have closed it, kill it if it is.

[bertieg]

You can boot into safe mode and delete the files from there

[xeretni]

Just to clarify the problem:

I've noticed that the problem seems to happen AFTER i try to delete a directory that Had media files in it (songs/ movies). After the files are no longer in use. A simple re-boot always solves the problem, but it is just annoying having to reboot just to delete a directory. I dual boot my system, and the problem doesn't occur in Win98se.

I think the poster who wrote about bitrates might be on to something. Some more help would be nice.

[M.I.T]

Take look here

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/100406.php

maybe its the same problem.