Having problems deleting an incomplete mp3 file (download from WinMX). Every time, I get the message "Error Deleting File or Folder - file is being used by another person or application". Well, nobody else is using it so I move on the idea of another application. To solve that issue I restart in Diagnostic Mode and only boot the essentials. Still the same message. Can not figure out how to remove this file. Not causing any problems, but it annoys me that I can't delete the file and I have made this my mission to figure out. Any help will be appreciated and I can't find any source of help on Support@Microsoft.com.
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations Chriss Miller on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Error Deleting File or Folder in XP 1
- Thread starter KCMONSTER
- Start date
Guest_imported
New member
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
oh by the way , whoever started this topic deserves a handshake, i found this forum by searching with Google.com, This was the first hit on the page.. There must be a whole lotta people looking for a cure for this.. Shouts out to everyone who participates
Not sure if this will help but to log on as the Administrator in XP at least in the Pro version. When you get to the screen with the icons to log into the system as users. push Ctrl-alt-Del twice and you will get an old style win2K log in screen where you
can change the name to Administrator. I find holding down ctrl-alt and pushing Del twice usually does it. and also props to whoever started this forum. I've been stuck with a file for months.
can change the name to Administrator. I find holding down ctrl-alt and pushing Del twice usually does it. and also props to whoever started this forum. I've been stuck with a file for months.
From a post on AskMe.com:
Credit to ezgoing
Anonymous asked this question on 3/24/2002:
I dont know how many people has this annoying problem with Windows XP but let me explain it here... maybe it's only happening to me. Ok to make it sound simple here I will make an example: I downloaded a movie or mp3 with a program, finished the download and closed the program, trying to delete the movie/mp3 file and it tells me "It's being used by another person or program". That happens to me all the time and sometime after I restart my computer I still can't delete the file. I have all default setting on XP so I'm not sharing anything through the Network.
What the heck is going on?
ezgoing gave this response on 3/24/2002:
this is a bug of XP windows explorer, as far as I understand from it..
and the problem is particularly with big files like avi, mpegs or mp3s.. and made worse if the avi is a broken download..
if u wait long enough after u select the file.. (lookout for the harddisk indicator lights to stop flashing).. then u can delete it after that.. weird huh?
the problem with is confirmed to be winXP explorer, because inside winxp, as long as u dun access the files from explorer, by going into the command prompt, u can actually just delete it straightaway without such waits..
it's a problem which I am still waiting for a solution still.. cheers, hopefully it will be fixed by the XP service pack 1
reghakr
Credit to ezgoing
Anonymous asked this question on 3/24/2002:
I dont know how many people has this annoying problem with Windows XP but let me explain it here... maybe it's only happening to me. Ok to make it sound simple here I will make an example: I downloaded a movie or mp3 with a program, finished the download and closed the program, trying to delete the movie/mp3 file and it tells me "It's being used by another person or program". That happens to me all the time and sometime after I restart my computer I still can't delete the file. I have all default setting on XP so I'm not sharing anything through the Network.
What the heck is going on?
ezgoing gave this response on 3/24/2002:
this is a bug of XP windows explorer, as far as I understand from it..
and the problem is particularly with big files like avi, mpegs or mp3s.. and made worse if the avi is a broken download..
if u wait long enough after u select the file.. (lookout for the harddisk indicator lights to stop flashing).. then u can delete it after that.. weird huh?
the problem with is confirmed to be winXP explorer, because inside winxp, as long as u dun access the files from explorer, by going into the command prompt, u can actually just delete it straightaway without such waits..
it's a problem which I am still waiting for a solution still..
cheers, hopefully it will be fixed by the XP service pack 1 reghakr
Reghakr, just an idea:
Are you sure you don't have any shell extensions loaded that try to gather info? (or, come to think of it, there are also some default XP shell extension getting some info).. just select the file, and wait some time...
if it's a large file, scanning it for the relevant info (eg. WinZip has a shell extension which shows in a tooltip the # of files, and probably also at the status line; the built-in ZIp handler might do so as well; on (native) music files, office files and so also some details are extracted; a virus scanner might preparing a property sheet with details, ...) may take a while...
Also, in a CMD prompt, you might be able to delete files by using UNC naming:
could work...
or, if not too common a name:
(supplying a starting pathname, using wildcards, quoting if containing spaces, etc.)
But then again, you weren't the one having problems deleting the file.. I was merely trigged by you mentioning a bug in the explorer.. I'd call it expected behaviour, since scanning large files _does_ take some time..
(again, assuming that this is the problem here..)
* Regards,
---
saybibi();
// john
#include <stddiscl.h>
Are you sure you don't have any shell extensions loaded that try to gather info? (or, come to think of it, there are also some default XP shell extension getting some info).. just select the file, and wait some time...
if it's a large file, scanning it for the relevant info (eg. WinZip has a shell extension which shows in a tooltip the # of files, and probably also at the status line; the built-in ZIp handler might do so as well; on (native) music files, office files and so also some details are extracted; a virus scanner might preparing a property sheet with details, ...) may take a while...
Also, in a CMD prompt, you might be able to delete files by using UNC naming:
Code:
del /f /a "\\.\C:\Program Files\SomeDir\thisfile.txt"could work...
or, if not too common a name:
Code:
del /f /a /s /p \\.\filename.txt(supplying a starting pathname, using wildcards, quoting if containing spaces, etc.)
But then again, you weren't the one having problems deleting the file.. I was merely trigged by you mentioning a bug in the explorer.. I'd call it expected behaviour, since scanning large files _does_ take some time..
(again, assuming that this is the problem here..)
* Regards,
---
saybibi();
// john
#include <stddiscl.h>
Guest_imported
New member
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
This problem is not with just big files. I have 0kb *.wma file in My Documents wich I'm reluctant to delete in command mode before I know what the couse is. I have noted that I could delete files like these in command mode and also if I delete the parent folder. Interestingly enough I noticed that when I right click my documents folder bar there is a "Protected" option there that indicates that file to be protected.
My question to you is how to "Unprotect" that file. I think this here is the key to the whole question.
ypsilon@sci.fi
My question to you is how to "Unprotect" that file. I think this here is the key to the whole question.
ypsilon@sci.fi
Has anyone noticed that sometimes Explorer.exe will reset itself, by deleting itself and then reloading. The screen will clear itself of all Icons and Open Folders and then reset to your normal Desktop. (Probably just my computer!).
I use this quirk or problem in Explorer.exe to delete stubborn files. If you open Task Manager and use it to "End Process" on Explorer.exe (Yes. Explorer.exe), it will reset the machine and give you a blank screen except for the Task Manager window.
You then use the "New Task Run" under File tab in Task Manager and type in "Explorer" and re-launch it. After Explorer has re-loaded I find you can delete the stubborn file which before you couldn't delete.
I Feel and go along with the opinion that there is a bug in Explorer where it hangs on to a file, even though no program is using that file. If we wait long enough, one day Microsoft will fix it.
I use this quirk or problem in Explorer.exe to delete stubborn files. If you open Task Manager and use it to "End Process" on Explorer.exe (Yes. Explorer.exe), it will reset the machine and give you a blank screen except for the Task Manager window.
You then use the "New Task Run" under File tab in Task Manager and type in "Explorer" and re-launch it. After Explorer has re-loaded I find you can delete the stubborn file which before you couldn't delete.
I Feel and go along with the opinion that there is a bug in Explorer where it hangs on to a file, even though no program is using that file. If we wait long enough, one day Microsoft will fix it.
Have the same problem.
Solved it by unplugging my network cable or simply deactivating my network connection from inside windows.
I have also tried ending a bunch of applications from Task manager. Found that when I ended the "right" SVCHOST, I could delete the file/folder. This is not recommended though
(if you pick the wrong svchost, XP will force your computer to reboot)
Solved it by unplugging my network cable or simply deactivating my network connection from inside windows.
I have also tried ending a bunch of applications from Task manager. Found that when I ended the "right" SVCHOST, I could delete the file/folder. This is not recommended though
(if you pick the wrong svchost, XP will force your computer to reboot)Have the same problem.
Solved it by unplugging my network cable or simply deactivating my network connection from inside windows.
I have also tried ending a bunch of applications from Task manager. Found out that when I ended the "right" SVCHOST, I could delete the file/folder. This is not recommended though (if you pick the wrong svchost, XP will force your computer to reboot)
Solved it by unplugging my network cable or simply deactivating my network connection from inside windows.
I have also tried ending a bunch of applications from Task manager. Found out that when I ended the "right" SVCHOST, I could delete the file/folder. This is not recommended though
(if you pick the wrong svchost, XP will force your computer to reboot)
Guest_imported
New member
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Receiving this same error in Windoze2000. Have had the problem before and rebooting was required to free the file lock (on the folder on the desktop before I could delete it).
The only possible common thread I have found is that it is usually a folder I have created temporarily to unzip files to using winzip8.1 .
I went throught he process of closing all my programs including the virus scanner and testing for the error after closing each one. The only thing that worked was ending task on Explorer.exe and then selecting file newtask from the task manager and running explorer.exe from there. I noticed though that doing this will spawn a copy of rundll.exe which I can safely end task on.
The only possible common thread I have found is that it is usually a folder I have created temporarily to unzip files to using winzip8.1 .
I went throught he process of closing all my programs including the virus scanner and testing for the error after closing each one. The only thing that worked was ending task on Explorer.exe and then selecting file newtask from the task manager and running explorer.exe from there. I noticed though that doing this will spawn a copy of rundll.exe which I can safely end task on.
PROBLEM FIX !
Hey guys, yeh .. had this problem a few moths ago
and this is the solution I found... it's generally listed in most problem sites under "100% CPU utilisation when looking at AVI's in Windows".. the following extract is from TweakXP.com .. and it works !
"Well windows seem to have a REALLY big problem when it comes to reading AVI files. It seems that when you click on an AVI file in explorer, it'll try to read the entire AVI file to determine the width,height, etc. of the AVI file (this is displayed in the Properties window). Now the problem with Windows is that if you have a broken/not fully downloaded AVI file that doesnt contain this info, Windows will scan the entire AVI file trying to figure out all these properties which in the process will probably cause 100% CPU usage and heavy memory usage.
To solve this problem all you have to do is the following:
1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"
Voila! Please not that this will no longer provide you with the windows properties displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But its a small price to pay for saving you resources.
NOTE: Please use caution when using regedit. Improper usage may cause windows to behave imcorrectly. Also, I cannot be held resposible. Backup your registry first.
Cheers,
Jake
Hey guys, yeh .. had this problem a few moths ago
and this is the solution I found... it's generally listed in most problem sites under "100% CPU utilisation when looking at AVI's in Windows".. the following extract is from TweakXP.com .. and it works !
"Well windows seem to have a REALLY big problem when it comes to reading AVI files. It seems that when you click on an AVI file in explorer, it'll try to read the entire AVI file to determine the width,height, etc. of the AVI file (this is displayed in the Properties window). Now the problem with Windows is that if you have a broken/not fully downloaded AVI file that doesnt contain this info, Windows will scan the entire AVI file trying to figure out all these properties which in the process will probably cause 100% CPU usage and heavy memory usage.
To solve this problem all you have to do is the following:
1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"
Voila! Please not that this will no longer provide you with the windows properties displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But its a small price to pay for saving you resources.
NOTE: Please use caution when using regedit. Improper usage may cause windows to behave imcorrectly. Also, I cannot be held resposible. Backup your registry first.
Cheers,
Jake
- Status
Similar threads
