Cannot Delete File: Cannot Read From Source File or Disk

[DavidB7170]

I've seen this one asked before, so sorry about asking again. None of the
suggested remedies I've seen worked for me. My situation:
WinXP Pro SP2 -- no problems with machine operation
Athalon XP 2400+
1.5GB RAM
ABIT KT7A-RAID
3 physical 80GB WD drives -- 2 in 160GB RAID-0, 1 with 3 partitions. Part 0
has WinXP OS -- compressed drive 16GB, part 1 54GB, file storage; part 2 4GB
reserved for pagefile and IE temp files.
Radeon 64MB VIVO vid card
Plextor 708A DVD burner
Plextor 48/24/48A CD burner

Had Norton System Works 2002 -- no issues until now. Would periodically
flush "norton protected" erased files, but this weekend, it burped,
apparently. Showed no files, but big blocks were still listed by windows
explorer and my computer as being in the NPROTECT hidden folder. I turned
off norton unerase protection so I could get at the folder on all drive
partitions. I could not delete the files manually in windows explorer, or by
the DOS command prompt method, turning off explore.exe with task mgr. DOS
prompt would also list the files and file sizes, but could not find the
files when erase or delete was used. I counted up the file space and have
~13.12GB of space locked off because of this, about 4GB on my 16GB OS
partition alone, and 7.4GB on my RAID.

The windows explorer shows the file size of the original file, but when file
properties are right clicked shows 0 bytes. Cannot delete even then.

Tried XP chkdisk and norton 2002's version ,but neither reported any
problems or fixed anything.

I went to Symantec site for support and of course System Works 2002 is not
supported, so I paid for an downloaded the 2005 Version, uninstalled 2002,
installed 2005, tried that chkdisk -- no luck -- no problems found, again.

I ghosted the partition and the phantom files showed up on the cloned disk,
again nothing could be done to remove them.

I'm running out of ideas and don't like the idea of doing an xp reinstall
with all the stuff on the drives. This is on the NPROTECT folder of each
drive. The file names are 8 digit numbers with no extensions like
"00000001." -- none of those could be deleted. If I back up the drives,
these phantom files will go along for the ride... eating up space with
nothing in it.

Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

 

[Guest]

Those files are created as backup files when you reboot or after running
CHKDISK. They should be in numerical sequence starting with 1, etc. They
will not delete for they have been activated at boot time from Restore/saved
files. After a normal boot, shutdown and reboot in Safe Mode, then you
should be able to delete them. Recommend you put them on a CD just in case
you run into problems. Or put them in the Recycle Bin so you could restore
and rename them. Try several boots to make sure your system is now stable.
"How to Boot in Safe Mode"
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/capture/safemode.html

 

[DavidB7170]

Thanks for responding. I tried the Safe Mode approach you suggested today
and it also did not work. I know what you mean about recovered files from a
chkdsk session, but I believe they're typically named something like
"found.000" not "00000001." with no extension. My OS partition is 16GB with
4GB free. With the phantom file gone, I'd have ~8GB free (50%). I don't like
having less than half my OS drive free -- I keep the data files on the other
drives away from the OS drive, and the pagefile and IE cache on a separate
drive partition, so it doesn't frag the boot drive.

I've tried (all with no success on the phantom files on each of the HDD's
and partitions):

1. simple delete of file -- "my computer" shows the huge file size, but when
file property is checked reports 0 bytes

2. simple delete of \recycler\nprotect directory -- no luck

3. renaming the directory then deleting hoping that the process would bring
the file structure back into reality. I can rename it, but no change in
ability to delete. Also tried changing attributes of the folder from hidden
and read only, but it could not change it's contentents' attributes
accordingly.

4. command prompt delete of files and directory -- turned off explorer.exe
with task mgr, tried the delete in a DOS window -- showed file, but reported
it could not find the file when deleted. Tried to delete the folder -- same
outcome.

5. Norton Ghost -- to a spare 40GB drive -- being a bit-by-bit copy, the
phantom files all showed up on the copy, also un-deleteable. Incidentally --
when I tried to boot from the Ghosted drive with the original drive
disconnected, it would hang at the WinXP splash screen -- dunnno it it's
connect to this or not. When I reconnected the original drive, WinXP booted
up normally, and the clone drive just showed up as an additional drive --
WinXP didn't seem to mind. I could access the drive (read and write), but
still couldn't get rid of the phantom files. I finally reformatted it just
to avoid more confusion...

6. Safe Mode then delete files and tried deletion of folder -- same error
message: Cannot Delete File: Cannot Read From Source File or Disk

7. CHKDSK -- windows XP's and Norton's Disk Doctor -- neither reported or
repaired any file structure problems

8. Norton's WinDoctor -- no problems reported

9. Norton's Speed Disk -- just recognized the large amount of locked disk
sections as unmoveable clusters

10. XP's disk deframenter -- defragged, but report it couldn't defrag the
phantom file -- one in partiular "00000001." that is listed as 4GB

11. Virus scan -- nothing found

12. Spybot Search and destroy Scan -- no problems found

13. Adaware Scan -- no problems found

I did a winxp backup to my raid of the C: drive excluding the phantom files
or the NPROTECT folder while in Safe Mode, but the job was classified as
failed:

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\AppEvent.Evt" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SecEvent.Evt" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SysEvent.Evt" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

The file \WINDOWS\system32\mqqm.dll did not verify.
Verify completed on 1/11/2005 at 6:04 PM.
Directories: 3865
Files: 69553
Different: 1

I've never had a completely successful backup either with winXP's backup or
others -- like Nero's Backitup without the OS processes getting in the way.
I thought that doing it in safe mode would prevent that, but apparently
not...

Thoughts were to re-install xp to a freshly reformatted drive, then restore
the backup, but don't know if the above errors would bugger that as well....

The system is stable, it's just I've lost a lot of file space on multiple
drives to non-existant files...

Again, any more strategies and ideas will be appreciated. I'm packin' it in
for tonight. Sorry for the long sad story.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[eternity3]

I have the exact same problem.

I did mostof your steps, even using a BART PE boot CD rom and it did
not work.

Here is a solution that worked for me on 98% of the files.

1. move the Nprotect directory to another renamed directory.
i used c:\one\a where "a" is the former "nprotect" directory.

the following might work even if you dont move it to another directory,
but this is the key:

2. Then I was able to delete 98% of the files using the following DOS
command:

del \\?\x:\recycler\nprotect\*.* (where x is the drive letter)


Please try the above command line.

BUT, i have a remaining problem that i would be grateful if you find a
solution.

the above solution worked for all of the files, except for about 5
hidden files.

It only deletes the files that are not hidden. My problem is that i
cannot
clear the hidden attribute using the attr command as the file is not
found.

So if anyone has a suggestion on how to reset the hidden attributes on
a hidden file that generates the following code: "cannot delete file:
cannot read from the source file" it would be appreciated.

hope it helps some.

 

[ppjmc]

Hi - I have exactly the same problem as the gentleman/lady who started this thread. Basically I used to use Norton SystemWorks, with Norton Protect as a a sort of backup to the XP recycler. I think Nprotect would rename deleted files to something that the OS couldn't use; then if they were needed, they could be renamed back. At least that is how it used to work a dozen years ago or more and I guess that SystemWorks 2003 worked in the same way. I uninstalled Systemworks two years ago and forgot about it, didn't realise that I had close to 400MB of lost disk space because of it. I think I also converted from FAT32 to NTFS in the intervening time.

Don't think that nprotect in Systemworks 2003 works under NTFS, so no point in reinstalling it to clean up its garbage.

Searched other forums, they generally suggested the following approach:
1. boot in safe mode
2. run command
3. cd \recycler\nprotect
4. del *.*
5. cd..
6. rd nprotect

This worked partially I was able to delete all but 30 odd MB of files, which have the same bizarre names as the gent/lady who started the thread e.g. 00124437. then nothing (I suspect three ASCII space characters or perhaps null, because there is also a file with the wildly original filename "00162674. 2", in others words a space or other unprintable ASCII value before the digit 2).

As I am not able to delete these remaining files I am unable to delete the nprotect directory. I am, like the thread originator, unable to do just about anything with this at all.

Please help!

 

[ppjmc]

Finally got a solution that worked:

1. run command
2. cd\
3. del \\?\c:\recycler\nprotect\*.*
4 then just delete nprotect from the browser

FINALLY!

 

[meetermaid]

i did this AS WELL AS everything else previously suggested. i have pretty much the same problem, except the file popped up on my memory card for my mp3 player. the card has a capacity of 983mb. one of the files that just appeared is 3.2 gigs and that combined with the other files amounts to about 4 gigs. NOTHING i've tried so far works and i've searched forum after forum after forum after self-help site after self-help site. any other suggestions/solutions would be MUCH appreciated.

 

[barrie.hunter]

Hallelujah - am I ever glad I found and subscribed to this newsgroup.

I've been looking for a fix for this problem for at least a year and ppjmc's solution worked fine. I've been able to reclaim nearly 500MB of lost storage on my hard drive.

Thanks a bunch.
Barrie

 

[kenrubes]

Hi all-

Ok, I have a similar problem.

I cannot delete this file from my desktop. It's a 0 k. file. I was downloading flv files (for the proprietary player), after which this thing just appears, without extension. I can't add an extention to it by renaming, and upon attempting to delete, I get that "cannot delete file: cannot read from source file or disk" message. I have no idea how to get rid of this. It's never happened before. I don't use Norton. I use Kaspersky. So, in other words...........HELP!!!

 

[finn63]

I also had problem like this. It was big headache for me for long time. But then I found www.deletelongfile.com, it saved me so much time!