Cant Delete Folders in My Documents

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Guest

I am the administrator on my system and am trying to clean out some old junk in My Documents. When I go to delete things, it says "Cannot Delete Access is denied: Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and that the file is not currently in use." Well for one im not using the file and i havent write protected anything as far as i know. Any suggestions?
 
Hi Randy,

You need to take ownership of them. Right-click the folder, select
properties. Go to the security tab and click advanced. You can take control
of the folders on the owner tab. For the security tab to appear in a WinXP
Pro system, you must disable simple file sharing in the control panel/folder
options/view tab. For a WinXP Home system, you must restart in safe mode and
logon as administrator. More details here:

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

An additional note for WinXP Pro users: This procedure will not help you
recover data if the files are encrypted. All you will be able to do is
delete them. To recover encrypted files you will need the original
encryption certificate or a Recovery Agent from the installation under which
they were encrypted. Without one of these, the files are not recoverable.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone



RandyB said:
I am the administrator on my system and am trying to clean out some old
Click to expand...
junk in My Documents. When I go to delete things, it says "Cannot Delete
Access is denied: Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and that
the file is not currently in use." Well for one im not using the file and i
havent write protected anything as far as i know. Any suggestions?
 
Hi Randy,

I am the administrator on my system and am trying to clean out some old junk in My Documents. When I go to delete things, it says "Cannot Delete Access is denied: Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and that the file is not currently in use." Well for one im not using the file and i havent write protected anything as far as i know. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Try this pictorial "Delete A File That Is Seemingly Undeletable"
http://www.theeldergeek.com/delete_undeletable_file.htm

Also try opening a command prompt (Start > Run > cmd) change
directories to the parent folder, open Task manager and end
explorer.exe from there, and then type:
rd folder_name /s

Then open explorer.exe by opening a new task in task manager.

Or go to Kelly's site

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

and scroll down to line 39 'Delete an undeletable file on Windows XP'

Hope this helps
 
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