File that is impossible to delete

  • Thread starter Thread starter James
  • Start date Start date
J

James

I have a avi file that is impossible to delete. When I
try to delete it, I get a message reading:

Cannot delete file1.avi: It is being used by another
person or program. Close any programs that might be
using the file and try again.

I've been getting this message every day for 28 days as I
try to delete it each day. I have Windows XP
professional. I do not have any other operating system
installed. I do not have any other partition format. I
am not sharing my disk.

I tried booting up in DOS from one of my old disks but
the partitions are not recognized. Only thing I haven't
done is reformat my whole drive...that would for sure
delete the stupid file. What alternatives are there that
is less drastic?
 
James-

You could boot into the Recovery Console (an NTFS-compliant DOS interface)
and delete the file from there. Recovery Console is certainly a
*single-tasking* environment. There is little doubt you could nail the file
from there. Go to Help and Support and do a search on Recovery Console and
read the overview article if you're interested.

You will need to know how to navigate (using the CD command) to the folder
containing the .avi file, and then delete it using the DEL command.

Good luck,
Steve
 
Go to a Command Prompt, find the folder containing the file, type in Del
*.avi and thats it. I use * because I don't know the name of your file.
But replace the * with the files complete name. :-)
 
Back
Top