Files have no paths and no properties

[Guest]

A friend of mine has a Toshiba laptop with Vista. She was running a search
and found some .mov files, one of which was about 250MB , another was about
16 MB. However there was no path shown in the search results. When she tried
a right click to check the properties, nothing happened. She was able to
right click other files which did show a path.
She did not download either file, as she is on a slow dialup connection, and
by the dates of the files, they were on her computer before she bought it. I
am using XP Pro, and not familiar with Vista. I tried googling and
copernicing everything I could think of. My suspicion is that the file is a
trace left over from something that was on the computer before she bought it.
She has tried a secure delete tool but tyhey will not erase. If she looks in
Explorer, she cannot find the files, only when she searches, and they files
do not seem to be taking any real space on her hard drive. Does anyone know
how she can either find a path or get rid of the files, short of a reformat?

 

[Dave]

The files may not be on her computer, but they may still be in the search
index.
Have her rebuild the index...

Start - Control Panel - Indexing options - advanced
Continue (UAC)
Rebuild
ok

This will probably take a long time, so plug the laptop power adaptor in.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Dave, I have passed this suggestion to her. She may have tried this
already, but I want to confirm. I will get back to you as soon as I get a
response from her.

 

[Guest]

Dave, she has no UAC but she rebuilt the index and searched again. The
file was still there, again with no path and when she right clicks nothing
happens, so she can't tell if there are any properties. The files are .mov
files and might be related to FLV video, but I was not able to find any help
there. They do show a date before she purchased the PC through Staples.