Problem deleting .avi file from hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kevin Miller
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Kevin Miller

Dear Support,

I captured a 12 GB .avi file from my digital camera and
saved it on my c: drive. Last night I deleted it using
windows explorer. To do this, I right clicked on the file
and clicked delete. A dialogue box came up and
said, "this file is to large for the recycle bin, do you
want to permanently delete it?" I said yes. The file
slowly deleted. I then checked my disk space and did not
recovered any of the 12 GB back. My disk is still just as
full. It is as if I never deleted the file, but the file
name is gone. Why is this so? How do I fix this problem?

Thanks much for your help.

Kevin Miller
 
I'm not MS support but if it were me, the first thing I would try is right
clicking on the drive in "my computer" . Select properties then pick the
Tools tab and run "check now". OR If you've got Norton utilities running,
you may be a victim of the dreaded "Norton protected recycle bin" Just tell
your recycle bin to delete the Norton protected files also.
 
Some program is holding it open.

It could be the app you were working on.
It could also be explorer trying to create a thumbnail of the avi but
failing (but sometimes it will keep the file open).

You can use this trick to delete the file if it is the latter
http://www.theeldergeek.com/delete_undeletable_file.htm

If you want to prevent Windows XP from creating a thumbnail of the AVI, see
here
Start/Run/Regedit -
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler.
Delete the "Default" key.
 
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