Re: Cannot delete [file] It is being used by another person or program

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Reboot tapping F8 each second.
Choose Safe Mode at the menu.
Select Administrator.
Now try to delete it.
Or
Follow this:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 39 Right column "Delete undeletable file"

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
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One of my customers has hit the XP "Cannot delete [file] : It is being used
by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the
file and try again." problem. This problem only happens when trying to
delete files off a network drive, it doesn't happen locally.
It happens on no particular files, i'm aware of the problem when this
happens to AVI files, but this is absolutely any file at all, be it ..doc,
.xls, txt, anything.
It also seems that if i try and delete a file off the drive mapped to the
workstation the problem occurs more frequently than if i go thru the UNC
path to delete the file.

Its very strange because you pick a file and copy it somewhere, then try and
delete it and it'll work. Copy it again and try to delete it and you'll get
the error, try and delete it again .. get the error, try again and it'll
delete. Then try the same thing again and it'll delete straight off. There
doesn't seem to be any pattern to the problem. Any file, any directory, hit
& miss whether it'll delete or not. It's almost as if the workstation isn't
receiving the signal from the server to say the file is unlocked.

Both the workstation (XP Pro) & the server (2000 Server) have NTFS formatted
drives (by the way this only happens to one machine on the network, the rest
are ok), the XP workstation has SP1 installed & all the available
hotfixes/patches to try and sort the problem. Digital signing is

turned off.

 

[GH]

One of my customers has hit the XP "Cannot delete [file] : It is
being used by another person or program. Close any programs that
might be using the file and try again." problem. This problem only
happens when trying to delete files off a network drive, it doesn't
happen locally. It happens on no particular files, i'm aware of the
problem when this happens to AVI files, but this is absolutely any
file at all, be it .doc, .xls, txt, anything.
It also seems that if i try and delete a file off the drive mapped
to the workstation the problem occurs more frequently than if i go
thru the UNC path to delete the file.

Its very strange because you pick a file and copy it somewhere, then
try and delete it and it'll work. Copy it again and try to delete it
and you'll get the error, try and delete it again .. get the error,
try again and it'll delete. Then try the same thing again and it'll
delete straight off. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the
problem. Any file, any directory, hit & miss whether it'll delete or
not. It's almost as if the workstation isn't receiving the signal
from the server to say the file is unlocked.

Both the workstation (XP Pro) & the server (2000 Server) have NTFS
formatted drives (by the way this only happens to one machine on the
network, the rest are ok), the XP workstation has SP1 installed &
all the available hotfixes/patches to try and sort the problem.
Digital signing is

turned off.
Jupiter Jones [MVP] wrote:
Reboot tapping F8 each second.
Choose Safe Mode at the menu.
Select Administrator.
Now try to delete it.
Or
Follow this:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 39 Right column "Delete undeletable file"

I kind of had a feeling people wouldnt quite understand the problem. I cant
ask my customer to boot into safe mode every time he wants to delete a file,
this is a problem that happens all the time, not just a once off... there's
obviously something wrong with the PC or the server i just need to know
what.
As i said sometime the file will delete, sometimes it wont. You can hit
delete a couple of times on the same file & get the error, then the 3rd
attempt it'll delete ok.