There are
times when certain files in your computerbecome undeletable because of
some virus or any other reason. This means that the file cannot be deleted by
simply clicking the delete button. Files usually become undeletable because of
an active process that has an open handle to the file which prevents it from
being deleted. Under most circumstances if you close down all
runningprograms you’ll find that most files will then be free to delete,
but that’s not always the case, and in some cases it may even be a trojan or
other form of malware that’s preventing itself from being deleted. Now
some undeletable files may not harm your computer but usually these type of
undeletable files cause problem in proper functioning of an operating
system. In this post am going to give some computer help and will
share with you different ways of getting rid of such stubborn files :
Method 1
1. Open command Prompt
window and leave it open.
2. Close all running
(active) programs.
3. Click Start > Run.
4. Key in “TASKMGR.EXE”
(without quotes) in the Run window.
5. Go to the Processes
tab.
6. End process
Explorer.exe.
7. Leave the
Task Manager open.
8. Go back to the Command
Prompt window and change to the directory in which the undeletable file is
located in.
9. In the command prompt
type “DEL <filename>” (without quotes) where ‘filename’ is the file
you wish to delete.
1
Now go back to
Task Manager.
1
1 Click on File > New
Task.
1 Enter “EXPLORER.EXE”
(without quotes) to restart the GUI shell.
1 Close
Task Manager.
And thats it ! You have deleted the file
safely. Visit the directory in which the undeletable file was located
to verify that the file has been deleted.
Method 2
1.
Open Notepad.
2. Click on File >
Save As.
3. Locate the folder
where the undeletable file is located.
4. Choose “All files”
from the file type box.
5. Click once on the file
which you wish to delete so its name appears in the “filename” box.
6. Put a ” at the start
and end of the filename (it will overwrite it).
7. Click on save.
8. It will ask you to
overwrite the existing file, then choose yes.
Now after doing so just locate the file
and delete it as you delete any other file. The file will most probably be
deleted.
Method 3
1
click on Start > Run.
2 Type “command” in Run
dialog box.
3 Go to the directory in
which the undeletable file is located. [type: cd c:xyz (xyz stand for
your folder)]
4 Once you are in the
folder in which the non-deletable file is. Type in “dir” (without quotes) a
list will come up with every file inside.
5 Now delete the file by
entering the file name.
If you cannot access the folder because
it has spaces. For example, Program Files, in this case you will have
to type only the first 6 letters then put a ~ and then 1 without spaces. Example:
cd c:progra~1
An example of how to delete the file
using command prompt: If your file name was temp jerry.bmp you would type once
in the specific folder thorugh command, del tempje~1.bmp and your file should
be gone (Make sure to type in the correct extension).
NOTE: This method may
not work for all types of files especially virus files. I therefore suggest you
to first use Method 1 and Method 2 first.
Method 4
If the above mentioned 3 methods fail, then
just download this free utility. It will surely help you in
deleting undeletable files. Moreover it’s also very useful when you have to
delete virus file. This utility marks
file for deletion and during next reboot. This method
is based on documentation from Microsoft that describes a function
called MoveFileEx.
You can download the freeware directly
from their site delater