[khodges747]

I picked up a strange file from a download service. Its 0 kb, and is totally locked. The context menus and the icon indicate its a Media Player file, but nothing I do will rid me of it. I've checked the registry for a similar entry - nothing. Its got a horribly long name, with lots of nasty words in it that I don't want to reproduce here. Norton and Ad-Aware don't see it as a problem, but I want it off my hard disk. Any ideas?

[Bios36]

What´s happening to you is not so unusual, you have several options to delete that file. Try this one:
Open Nero if you have it and try to delete it from there, it usally works.
Regards

[khodges747]

I don't have Nero, and Sonic won't let me delete it either. Any other ideas?

[Bios36]

You can also try to delete the file by going into safe mode, if no success there, you might want to download the mboot tool from this link:
http://www.softwarep...moveonboot.html
Please post back

[khodges747]

Safe mode gives me exactly the same options as normal mode.

I DL'ed and installed MoveOnBoot, which promptly told me the file has an illegal filename. The file is still there.

If its any help, it shows up in my Explorer replacement (Powerdesk) as an NTFS compressed file. In Explorer it seems to be a normal file, but with an odd context menu offering only medai player choices. The smae context menu shows in Powerdesk.

Any more ideas? (I've had this file for a month, so its not like we absolutely have to kill it off tonight!)

[Bios36]

I guess you already tried to rename the file along with its extension right?
Also, have you looked in your task manager to see anything related to that file?

This post has been edited by Bios36: 28 June 2005 - 03:16 PM

[khodges747]

Yeah, I tried all that of course. It doesn't really have an extension. Its more like some sort of strange entry in the directory, with a WMV type icon. I can't move it, rename, delete it, or even look at its properties.

I appreciate your help.

[VA(s)T]

Give WholockMe a go to try to find who locks this file..
http://www.dr-hoiby....ockMe/index.php

You also could try, open command and type DEL hit spacebar and drag\drop the file into the command window.. Now go to task manager and stop the explorer.exe process, now back to command and hit enter, type exit, enter and back to task manager and start explorer.exe again..

This post has been edited by VA(s)T: 28 June 2005 - 05:05 PM

[Centauress]

And do NOT visit that site again!
Roxanne

[khodges747]

Hi VA(s)T,
First I tried deleting it as you described. No luck. COMMAND says the syntax of the command is incorrect.

Then I DL'ed, installed, and used WhoLockMe. No help there either. The command that should be in the context menu is not there. All other files show the correct context menu and the WhoLockMe option.

This "file" is really odd. It doesn't act at all like a file. No extension, 0 KB filesize, shows up as an NTFS compressed file in my Explorer replacement, and has an oddball context (right click) menu that does not include any of the usual file operations except rename, and which does not allow me to rename the file.

If anybody has another idea, I'll be happy to try it (except for formatting the HD ).

[hylen]

You may be able to delete it using HijackThis:
http://www.langa.com...005-06-09.htm#4

Also you can look at these links:

http://langa.com/new...004-06-03.htm#7

http://langa.com/new...003-03-06.htm#1

http://www.purgeie.com/delinv.htm

[khodges747]

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.

While reading the links hylen provided, I finally got a "brilliant" idea (a forehead whacker, to boot). I copied everything but the offending file into a new directory, and just deleted the whole directory with the obnoxious file still in it. Its now gone, although I haven't rebooted yet. If it comes back after a reboot, I'll be back here.

Thanks again to everyone.

[hylen]

Interesting idea. I like it. Let's hope it works.

This post has been edited by hylen: 29 June 2005 - 12:21 PM

[khodges747]

The best part is...it DID work. The offending and offensive file is permantently banished from my system, even after a reboot.

Wonder why I didn't think of this earlier?

[VA(s)T]

You're not alone ..


Good job !!

[steven2004]

i would still run chkdsk to correct any possible remaning errors (as that is all i think you had in this case) on the file system

This post has been edited by steven2004: 29 June 2005 - 07:53 PM

[Bios36]

Hmmm I was gonna suggest that but you told me that you could not move the file. Well, anyway I´m glad you got rid of that stupid file. One thing too if I may add, If it showed up with an icon, that means that it did have an extension. What some people do is write a long title and after that a lot of spaces so the person can´t see the extension unless you sort of stretch it out.
Regards

[hylen]

Also I wouldn't apply this method to just any old directory. Deleting the wrong one could be disastrous.

[khodges747]

To Bios36:
I couldn't move the file, but I could move all the other files from that directory to another one, which is what I did. Then I just deleted the directory with the obnoxious file, and renamed the newly created directory with the files I wanted to keep back to the name it had before.

And to hylen:
Of course you shouldn't/couldn't do this with a system directory, but this was a simple download directory I had created by myself to store downloads from a P2P service.

[Franklin]

This program received a rap over at CCleaner forum UNLOCKER.