How to Delete undeletable file
Are you having a problem deleting a certain file? a lot of us PC users sometimes face this kind of PC problem. Sometimes we just let the “undeletable file” inside our pc but after you’ve read and understand the process on how to delete “Undeletable file” then it will not be a problem anymore. here are the steps to help and guide you to delete the “undeletable file”.
follow the steps below carefully
Windows 95/98/ME
- If you are using Windows 95, 98, or Windows ME, the easiest way to remove an undeletable file is to boot to a DOS prompt and manually delete the file. Before you do this, you’ll want to make a note of the location of the file including the entire path to it. Follow the steps below to delete these types of files.
- Find a boot disk for your version of Windows. If you don’t have a boot disk then follow the steps below to create one:
for windows 95/98/ME
FORMAT /S A:
COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT A:
COPY C:\CONFIG.SYS A:
COPY C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI A:
COPY C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI A:
On Windows XP, you can generally boot directly from the Windows XP CD-ROM, however in some cases you may still need a set of boot floppies. In this case, click one of the links below to download a program to create boot floppies for Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro editions.
- Shut down and restart your computer with the boot disk in your floppy drive.
- The computer will boot to a DOS prompt that will look similar toc:\
- Type the following command and press Enter to delete the filer, substituting the phrase with the actual path and file name you will delete ex. c:\windows\undeletablefile.exe
- Remove the boot disk in the floppy drive and restart your computer
- The file should now be deleted.
Windows XP
- Locate the file you area about to delete
- Click on Start, Run, and type CMD and Press Enter to open a Command Prompt window
- Leave the Command Prompt window open, but proceed to close all other open programs
- Open the Task Manager window by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL or by clicking on Start, Run and type TASKMGR.EXE and press Enter to start Task Manager
- Click on the Processes tab, click on the process named Explorer.exe and click on End Process.
- Minimize Task Manager but leave it open
- Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory where the file is located. To do this, use the CD command. You can follow the example below. Example: to change to the Windows\System32 directory you would enter the following command and Press Enter c:\cd \windows\system32
- Now use the DEL command to delete the offending file. Type DEL where is the file you wish to delete. Example: c:\del undeletable.exe
- Go back to Task Manager
- In Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the Windows shell.
- Close Task Manager
Or you can try this:
- Open Notepad
- Click File then Save As…
- Locate the folder where your undeletable file is
- Choose ‘All files’ from the file type box
- Click once on the file you wanna delete so its name appears in the ‘filename’ box
- Put a ” at the start and end of the filename (the filename should have the extension of the undeletable file so it will overwrite it)
- Click save
- It should ask you to overwrite the existing file, choose yes and you can delete it as normal
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17 Comments
very informative steps about PCs you got in here ^_^
i do experience it too at the office and most often i just leave as is and let the technician do their job
but will use these techniques on my own PC if ever it will happen
thanks
thanks…
keep coming back and you can definitely learn to fix some of your PC problems on your own.
I use a handy little bit of software called gipo moveonboot . Just as the name suggests, it moves or deletes any file when you reboot your pc. It integrates into the shell, so you can right click the file you want to delete, and choose your options from the normal windows menu.
that is indeed a great software in removing undeletable files… thanks for sharing…
Nice post. There is however one thing I’ld like to add. The most common reason a file is undeleteable is because it’s locked by some process. Killing that process usually frees the file so you can delete it. To find out which process is holding your file you can use the handle tool from sysinternals (now part of Microsoft). This is a commandline tool. you can find it here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx
Cheers!
Willem Kossen
Many times when trying to remove an unwanted program, especially a piece of adware or spyware, you may run across a file that is undeletable by any normal method. When you try to remove it you’ll receive the error message shown below telling you “access denied” and explaining the file may be in use. You may also receive one of the following messages.
great. I never know about this tips. Thanks a lots!
Yeah, I usually just go to the command prompt (‘CMD’) and delete it from there. Odd how this happens sometimes, to me it seems to happen to larger files such as movies, but it seems to be fairly random.
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Sometimes it is difficult for deal with certain file which are not deletable but if we follow the proper instructions of user guides we are manually able to do so.
It is a really a good post. I will literally try to do it.
Another Great post , i Was really tired From these kind of files . Anyways thanks for sharing
Awesome info…thanks for sharing it here!Sometimes one really gets struck in such situations.
These are the most irritating files on board…..thanks for helping us to get rid of it.
Amazing information.I have bookmarked your site.Will keep in touch in future as well & hope to get some other good info.
This usually happens when a certain file that are associated with the application or file that you are trying to delete is hanging out on the memory.