• 0

The "undeletable" file


Question

Okay.. I'm using Windows XP Pro. I have this .bmp that won't delete. When I right click there is no Rename or Delete or Copy.. I can't rename it.. I can't delete it.. I can't move it. It's not a virus, it's a BMP. I've scanned it with 2 different anti virus programs.

When I try to delete the folder it's in it says it can't find the file. When I try to delete it from a Dos prompt, it says that the filename is too long. It is a very long filename...very.

I would try to go into safe mode to delete it but when I reboot and press F8 i get no option to go into Safe Mode.. never have.

I was hoping someone else may have had an undeltable file problem.. and knows the solution. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

try this:

get any file, and copy it, then rename it to the exact file name, jncluding the extentsion, them move it into the folder where the undeletable file is, it should let you replace it. Then erase the file you just put there. Hope that made sense

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Outcast.. very cool idea. It didn't work. The "filename or extension was too long to be overwritten"

Tim, I tried that earlier this morning. It didn't work.

Sphere, yes I used the command prompt. "Filename or extension too long"

Pra, tomorrow I will get out my winxp disc and try that.

Thanks a lot to everyone :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Have you tried using wildcards? It could be that the file has some strange characters in the filename, and thus deleting it from Explorer might not work. What might work is doing the delete command from the command prompt. For example, if the filename appears to be "A file with a really long filename.bmp", then you may want to try the command

DEL *FILENAME*.BMP

Assuming, of course, there are no other BMP files that have FILENAME in the filename.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

A mate of mine had a very similar problem. He had downloaded a porn image from kazaa and he had the same exact problem you did.

There is a fairly easy fix for this. You could use the '98 boot disk if you have a FAT32 partition, but if you using NTFS, your shi*t out of luck since that can't read NTFS.

To fix this problem, open up a command prompt. Navigate to the directory that has the bmp file in it and type dir /x (this will give a directory listing with short file names. i.e. 8.3 dos conventions.) Once you see the file you want to get rid of (which will have a tilde ~ in it), type del and it'll be deleted.

--dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Well.. I fixed it. It turns out all I had to do was type in the shortened version in the command prompt, just the first six chars and the ~1.bmp and it cleared it right up. Thanks for everyones help!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.