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Can't delete folder: "Cannot delete file: cannot read from souce file"

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by martinr121, 2004/04/20.

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  1. 2004/04/20
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Dave: Folder properties:

    File name box is blank

    Location: G

    Type of file: blank

    Opens with: blank

    Size: 0

    Size on disk: 0

    Now, that is a whole lot of information isn't it?
     
    Last edited: 2004/04/20
    martinr121,
    #21
  2. 2004/04/20
    noahdfear

    noahdfear Inactive

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    See if it will allow you to put a name in.
     
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  4. 2004/04/20
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Had already tried that. Get same message, file is located somewhere else.

    Martin
     
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  5. 2004/04/20
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Jim sent me an attachment and suggested that moving data off of drive and reformat could work. I'll try that tomorrow, going to bed now.

    My question is, why didn't I think of doing that?

    Martin
     
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  6. 2004/04/21
    rambler

    rambler Inactive

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    Run CHKDSK/F before retrying to delete as I guess you've got a bad directory entry there.
     
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  7. 2004/04/21
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Status report: File gone. Formatted drive, did the trick. Rambler, your suggestion might have worked, should have tried that first, but it is done now.

    Thanks to everybody who chipped in on this one. You input is always valued and appreciated.

    Martin
     
    martinr121,
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  8. 2004/04/21
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    FYI:

    You can use Task Manager to end the process of explorer.exe.
    To restart explorer, use the File Menu/New Task (Run...) and type explorer.exe.
     
    TonyT,
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  9. 2004/04/21
    noahdfear

    noahdfear Inactive

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    Glad to hear you got it gone.
    :)
     
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  10. 2004/04/21
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks Tony, I'll try to remember that for next time.

    Martin
     
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  11. 2004/04/21
    JSS3rd Lifetime Subscription

    JSS3rd Geek Member

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    I had some private exchanges with Martin, and the thing that intrigued me was that the name of his stubborn folder had a period at the end of it ... "Idunno. ".

    Windows will not permit the inclusion of the characters \ / : * ? " < > | in the name of a file or folder, but it also will not permit a file/folder name to end with a period. I don't know how the folder got named that way in the first place, but I'm wondering if it couldn't be deleted because it fell outside the Windows naming convention.

    Rambler ... Good call on CHKDSK /F (gotta have the space before the /). It might have worked, but we'll never know. :D
     
    JSS3rd,
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  12. 2004/04/21
    rambler

    rambler Inactive

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    It's worked for me (with the space before the /)!

    XP users often don't realise (all here excepted of course) that the XP & W2000 CHKDSK isn't the same as the W9x variety, and actually does fix problems. It'd be a good idea if it was popped into a sticky at the top of the forum. I'll bet a fair number of reinstalls could be avoided by running it, and at least it would eliminate file/folder/drive problems from the list of possible reasons for O/S or application problems.
     
    rambler,
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  13. 2004/04/21
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Well, I can tell you I did not put the period there.

    This folder was named just to temporaily hold an AVI file while being converted to MPEG2.

    The reason for the "Idunno" was I did not know which of my daughter's soccer games was on the DVI tape I was about to upload, figured after loading the AVI file I could then identify and rename it.

    After it was converted to MEPG 2 and recorded on DVD, I deleted the AVI file from the folder.

    Sometime later, I went to delete the folder when I discovered the problem and the period.

    I guess what happened that somehow a period got appended to the folder and the file name did not appear in properties will forever remain a mystery.

    Folder is gone, gone, gone:D

    Martin
     
    martinr121,
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  14. 2004/04/21
    Johanna

    Johanna Inactive Alumni

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    LOL, Martin! Wait till you reboot! :D
    Be careful with those SR points... (Catastrophe laughs darkly) Nothing is ever "gone ", until it's overwritten...

    btw, see the new post in GD...

    ;)
    Johanna
     
    Johanna,
    #33
  15. 2004/04/21
    JSS3rd Lifetime Subscription

    JSS3rd Geek Member

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    Variations on a theme ...

    Martin wrote:
    • [Now it's] gone, gone, gone...
    woooooah The Righteous Brothers

    oh oh oh Johnny Rivers / Philip Spector, Barry Mann, Cinthia Weill / Daryl Hall and John Oates

    whoaohoh The Firm / Dionne Warwick

    woa David Hasselhoff

    " " Elvis Presley

    Do I really have too much time on my hands? :D
     
    Last edited: 2004/04/21
    JSS3rd,
    #34
  16. 2004/04/21
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Johanna: going there next.

    Jim: Yes
     
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  17. 2004/04/21
    Newt

    Newt Inactive

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    Just a quick note for all you chkdsk users (and I be one)

    chkdsk /r takes longer to run but does more file/folder structure checking and repair. It also does a surface check which is the main reason it runs so long but it will often fix things that chkdsk /f won't.
     
    Newt,
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  18. 2004/04/21
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Newt: Thanks for the info.

    Martin
     
    martinr121,
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  19. 2004/04/21
    JSS3rd Lifetime Subscription

    JSS3rd Geek Member

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    Newt wrote:
    • "chkdsk /r takes longer to run but does more file/folder structure checking and repair. It also does a surface check which is the main reason it runs so long but it will often fix things that chkdsk /f won't. "
    Any idea why? So far, I've had no problems that chkdsk /f couldn't fix. Sometimes, when I want to resize or move one or more partitions with PartitionMagic, I get an error message telling me that PM can't run because there's a partition table error. Chkdsk /f has always fixed it for me.
     
    JSS3rd,
    #38
  20. 2004/04/22
    martinr121 Lifetime Subscription

    martinr121 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Jim: In Computer Management, Disk Management, if you right click on a HDD, click Properties, Tools, Error Checking, Check Now, it has two options. The second option, scan for bad sectors, etc, I believe is the equivelent of checkdisk /r

    Martin
     
    martinr121,
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  21. 2004/04/22
    JSS3rd Lifetime Subscription

    JSS3rd Geek Member

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    Martin ...

    I think you're probably right, and I don't know that I would have thought of it myself.

    When I right-click on a drive in Disk Management and select Properties, I show only three tabs: General, Security, and Quota.

    When I right-click on a drive in either My Computer or Windows Explorer and select Properties, I have seven tabs: General, Tools, Hardware, Sharing, Security, Quota, and Customize. "Error-checking ", along with "Defragmentation" and "Backup" does appear on the Tools tab.

    I have no idea why the Tools, Hardware, Sharing, and Customize tabs aren't present in Disk Management, unless I over-tweaked somewhere and removed them from that view. Sigh ...
     
    Last edited: 2004/04/22
    JSS3rd,
    #40
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