These are files which have been damaged, are no longer readable, and therefore cant be deleted the usual way.

Ive got lots of em!:mad:

Ive tried using a freeware program called Delete Doctor...but it doesnt work.

Any ideas on how to get rid of damaged files???

These are files which have been damaged, are no longer readable, and therefore cant be deleted the usual way.

Ive got lots of em!:mad:

Ive tried using a freeware program called Delete Doctor...but it doesnt work.

Any ideas on how to get rid of damaged files???

I don't know, manually deleting them in DOS used to work in the old days..

If you can't delete a file it usually means that it's either being accessed still (or classed as accessed) or there is some configurations for the files or folder that you've missed.

How you go about deleting them is really dependant on operating system and of course where they are located. If you could provide the OS and folder location people might be able to help you, otherwise you can look to third party software which might or might not fix things (or make things worse)

Incidentally if they are Temporary files used for dealing with the process of downloading through a P2P program or even Firefox, you will need to go into the program and remove the download from there to remove the files. (As this would cause a file lock)

I know people hate me for saying this...but format the drive.

I hate you for saying that.

These are files which have been damaged, are no longer readable, and therefore cant be deleted the usual way.

Ive got lots of em!:mad:

Ive tried using a freeware program called Delete Doctor...but it doesnt work.

Any ideas on how to get rid of damaged files???

Yep. Expanding on what Enmos said, using DOS is a good way to go and I would suggest a few steps before hand:

* On the 'properties' dialog of the affect drive, use the 'Check Now' option and 'Defragment Now' options on the 'Tools' tab.

* On the same dialog, use the 'Disk Cleanup' option on the 'General' tab.

* Attempt to delete the files.

* If they still don't delete then go to http://www.bootdisk.com/ and create a DOS bootable disk.

* Boot from the disk (or usb drive) and delete the problem files.

In the unlikely event that none of this works, there exists a very real possibility that the hard drive is pysically damaged.

Yep. Expanding on what Enmos said, using DOS is a good way to go and I would suggest a few steps before hand:

* On the 'properties' dialog of the affect drive, use the 'Check Now' option and 'Defragment Now' options on the 'Tools' tab.

* On the same dialog, use the 'Disk Cleanup' option on the 'General' tab.

* Attempt to delete the files.

* If they still don't delete then go to http://www.bootdisk.com/ and create a DOS bootable disk.

* Boot from the disk (or usb drive) and delete the problem files.

In the unlikely event that none of this works, there exists a very real possibility that the hard drive is pysically damaged.
I'll try the 'check now' and defragmentation...and report back, thanks!

Deleting in DOS doesnt work btw, using XP.

You're welcome. Yep deleting from a Windows DOS prompt would not be the way to go. Actually booting from a seperate DOS OS is much better as it prevents the Windows OS itself from initiating any file / sector locks. Might I ask as to the nature of the files you are trying to delete? The reason I ask is because the Windows OS uses some files for record keeping, restoration, and memory management services and deletion of them is prevented on purpose otherwise the system might become unusuable.

Just ordinary files, nothing to do with the system itself. I dont know how they became damaged, but they ended up with garbled titles.

Anyway I ran the scandisk and it worked...kudos to Crunchy! :)

I hate you for saying that.

I hate you for saying that too.


You can boot from a USB now ? Wow, technology moves fast.

Just ordinary files, nothing to do with the system itself. I dont know how they became damaged, but they ended up with garbled titles.

Anyway I ran the scandisk and it worked...kudos to Crunchy! :)

Yay :)

You can boot from a USB now ? Wow, technology moves fast.

Yep. It's a standard now for PC BIOS' to support USB booting. You can have all your favorite OS' on USB sticks nowadays. I have a sneaky suspicion as they get bigger and USB technology gets faster hard drives, CDs, DVDs, Blue Rays, etc. are going to go the way of the dodo.

Yep. It's a standard now for PC BIOS' to support USB booting. You can have all your favorite OS' on USB sticks nowadays. I have a sneaky suspicion as they get bigger and USB technology gets faster hard drives, CDs, DVDs, Blue Rays, etc. are going to go the way of the dodo.

i recently got a 8 gb USB stick.. That probably means i can store more than I need.

4gb for an OS and 4gb for your programs. Unfortunately alot of industrial strength programs (dev studio, flex builder, photoshop, etc) can eat up that space quickly. I have found pretty good resolution in the Corsair Voyager sticks (their biggest offering being 32gb on a normal sized stick!):

http://www.corsair.com/products/voyager.aspx

i recently got a 8 gb USB stick.. That probably means i can store more than I need.

Until you need more.

Yep. It's a standard now for PC BIOS' to support USB booting. You can have all your favorite OS' on USB sticks nowadays. I have a sneaky suspicion as they get bigger and USB technology gets faster hard drives, CDs, DVDs, Blue Rays, etc. are going to go the way of the dodo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost