can't delete files...

[Butler]

I turned my laptop on the other day (running WinXP Home) and it shows me this bubble saying that there are files waiting to be written to the CDR. I opened the folder, to find that the files were left-overs from a CD I'd burnt the night before. I tried to delete them from the "CD Burning" folder, but couldn't delete them. "cannot delete 'filename' Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write protected, and that the file is not in use." Ok, no problem, maybe the attributes need some adjustment...nope that doesn't work. Maybe Windows is using these files (.ttf files) for windows fonts... All my fonts are still in the fonts folder (C:\Windows\Fonts) so I think, maybe if I try using a DOS prompt. That didn't work either. I was able to open a few of the files in notepad, and edit them, then save them, under the same filename, then when windows discovered that they were not valid font files, it let me delete them. There are though, 3 files left, that I can neither edit nor delete...the odd thing is, that I can move them anywhere, copy them, and delete the copies. The only thing I can't do is DELETE them. I can move them to the Recycle bin...they sit there nicely, until I try to empty it...then the error message comes again.

I've checked and double checked attributes, of the three files, and of the folder that contains them, but can't figure out any way to get rid of them.

Any ideas?

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Edit:

Oh yeah, I also tried editing them in the DOS file editor, when I try to save, it says "Unknown error while accessing file 'C:\Fonts\filename.ttf' Error 183."

 

[DaiShan]

is the cd you burned them on in the drive?

 

[altonb1]

try putting a blank CD into the drive. It would suck to have to waste a blank CD-R to remove these files, but you may be able to put the blank in the drive just to get XP to racknowledge the blank disk. Once it sees the blank and attempts to launch the burning program, you may be able to cancel out w/o writing to it. Good luck!

 

[Butler]

The CD was not left in the drive after I burned the fonts to it. I also tried burning them to a second CD, they went onto the new CD, but still wouldn't delete. I have since moved the files to another directory, C:\Fonts...to get them out of the way.

 

[bruincal]

here's a down and dirty way to kill the files ....
use a Windows 98 boot disk, and use the DEL command to delete the files. I suspect that winxp is loading these files everytime it boots up, and therefore you are unable to delete them. Because of the new way winxp handles files, you are able to move and rename "tied-files" but they cannot be deleted. You can also try booting into winxp safe mode and delete from there. press F8 at startup to get the menu to choose Safe Mode.

 

[altonb1]

Hmm...I mis-read his post earlier. he indicated he attempted to delete these froma Dos Prompt. I read that as he booted to a bootable floppy and attempted to delete the files. Depending on the attributes of the files, you may or may not be able to delete them with DEL. You may have to use the deltree.

Either way, you will probably still get errors if you delete them this way because XP will still attempt to load them. you need to find out where the fonts are being loaded FROM (PROBABLY A REGISTRY ENTRY) and remove them from there as well. Do a search in regedit for the filename (without the .ttf) and see if you get any results. if so, see what is loading them. Use your discretion in deleting these because if you choose to delete this entry from the registry and delete the wrong entry, or this file is tied to something else, you could definitely cause other problems including the stability of your system.

 

[DaiShan]

I skimmed the message and read "the cd has not left the drive" sry bout that

 

[altonb1]

He already confirmed that the CD is NOT in the drive AND he attempted to burn to another blank and that didn't fix the problem.

 

[Butler]

Tried booting into DOS using a DOS 6.0 floppy. Boots fine into a:> but c: is not a valid drive specification, neither is d: or e:, my DVD and CDR drives. Three finger solute, and 10 seconds later, I'm back in windows (without floppy in drive), so I know the drives are all fine... Any other ideas?

 

[altonb1]

Formatted system with NTFS, didn't you? That makes things much more complicated. Unfortunately, I don't have any more ideas. Sorry! I know it was mentioned, did you try booting into safe mode to delete the files? That's probably your only option now.