I really need to delete and .exe file that I downloaded a while ago. I accidently transferred that file to my USB-device, to put it on another computer. Now, that file, which is broken, is on 2 computers and my USB device. But I really need to delete it, because it takes up lots of space, and my USB is useless when it's filled up by a broken file that can't be deleted. I have heard that it can be done when I'm starting the computer up, and it is still in DOS. I hope you understand what I need, and tell me how to delete that file. (You can also tell me how to format the USB-thing, since it's the only file on it currently. By the way, I can't right-click on the device and select format - that won't work)

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To get rid of the file on your USB Drive, follow these steps.

1. Goto Start;
2. Click 'Run';
3. Type 'CMD (Windows XP), COMMAND (Other Window OS).;
4. Hit 'Ok'
5. Type 'format <drive letter here, see below.>:';
6. Press 'Enter' to confirm;
7. Type a Volume name, or just hit 'Enter' to leave blank.;
8. Type 'exit'

To find drive letter, before you start just open My Computer and see what letter was assigned to the device.

As for the ones on the computer, im not %100 sure on DOS commands, i'll do some lil research and if i get an answer, i'll let you know here.

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Ok i did some research and came across the command, follow these steps:

Before you start put the .exe file in your ROOT directory to make it easy, like C:

1. Goto Start;
2. Click 'Run';
3. Type 'CMD (Windows XP), COMMAND (Other Window OS).;
4. Hit 'Ok'
5. At this point you should see something like: C:> on the left hand of the window.
6. Type 'Del <Filename.exe> see below;
7. Hit 'Enter';
8. Type 'exit'

<filename.exe> is the .exe's name, now if its saying in use, im not sure what you can do in that sitiution, i believe you would have to start in safe mode, someone with more experince that side can help you, but have a shot.

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I had a similar problem to this recently, if the post above doesn't work for you try this.

This assumes you are using WinXP.
Restart your computer, after it has gone through it's BIOS startup, (the text that says things like "Press ESC for menu" or something similar) but before it displays the "welcome" screen press F8 several times. This should launch a menu that will give you various startup options. Choose "Safe Mode with Command Line".

Once the PC has finished it's startup you should be in DOS mode with a prompt saying "C:\" or something similar. Now comes the fun part, you need to navigate to the directory the file is in, if you followed the advice in the post above the file might be C:\ directory. If you didn't or you couldn't move the file you will need to find it.

I suggest you start looking in the "Documents and Settings" directory and work from there, most files seem to end up in there. To change to a different directory in DOS type the command CD directory name. For example to change to the "Documents and Settings" directory from the the C:\ prompt, type CD Documents and Settings. To go back a directory level type CD .. Once you find the file, type DEL filename.exe Once you have deleted the file, restart WinXP by typing EXIT and everything should be OK.

Hope that helps.

:EDIT: To view the files in the directory you are currently in, type the command DIR

 

 

 

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I have had similar problems getting rid of files which are unable to be deleted off the hard drive and found a downloadable freeware program called "deletedr" which saved me having to do all of the above.
The download is available from here.
For files which are 'difficult', you might have to do a resart of your computer to ensure that the file is not 'in use' so the software can delete it, but this program has alsways managed to do the deed for me.

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Now this is kinda really funny. I never knew that it is possible to delete a file which is in use.

Anyways, the procedure being explained by tuddy isnt really a way to delete a file which is in use. At least, not in Win XP. I have tried all those and it could not delete my file.

And BTW, does anyone in here know how to delete a windows file (4 winxp) that is in root:\WIndows\System32\dll cache. I have got this very stubborn file in there that is really messing up my OS. Actually, it isnt a windows file but it poses as one and I wanna remove it from there entirely.

Thanks for your Anticipated help. Hoping to hear from you all.

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Okay, I managed to format the USB drive following the steps in the first post by tuddy. Thanks!

Tuddy, on your second post, you asked me to move it to the root of the disk. But moving a file in use is not possible

Anyway, I managed to delete it, because I downloaded it on a p2p-program, called Ares. Ares can delete the files, and it seemed to work when I deleted the file from the program... Strange...

And on my other computer, I used Delete Doctor, posted by jlhaslip. Thanks, it worked too

Now, the file is gone.

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There is small program that can do this trry to search it in google ...if I'll find it i'llpost it here...

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There is actually another post answering this exactly problem. Check it out here: http://www.trap17.com/forums/quick-tricks-...les-t31912.html

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DO NOT FORMAT A USB DEVICE
unless you know exactly what you are doing. Some USB devices are not formatted with FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. Because of this the format command causes error.

Also to delete a file "in use"
There are a couple of ways

1) DOS
Press Start>>Run
Type cmd and press enter

now
in Win XP
press CD ..\..
or, on something else
Press CD ..\..\..\..\.. until you see a prompt C:>

Next, if the file is on the c: drive, then skip this step:
right click on the file you want to delete and find out what path it is in
Example:
c:\whatever\whoha\yyy.html
now type
CD whatever\whoha\
then type
XDEL yyy.html *.txt
(XDEL is a takeoff of XCOPY, if you don't have it, you can type DEL yyy.html)
now type
DIR yyy.html \h
and see if anything shows up.

2) Windows
Click on the file and type SHIFT + DELETE
This deletes the file without sending it to the recycle bin. Sometimes this works

2b) Windows XP
type CTRL+ALT+DELETE
go to processes
right click on explorer.exe
click on end process tree
click yes
end all programs you have open
now click on file>>new
type in cmd
type in cd ..\..\..\
now type in XDEL <your_path_here>
type yes or Y

2c) Safe mode
do the same thing as 2b, but boot up in safe mode (ending explorer can be more dangerous in certain modes)

3) Software
Mine, or other software can do this

4) Other ways that you would only understand if you actually knew the answer to your own problem (as it shows a certain level of computer use)

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