ACH!!!

[jenepherre]

So... I downloaded this file that was supposed to be an .avi of Star Wars Ep. III (filename: Star.Wars.Episode.III.Revenge.Of.The.Sith.WORKPRINT.XviD-CENTROPY.avi). It says it's 700 mb or so. It downloaded in like... less than a minute. Not possible on my connection EVER. So before doing anything else, I run Norton AntiVirus on the file... comes up clean. I try to play it - won't play initially. I open it in VLC media player - 'cause that'll play almost anything. It's a short, crappy clip of someone doing some motocross bike flippy trick and landing on his ass. Windows Explorer still claims the file is 700+ mb, but it only takes up 3.55 mb of space on the disk. WTF? Oh... wait... I lied. It's back to claiming it actually does take up 700+ mb on the disk again. But I know it doesn't. But... the important part...

I CANNOT DELETE THIS FILE NO MATTER WHAT I TRY!!! It tells me the file is in use by another person or program. I shut down every effing program that was running, short of shutting down Windows itself, and tried deleting again. Same message. I booted up in safe mode and tried deleting again - same message.

What is this thing? How do I get rid of it? Scans for viruses and adware and spyware turn up nothing. I'm at a loss.

I WANT THIS PIECE OF WHATEVERTHEFUCKITIS OFF MY COMPUTER!!

Anyone have any ideas??

X-posting to qaftechies

ETA: quinn222 rules!! Crisis averted.
DOS commands don't work in WinXP. Duh.

Comments

[fiercediva.livejournal.com]

It's probably because it is the last file you opened with the media player you were using to view it and the player remembers the last file used. Open another video clip and watch it with the same player. Then close all programs and reboot your pc. Then go back in and try and delete the file. If that doesn't work, right click on the file name, go into properties and make sure the clip is not checked off as "read only". If it is, uncheck the box, close out of properties, then try and delete the file.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Tried both of those things. No luck. Oddly enough, it did let me rename the file though. I just thought I'd try it to see what would happen. In my experience, if a file is in use you can't rename it either, but... I did. WTF? I'm so confused, and I'm usually good with computers. ::frowns::

Thanks for the ideas though!

[lennongirl.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I once got really bad porn and some really disgusting other stuff the second time when I tried dld Epi 3. I think the only version of it that really is the movie is split in 3 parts, it's the one with the nasty timecode.

Argh. But at least my movies could be deleted. Good luck!

[lennongirl.livejournal.com]

Woops, this is a public post?

Not that I'd ever dl movies. I mean, of course not. Example from above happened to a friend. I don't really know said friend anymore. Kthx, bye.

:|

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

::snerk:: Yeah... same here. hehe

[phibetafunkay.livejournal.com]

I would restart into command-line safe mode and attempt to delete it at the c: prompt, or go to the prior restore point.

There are a lot of assholes out there (some possibly working for the MPAA) who are putting up fake torrents/files. Usually BitTorrent and similar clients are good for detecting bad uploaders. :|

[mi-nion.livejournal.com]

I forgot I save a question like this from CNet's message board. They suggested something similar to what Bat said. Here's all the suggestions.
1. "File in use" or "Access denied" usually means that your file is being accessed by an application/program. Close all applications/program associated with that file and try to delete it. If that doesn't work, wait a few minutes and try again.
2. Another method is to reboot your computer. Once Windows is loaded, do not open any applications; instead, go directly to that particular file and delete it. If that doesn't work, try the next method.
3. Rename the file you would like to delete, then try deleting it. Sometimes it tricks whatever app is tying it up into releasing the file for deletion. If that doesn't work, move on to the next method.
4. Boot Windows into Safe Mode, access that file, then delete it.
5. Last and final method is using the command-line interface. If you are unfamiliar with command lines, you may want to call it a day and leave the file you'd like to delete alone.

[jelly-baby23.livejournal.com]

Did you try quarantining the file using Norton Anti-Virus? Even if it's not infected, you can still quarantine it and try deleting it that way. Just a thought.

[mythicalkiss.livejournal.com]

Ugh. This is why I don't trust, and stopped using, BT. It never works and just ends up making me so aggravated. I want that movie more than anything, but I'm not willing to spends weeks just trying to get it and not something else. I'm so glad it worked out for you though, that would've driven me nuts.