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[Alan.]

I was running a scan with Malwarebytes on my dads computer and I noticed that it was taking forever to scan because there were 3 different back up folders which were taking up a lot of space on his machine. When I tried to delete them I got the 'Error Deleting File or Folder make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use".

I tried changing the ownership but these folder do not have the security tab to edit.

So I was wondering if there was a program or method I can use to delete them?

Thanks.

[Britec]

Try this Alan

1. Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open.
2. Close all open programs. 
3. Click Start, Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE   Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe.  Leave Task Manager open. Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory of undeletable file or folder.  For Undeletable File At the command prompt type DEL filename  where filename is the file you wish to delete. For Undeletable Folder At the command prompt type: rmdir foldername where foldername is the folder you wish to delete.  Go back to Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell.  Close Task Manager.

Note: If you want to delete a file with spaces in its name you must wrap the name in "". For example:

del "filename 1"

If you want to delete more than one file you can do so like this:

del "filename 1.txt" "filename 2.txt" del "filename 3.txt"

Note: If you want to delete a folder with spaces in its name you must wrap the name in "". For example:

rmdir "foldername 1"

If you want to delete more than one folder you can do so like this:

rmdir "foldername 1" "foldername 2" "foldername 3"

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If all this is a bit geeky then just use programs like:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/fileassassin.php

http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/

http://www.emco.is/products/unlock-it/features.php

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

http://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~bfriesen/software/console.shtml

http://grubletrang.com/Software.aspx?app=FreeFile

hope this helps you out

[Alan.]

The first solution is far to tricky for me. I tried it but just got lost really easily.  ;D

I tried File Assassin but that just said that it couldent delete it because its a folder and not a file.

EMCO UnLock IT says "The selected resource is not locked by any application"

Start Unlocker says "No locking handle was found" but it gives the option to delete it but when I press that it does nothing.

Then for all the others I had the same result as File Assassin.

[Britec]

Hi Alan,

Try this
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421/en-us

If all else fails go into a preinstalled environment and delete it that way.