I have both a file and a folder (unrelated) which refuse to be deleted! When I try they inform me that they are in use by another program and cannot be removed. Perhaps as a related issue when I so much as right-click on the file or folder, the McAfee On Access scanner starts not so much a memory leak as a memory hemorrhage in the style of Kill Bill. It manages to grab all of my 512 megs in just a few seconds, and must be shut down from the task manager.
What could be causing this, and how do I fix it? McAfee (home edition) is updated regularly, and I run a complete system scan every day at 4:00AM so I don’t think I have a virus, etc.
What type of files is it? What is the file name? What OS are you using?
You can try restarting the computer in MS-DOS mode and then using
del c:\directory\filename to delete the file that is giving you a problem. Note, be careful with this
As far as the memory leak goes, csall McAfee. I looked on the McAfee website and couldn’t find anything about it. It sounds like a bug.
I had a smiliar problem happen before, and I just deleted it like that other poster mentioned. However, instead of restarting in dos, I just deleted it through the command prompt.
Start menu > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt
That’s with the classic start menu, mind you. I don’t like that new fangled xp one.
You can still start XP in the recovery console (boot from the XP disc or run “d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons” with the disc in the drive to install it onto your hard drive) or create a bootable MS-DOS 7 floppy (check the box in the Format dialog box that says something about bootable MS-DOS disks and throw this on it).
I dunno about command line deletion (worth trying, I guess), but what always works for me is rebooting. Then, delete the undesired files immediately. Win XP, btw.
