4 replies to this topic

[Doc Snow]

I'm working on a friends computer and found a couple of odd files (screen cap attached). what are they and why cant i delete them?

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Edited by Doc Snow, 31 January 2011 - 08:24 PM.

[nyphonejacks]

I'm working on a friends computer and found a couple of odd files (screen cap attached). what are they and why cant i delete them?

not sure what that funny writing is...

but i have occasionally had an odd file here and there that did not want to delete.... usually this is due to the file being read/written from/to

you can try deleting it from the command prompt but that might be troublesome of you can not figure out how to type those characters in a dos prompt...

you can also attempt to delete the files while in safe mode - hopefully whatever program/service that is reading/writing to those files will not load up in safe mode...

you could also check the file attribute - sometimes you are not able to delete read only, or system files, so removing those attributes might allow you to delete the files..

[tekio]

I don't know they are, but you need to take ownership of them. I noticed they're in a windows.old, which means you installed Windows again, with an exiting install. The problem might be that Win actually uses a SID to check permissions, not the user name. Because you reinstalled Windows, the SID for administrator has changed.

You could also boot knoppix and use the old rm -rf Windows.old. Be careful, the directory you delete with that command will most likely be gone forever.

Edited by tekio, 01 February 2011 - 10:00 AM.

[d3xt3r]

I don't know they are, but you need to take ownership of them. I noticed they're in a windows.old, which means you installed Windows again, with an exiting install. The problem might be that Win actually uses a SID to check permissions, not the user name. Because you reinstalled Windows, the SID for administrator has changed.

You could also boot knoppix and use the old rm -rf Windows.old. Be careful, the directory you delete with that command will most likely be gone forever.

Very well explained....I had this problem earlier and when I checked the ownership there was a SID that probably belonged to earlier Windows Installation. Taking up the ownership solved the problem.

[Doc Snow]

I had to give up on the files when my friend left back for home but before he left i checked a few more things. i checked both of their properties (See attached photo) and noticed that they have no data. From there i tried deleting them using the standard delete all the way to using Hirens boot CD (Knoppix finished downloading after he left)and yet nothing could delete them.

I even used features on HBCD to change permissions and all that good stuff, but with other functions it always said the two files were not there. so i preceded to just wipe the rest of the Windows.Old from his computer because he said he didnt care and to just leave them there.

Also the reason it's windows.old is because it's freakin vista and he got hit by a virus that targeted his system 32 files and the like. And vista, as most people know has a horrible repair mode on their useless recovery disk. It cant ever detect what the problem is, so you just have to re-install the whole damn system.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

Edit: Dammit, i just noticed i misspelled the title of the thread.

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Edited by Doc Snow, 04 February 2011 - 10:50 AM.