file wont delete

[venney]

The other day when i did a firmware update for my Sony dvd re-writer, i downloaded the .exe. When i next rebooted, there were two copies of the file, one named 'MYS6WIN.EXE' and the other 'MYS6WIN.EXE '
I hope that clear, as in the second file had lots of spaces after the .exe.
I was able to delete the first file with no problem, but when i try and delete the second one i get the error
'Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk.'

I did a search on the internet and found a free program called 'Dr Delete'. I tried this, but when i click delete it says
'No such file: C:\Documents and settings\Lawrence\Desktop\MYS6WIN.EXE '

I tried booting in safe mode and deleting but I get the same error message that i get in normal boot.

I’m pretty confused, it is obviously there as i can see it on my desktop!

Any ideas?

[Psymon]

is it possible to try and rename it? ridding it of the spaces after the exe might have have effect?

[venney]

lol for crying out loud, I always forget things like this.

I meant to say, yes I tried that (it was my first thought too, I thought if it was over a certain amount of characters or something..). I get the same error when trying to change the name.

[Gecko]

venny,

Click on Start, Run, and type CMD and Press Enter to open a Command Prompt window
Leave the Command Prompt window open, but proceed to close all other open programs
Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete ant the same time to start Task Manager
Click on the Processes tab, click on the process named Explorer.exe and click on End Process.
*Minimize Task Manager but leave it open
Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory where the file is located.
To do this, use the CD command. You can follow the example below.

Example: to change to the Windows\System32 directory you would enter the following command and Press Enter

cd \windows\system32 (note the space between the d and the /
Once you have reach the directory wher the file is Type DIR and press enter.
That will give you a listing of all the files in that directory.
Find the ofending file by it's dos name it will look something like MYS6WIN~.EXE

Now use the DEL command to delete the offending file. Example: del MYS6WIN~.EXE (note space between l an M) and press enter
Use ALT+TAB to go back to Task Manager
In Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the Windows shell.
Close Task Manager

[venney]

Hey gecko, i tried what you said, but strangely it comes up saying 'could not find file'

I have taken a screen shot to show you, maybe i did something wrong.

[icecube]

Hi Venney

You might try two things. I notice in your screen shot, that there is another file that is quite long "select one real life.......docx"

Use the steps Gecko gave you to shorten it. An easy trick I learned in XP is that from a command prompt, go to the root with a cd \ and then type in "cd" no quotes and one space --then hit the tab key and the next part of the directory will pop up one after the other in alphabetical order. Get to the one you want and hit enter, then type cd space and tab away again. It's a lifesaver when files are not of the 8.3 format.

After you do that try running chkdsk from DOS, or from windows Rt click the drive and select properties-->tools-->error checking-->check now-->automatically fix file system errors. On reboot, it will do three passes on the drive, the second one if memory serves me, should fix the file structure. Your problem may lie there. After the third pass, checkdisk will display (real quick) the disk stats. The data will be arranged like an hour glass. Look to where it is the narrowest, it had better be zero. Otherwise you have bad sectors on the drive (which ain't good). It displays for one one second at the most. See if this helps