Computer technical problem.

[BCLG100]

Ok so i have this file that is on my computer that i am unable to delete, its nothing important -just a notepad document with like 4 letters on. But the worrying thing is everytime i try and delete it i get the write error message.

Another problem i have is that i am unable to install 4OD (tv service we get for free), everytime i try and install it i get an error message stating that it has insufficient priveledge to access the area. Saying log on as an admin or contact your system admin.

Both of these are in the same directory of my computer
C:documents and settings/all users/shared documents
So im fairly sure they're connected.

I think i know what the problem is, i;ve been looking through why i couldn't delete it and the only excuse i could find is that im part of a network and i don't have admin capability within that area of my comp. At the start of the year me and my housemates attempted to establish a network so we could share music files etc but it didnt go so well so we ended up jacking it in, the only thing i can think is that it is because of this that i can't delete or edit the file.

I also did a bit of searching through my networks, one was the house network and another called 'workgroup'. Neither of which i can find a way of deleting, does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

[akots]

Well, do you run XP Pro? Or XP Home? Do you have SP3 installed or other updates? What is the antivirus you use and firewall if any? You can try to ask somebody with admin privilege to change settings of that directory so that you can erase the files there or try to do it yourself since you are supposed to be an admin on your own PC.

It can be a virus though and is most likely.

[BCLG100]

I run XP home, I'm unsure about the SP3 thing, how would i check about that? though this has been a problem for awhile i've just been too busy to attempt to fix it.

Well i've got the windows firewall and did have norton but i got rid of it the other day as it seemed about as much use as an inflatable dart board.

The person who was admin of the network reformatted his computer a couple of months ago so he said the file which was holding the network should have been erased.

By changing the settings do you mean right clicking on it?

[akots]

Yes, right click and the go to Properties tab and select Sharing and there select Do Not Share This Folder button. Also, use Security tab and add yourself to the list of users which have complete access over the folder if possible. I'm not sure you can do all that in XP Home though. Sometimes, if you have a DivX player or codec active in memory, it can block access to some files as some other programs might do like some Sony tools or Roxio creator tools. Then, you need to disable the services they run through Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services but you have to be accurate on that. Or boot in Safe Mode and try manually. If you still cannot do that in Safe Mod you might have a virus or a malignant trojan then.

A complete virus/spyware scan might be also required. IMO, Avast which is absolutely free, is currently one of the best for that. In combination with SpyBot-SD they are quite effective.

[BCLG100]

is the do not share thing= make this folder private? just that's greyed out and i can't alter it.

I have a sharing and security tab when im righh clicking but no security tab so i go there but i can't find a place where i can add myself.

The weird thing is theres absolutly nothing in these files, theres the 4 pictures you get with windows to show it off and a notepad document, no videos music etc. So there shouldn't be a codec hidddin inside. But it's worrying theres some part of my computer i have no control over.

I have spybot running- the one where its active all the time rather than me running it everynow and then and i've got AVG going, should i download avast as well then and see if they can find anything AVG can't? i ran AVG about a week ago and nothing came up.

[grahamiam]

The "Sharing" option has to do with Network sharing, not file access (ie, file accessing rights on the local computer)

When you log into your computer, what are your access privledges? Are you running as an admin?

Either way, to expand on what akots was saying about programs accessing the file, use Windows Explorer to navigate to C:documents and settings/all users/shared documents. Click View -> details. Then highlight the file, and click view -> choose details. Switch everything off except the name. Then try to delete. If still not working, can you copy the file? If so, can you delete the copy?

Also, when you wrote that you were searching thru your networks, do you mean start -> My network places? If so, then highlight, right click, and select delete if you want to remove. This should be pretty straight forward as long as you are an admin.

FYI, I am currently running Avast for antivirus and Online Armor for firewall. Both are free. Avast, avir, and AVG are all decent, free virus programs. Comodo and Online Armor are decent, free firewalls.

[grahamiam]

Oh, and run chkdsk to make sure the sector is not corrupted.

Start -> Control Panel -> Administration Tools -> Computer Management

Highlight C
Right click -> Properties
Select the Tools Tab
Click the "Check Now" button under Error-Checking

[akots]

So, the folder is not networked and very expectedly, there is no ownership set up on your XP which you can change. This means some other process accessing these files which hopefully belongs to User (you) and not to System. Since if it belongs to System, it might be very hard to interrupt safely. You can try Safe Mode (through F8 during start up) or you can try to shred the files with Spybot (I use Total Commander for these occasions) while disabling Explorer (most likely, or some other process stuff running) through Task Manager. You can then either restart the PC or restart the process again using Task Manager.

[socralynnek]

You might wanna click with right mouse buttn at that file, then choose "Properties" (or whatever it is called in English-Windows)
Then it might show you what is going on with that file. Maybe.

There is a suite of tools called SysInternals Suite. It was once from a different company but Microsoft bought the company and the programs are free to use.

Most likely: You just simply don't have the rights to access the "All Users" folder. It might be possible that you are not an Administrator. Maybe you know the admin password or have the rights to make yourself an admin.

There is a tool called "FileMon" with which you can see which files programs are currently accessing (doesn't help though if a program just blocks that file very early in startup)

[Furiey]

I had a problem with certain files not deleting - it was my hard drive failing [sad]

[BCLG100]

@graham part 1, about the details thing, i do what you say. And an error message comes up 'You are sharing, path name, if you delete it it'll no longer be shared, are you sure you want too.' So i click delete and another message comes up saying 'documents is windows system folder and is required to run properly'.

I can copy it and delete it but not cut it.

I am the only user of the comp the only person able to log in, looking at the account through the control pannel it says im system admin as well. Weirdly it says theres another account there, 'ASP.NET Machine A' im not too sure what this is but i can't access it from startup :s

About the network places, i only have one there- speedtouch which is how i access the internet i assumed. when clicking on network places though i can see three monitors witha link between them on the left hand side and i click on that and everything just freezes. I also can't delete the speedtouch thing when right clicked. Until eventually an error message pops up stating i dont have the priveledge to access it.

@graham2 i've gone to the comp management thing and can't see where i would find C, the only options i have are 'services and applications, Storage and System Tools' These all open into other areas but not one into my c-drive.

@akots- so you want me to ctrl+alt+delete- go to processes and end explorer.exe? IIRC i've attempted that a couple of times and the comp just crashes, i thought i needed that to do anything?

@Ynnek- what am i looking for with the properties thing? if i try to do anything with it- make it read only, hide it or deselect it for archiving it tells me access is denied.

@Furiey- Bodes well then...

[socralynnek]

In properties thing there is sometimes a hint. For examples, here on the computer I am sitting, I can see a text saying "This file has been downloaded from another computer. It is therefore write-protected." or something like that (which is not something windows sets, it is from a data security program).
Therefore there might have been a hint.

What does it say on the security tab over there? There you can see who has access.

[BCLG100]

I don't have a security tab, i have a sharing tab? is that the same? to do with network sharing it has a box which isn't clicked stating 'share this folder on network' To do with local sharing and security there is a box saying 'make this folder private' which is greyed out and so i can't click it.

[grahamiam]

Sorry, I forgot to ask a very basic question. What is the name of the file you are trying to delete?

As for chkdsk, you should also be able to navigate to it from explorer or My Computer. You just need to highlight the drive letter, right-click, and select properties, then select the tools tab and error checking. For instance:
Start -> My Computer
Select drive C
Rightclick and select properties
Select the Tools Tab
Click "Check Now" under Error Checking

[Markstar]

I recommend a little freeware tool called "Unlocker". It's similar to FileMon (I guess) and will easily let you delete 99% of the files out there:
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/Markstar/2008523142348_unlocker.png
9.77KB

[socralynnek]

The security tab (at least that's what it would translated sound like) shows you which users and user groups have which access to that file.

[grahamiam]

@Markstar: Reading all of this, I'm not sure he should delete it. We should find out the name of the file and determine if the local computer needs it.

@BCLG: 'ASP.NET Machine A' info -> http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/aspdot.php It's basically a .net 1.1 item. You should be upgrade your .NET stuff to at least 2.0

[BCLG100]

Well its any from a selection really 'shared music' 'shared pictures' 'shared video' 'my deliveries'-that folder was created by 4OD. 'Joe is gay'- the test file we were using on the network.

I should point out i can delete other things in the all users area, its just when its forwarded on to shared documents part.

How would i check what version i have of that ASP thing? I'm on the ASP website but unsure what i should be downloading.

I also attempted to run the chkdsk thing you said graham, it has two options'auto fix errors' 'attempt to restore bad sectors', when i check both it says i need to restart and it'll attempt to do it then as it needs exclusive access. I didnt know if this was normal so i havent restarted yet?

I ran windows updater and it says i need SP3 but PP and matrix seemed to be complaining about it in another thread, should i still download it? other than that i have no high priority updates and only 3 others, 'microsoft .net framwork 3.0, an update for my wireless adaptor and root certificates'

@ynnek, i dont seem to have that tab, only a general and sharing tab.

[akots]

quote:Originally posted by BCLG100
... @akots- so you want me to ctrl+alt+delete- go to processes and end explorer.exe? IIRC i've attempted that a couple of times and the comp just crashes, i thought i needed that to do anything?
...


Actually, explorer is just a shell file manager with other tasks though, and you can safely terminate it and then restart and this should be OK if your machine is fine. You can still manage files with 3rd party shells, no problem should arise there. It does not crash and all your open programs remain open or you can start them via task manager if they are not since in most cases Explorer is not required to run applications.

[akots]

As a last resort, if you are really frustrated, you can build yourself a Bart-Ubuntu CD and boot from it and delete the files from its Explorer. I did this also a few times. To build the right CD, you would need a windows disk or at least i386 directory with setup files. All details can be found on their web site.

Re chkdsk: Yes, this is how it is supposed to function with auto fix errors.

Re SP3: There does not seem to be much of a choice, you might need to install it.

ASP version should be displayed in About section of Help of ASP.

[BCLG100]

@akots part 1- like svchost.exe? so you think i should disable explorer in process then start spybot and then restart?

@akots part 2- that was really confusing and i have no idea what you mean! would it help if i reformatted windows?i think i've had this comp like 5 years and have never done it.

I'll run chkdsk after i've installed SP3 i spose then!

[socralynnek]

Ah, I see what I missed in my explanation above. Right-click on a file in that directory and you should that Security tab with the access rights.
You are right, windows doesn't show that for directories.

[BCLG100]

i right click and i get no security tab, on the notepad file i have general and summary as with the pictures.

[akots]

svchost.exe is not a process of its own, it is just an exe engine of various network services. So, no, interrupting svchost.exe is useless whereas Explorer is a process of its own and can be interrupted. After running alternative file manager or spybot for shredding, you don't need to restart, just in Task Manager, Applications tab select New Task in the bottom right and type Explorer.exe there at the prompt. Make sure you do not accidentally turn off Task Manager itself though since then, you'd need to restart.

With Bart, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BartPE and all links can go from there. It works like a charm for backups of broken Windoze or for some antivirus checks or just system cleaning including the problem you describe. Just make sure you don't delete something which is actually needed.

[Markstar]

Hmm, before he goes creating a different boot CD, I'd really recommend using Unlocker if you just want to delete the file. [:p]

[grahamiam]

It's interesting that it's only the files in any of the shared folders that causing the problem. I'm wondering if those files were protected by another computer (or created by another computer) and now the local machine doesn't have the rights. Is it possible that those folders are on another machine? If they are indeed local, and since they are just shared folders, I'd go with Markstar's Unlocker program and see if you can change the rights or delete the shared folders.

re XP SP3, I have installed it on 3 computers here without issue. There was an issue back in April in regards to 3rd party drivers having a compatibility issue with one of the updates. However, Windows Updater will check for that and won't install if it's a problem. Therefore, if it installs, you should be good to go. And also update your windows .net to version 3.0.

[BCLG100]

Well after the chkdsk had run and i have loaded up my computer a DOS screen came up saying 'access denied' this went on for about 10 times before it closed itself down, i was doing other things so was unable to see what the original thing was but i ran chkdsk and i still can't delete anything.

So i should aim to use this program markster proposed?

[BCLG100]

Oh and the file was definatly created on my comp as it was there to see if they other computer could see it and access it.