I was upgrading some software and came across a corrupt file that halted the installation process. I went to see what was wrong with the file, and failed to manually delete it. I tried moving (cut&paste) it to another location, and the installation succeeded. However, the file is still on my drive, taking up a KB of space. I know that's not a lot, but where am I supposed to put it? In a folder created especially for all the corrupt files on my computer?

I've heard something about using the chkdsk utility to fix the problem. However, I am not sure on how to use this tool. Microsoft's documentation didn't make it clear...

Use Unlocker:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
It's an explorer extension.
It calls itself automatically whenever the deleting process failed.
It frees all the calls to the file, so you can delete it, but it does not work always (atleast for me)
You can also choose if you want to delete the file after a reboot.
But other than that its a pretty handy program

Booting on the Knoppix CD also helps.
You are under windows then, having less problems. You click on your Windows partition, choose mount, choose switch to write-enabled mode, go to your folder, choose your file and choose "delete". Probably the Linux file manager will have no problem deleting this corrupted file.
The only reason I see for being really definitively unable to delete the file would be a physical corrupted sector on the disk, then, only a disk format would be able to recover the error.
Regards
yordan

If my memory serves me well, I have had the same problem some time ago. I can't remember exactly what helped, but trying to delete it in DOS mode seems like a good idea. Also, you might want to try booting Windows in Safe Mode and then deleting the corrupted file.

By the way, yes, there is a way you can use it harmless.

Open a dos prompt window, and type "chkdsk c:" (or chkdsk d: depending if your file is on C: or D: or E:)
It will tell you "you did not provide the /f flag, I will only look without reparing".
No problem, let it look, and if it says "no errors", then chkdsk is not the solution.
If it finds a problem, run it again with the /f option, like this :
chkdsk d: /F

sometimes it's useful, sometimes not.

Yeah I would probably just delete it from command prompt, but depending on what the file is you might have to go into safemode.

If you are not confident with the command prompt or Linux, then you can try using GiPo@Utilities.
http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/index.htm
GiPo@Utilities has a number of small programes within it.
These include:
* GiPo@MoveOnBoot - copying/moving/renaming/deleting files and folders on the next system boot.
* GiPo@DirMonitor - monitoring changes in the file system.
* GiPo@Mount - local folders substitution and local/remote drives mounting.
* GiPo@Hardlink - UNIX-like (POSIX) hardlinks for NTFS creation.
* GiPo@ReadTest - checking files and folders for read errors.

There's a small catch on using linux. If you have windows installed on an NTFS partition then you should be very carefull with wath you do. Linux NTFS drivers are still very buggy when it comes to writing (deleting = writing) especialy when you write a lot of data. A small amount normaly should pose not too many problems, but it's best to try windows-based software first.

It's always best to just go into safe mode. Then nothing will try to open the file for reading. That's what I like about Linux... it doesn't leech on to a file like that.

[N]F

Thanx tommydanger 'Unlocker' did the job! Had this annoying avi that refused to budge in Safe Mode or via Command Prompt. Cheers.

-bigpaul