Hatrack River Forum: Computer utility question

This is topic Computer utility question in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :

For the umpteenth time, I've tried to delete a file only to be told:

code:

---------------------------
Error Deleting File or Folder
---------------------------
Cannot delete Othello: It is being used by another person or program.

Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

But I don't have any programs open that might be using the file. Not that I know of. Clearly, something is hanging on to it, but I have no idea what it is. But I figure that if Windows can identify the link, some other piece of software ought to be able to as well.

Does anyone know if there's such a utility? Something that'll tell you what's hanging on to a file you want to delete?

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

Have you tried booting Windows into safe mode?

Posted by anti_maven (Member # 9789) on :

There is a tool called "Sysinternals Process Explorer" which is good way of finding out what is running on XP (assuming you are running XP) and tracing dependencies.

Good luck.

Failing that, booting in safe-mode is a good call.

*edit for linky

Posted by Qaz (Member # 10298) on :

Rebooting always was enough for me.

Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :

I'll try the process explorer. Rebooting is such a pain. I'm hoping that there's something I can use without having to reboot.

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~erick/software/othello/

Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :

quote:
Originally posted by aspectre:
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~erick/software/othello/

Thanks, that looks interesting.

A friend also sent me this. I may try it as well. It looks like it's specifically for the kind of problem I'm having.

Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :

[edit: Of course you'd post that while I was authoring this post (and taking a phone call).]

Use Unlocker. It's a great little piece of software that has cured me of this problem a million times over since I discovered it.

Posted by BandoCommando (Member # 7746) on :

I'm going to piggyback on this thread rather than starting a new one.

Vista has a built-in backup program, but it doesn't seem to make backups of installed programs, windows, etc. It seems to just copy documents, music, photos, movies, and the like.

Pre-Vista, I used a program called TrueImage from Acronis to back up my files. This made a full back-up of everything that was restorable to a new partitition in case of catastrophic drive failure, and the image it made was also searchable if I needed to recover individual folders/files.

Does anyone know of a comparable back-up solution for Vista?

Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Primal Curve:
[edit: Of course you'd post that while I was authoring this post (and taking a phone call).]

Use Unlocker. It's a great little piece of software that has cured me of this problem a million times over since I discovered it.

You get a thanks anyway. I tried it, and it worked great.

Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :

I'm surprised Acronis doesn't work with Vista.

I've been using Terabyte Unlimited's "Image for DOS" or "Image for Windows". I've had no luck with it on Vista, but they may have updated since I tried it last year.