How do I delete these files?

Question

2 files just showed up on my desktop, CA2BCXAB and CA2OLJVA. They have no file extensions, and under type of file it just says file, they're also both 0 bytes. When I try to delete them it says cannot read from source file or disc. How do I get rid of them???

Answer 1

If they truly are puzzling, run an antivirus program. Also log out and log back into windows and try again. Try deleting in DOS but may not work...

Answer 2

Hopefully they'll disappear after a quick reboot but, if not, there's a free application called Process Explorer that allows you to kill the handle an application or process has on a specific file so you can then delete the file:

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

When you run it, click the Find->Find Handle menu option. Type the name of the file into the box that appears and search and it'll return a list of the handles on that file which you can click on. When you click on the handle in the search results box it'll also highlight the handle in the bottom window, just right-click on that highlighted handle and select Close Handle, then you should be able to delete the file.

Answer 3

You should probably restart your PC in safe mode and right click on the items in question and select delete and if you want them to be gone for good make use of a file eraser program like StompSoft's Digital File Shredder or similar product to ensure that these entries will never come back again. Although, if they do after all of that then you most definitely would want to update your anti-virus definitions and run that as well.

Answer 4

It depends on where the files are located. It could be that they are in a directory which is protected by security software (as in quarantine) or by the operating system itself.

They may also be index files created by a background process. If that is the case you'll have to try stopping all unknown processes then try deleting the files.

Try giving us more information.

Answer 5

Try right clicking on them and selecting delete. Otherwise you can try accessing htem via Windows Explorer and deleting the file. It may be that you have a virus - you should run an anti-virus and anti-spyware program just in case

Answer 6

Reboot your computer into DOS mode and delete them from your desktop the old fashioned way.

Answer 7

right click and look for delete

Answer 8

Try restarting your computer- they may go bye-bye on there own

Answer 9

moveonboot
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html

Answer 10

hold shift then del