Thursday 11 February 2016

Why I can not delete files "do not exist", but appear in my download directory?

I downloaded the three videos. I moved to a different folder where I put all my videos, however, a copy of the files still appear in my download directory. I tried (in the Explorer and cmd.exe ) to delete, move, rename, or open but Windows says Could not find this item. So the file no longer exists in that directory, but still appears there. How can I remove this from my download folder? I have also tried to replace the file with another by saving on it, but instead they sit next to each other side by side and can be removed, but after that, the other can not be removed. They also take no space. I'm using Windows 7 and the files have been downloaded via Firefox on a NTFS file system.


I've seen Explorer display the files for a while after they have been removed, so my first guess would be that in fact it was removed, but remained a "ghost". However, if the file is present after rebooting, then it is not that. Instead, it might have been in use for, Explorer, or an anti-virus program. I would suggest trying to Unlocker to release / delete, but again, you said that the file is re-created, so it would not be that. Finally, I stay with only one option: A file name conflict . 

They are rare (which is notsupposed to happen), but in certain circumstances (such as race-conditions) can lead to their occurrence. In this case, the best way to deal with them is the same as when dealing with files with invalid file names (such as illegal characters in them or spaces on both days). There are two ways to handle this situation, both from the command line, so open a command line to the folder that contains the files:


  • Use > dir / x  to see the 8.3 format file names and use it to remove the files in question
or
  • Use wildcards as > the * problem * file * 

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