Cannot Read from Source File or Disk

[timwinters]

I downloaded a set of construction doc's yesterday that had a few corrupt files. The plan room sent "good files" to me to replace the corrupt ones so I'm okay on that front.

When I try to delete the corrupt files however I get a message "cannot delete file: cannot read from the source file or disk". When I try to move it I get "cannot move file: cannot read from source file or disk", etc.

So I just moved my good files to another folder, labeled the folder with the corrupt files "trash" and thought I'd just let it be.

Well, when I tried to back up my laptop last night I got a similar message and the back up aborted.

So, I guess I have to figure out how to delete these files.

So, how do I?

One other note, there seems to be nothing in these files since they are listed as 0kb in size. So maybe I just have some rogue icons that I need to figure out how to delete?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Oh, by the way, Dell vostro 1510 running WIN XP pro, service pack 2549846

 

[RJM62]

Sometimes all you have to do is restart the computer and run a CHKDSK /f . I'd try that first.

-Rich

 

[timwinters]

Thanks for that idea...unfortunately, no joy, still there, same messages.

Other ideas welcome!

 

[battmain]

Try disabling the write caching. Go into the driver properties and uncheck the write caching. Reboot. Then see if you can delete it. If not, run the error checker under the tools tab. It should work better than chkdsk. After that it require more advanced tools...

 

[timwinters]

Thanks,

Checked the write caching...it was already disabled (why on a laptop? I don't know).

Ran error checker and with my system this simply scheduled a chkdsk upon next restart.

Neither did the trick.

Maybe it's time for a 20 year old...or better yet a 12 yo

thanks for the input though guys.

 

[SkyHog]

I had a thumbdrive that did the same thing to me once. I never did figure out the problem in Windows.

Booted into Linux, and I was able to remove the files without a problem though.

 

[battmain]

Thanks,

Checked the write caching...it was already disabled (why on a laptop? I don't know).

I've had mine disabled on just about every machine I own. With the hard drive speeds today and the speed of memory, I haven't noticed any speed difference. Unless you have a really slow machine, I don't see the benefit for a personal pc, and with it enabled you open yourself up to more issues (like this one) IMO. This is for personal use machines. On servers, that's a different story. I have experience with both.

Ran error checker and with my system this simply scheduled a chkdsk upon next restart.

Do you know if you're running a FAT or FAT32 file system? Otherwise it may be time to use some of the more advanced tools out there. Depends on how persistent you want to be. Linux is one way, there are other tools too. Chkdsk is kinda' limited and in some cases may do more harm than good. Probably the issue is that you have a bad sector and since the the file system is still pointing to that sector, the system tries to do what you ask (delete) and it can't.

 

[JOhnH]

What kind of system created these files that you downloaded?

Here is an excerpt from a blog post where someone solved a similar problem:
___________________________________________________________
It turns out the problem was: the filename ended with a dot, e.g. it was something like “C:\Temp\Stuff\Sales Agreement.“. As far as Windows is concerned this is an invalid file name: so although it gets reported in a directory listing, the standard Windows APIs for manipulating files subsequently deny its existence.
So how did this file get created in the first place? The answer: a Mac. The file was on a file share which had been accessed by a Mac user. Macs tend to write all sorts of metadata to extra “._DSStore” files and suchlike and had left this file behind.
______________________________________________________________

Your problem may not be the same, but it could be some sort of invalid filename. Perhaps an inadvertant "/" somewhere in the filename or path. That has messed me up before.

Here is a link to that blog post:
http://blog.dotsmart.net/2008/06/12/solved-cannot-read-from-the-source-file-or-disk/

 

[JOhnH]

Here is another post on another forum where someone solved a similar problem:

*****************************************************************
It's possible that the file has either hidden characters in the name, or the file system has become corrupted (is this ntfs?)
If you tried safe mode it's unlikely that the file is in use.

You need a tool to flag a file as 'delete on next boot', your virus scanner should be able to do this, otherwise look at http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
*****************************************************************
​

Wow, the unlocker program you linked me too worked like a charm. It deleted it without even rebooting. I had previously tried other programs which supposedly do the same thing and none of them proved successful.

Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread for helping me out with this, I really appreciate it.

 

[timwinters]

Here is another post on another forum where someone solved a similar problem:

*****************************************************************
It's possible that the file has either hidden characters in the name, or the file system has become corrupted (is this ntfs?)
If you tried safe mode it's unlikely that the file is in use.

You need a tool to flag a file as 'delete on next boot', your virus scanner should be able to do this, otherwise look at http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
*****************************************************************
​

Wow, the unlocker program you linked me too worked like a charm. It deleted it without even rebooting. I had previously tried other programs which supposedly do the same thing and none of them proved successful.

Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread for helping me out with this, I really appreciate it.

Ding, ding, ding, ding...we have a winner!!!!

That did the trick and did it quickly and painlessly.

And, yes, the issue was that there was no file extension on thes files. their names ended with a "."

I probably should have mentioned that, eh?

Thanks a ton for all the help, guys.

 

[silver-eagle]

That's part of the problem with GUI interfaces; you don't actually see the DOS name where it might be easier to identify an invalid filename. I don't mind GUIs just miss the cumbersome line commands at times (so I log onto unix).