Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Windows gem: "Cannot delete" dialog.

Author:Jacob Levy
Posted:4/16/2000; 9:13:01 PM
Topic:Windows gem: "Cannot delete" dialog.
Msg #:16312
Prev/Next:16311 / 16313

Dave wrote that this is one of the more interesting dialog boxes he's seen in his life. He he, funny.

There is a solution. We'll get to that in a second, but first a short digression. This screen shot looks like Win98 or Win2000. The problem is that instead of really-really-deleting the file, the OS is copying it into another location and then deleting the original. Most of the time the other location is on the same partition as where the file is being deleted from. Obviously, if you're going to delete the file you need at least as much space as the file is occupying.

The solution: First of all, empty the "recycle bin" by right clicking the icon and selecting "Empty recycle bin". Then, if you want Windows to really-really-delete a file being deleted instead of saving it in the "recycle bin", right click the recycle bin and bring up the properties dialog. In there, select the tab for the partition that is full and twiddle the slider bar in the lower third of the window to lower the "reserved disk space".

Of course, if this happens to be the partition where the OS is installed -- and most specifically the registry files -- then its too late, your OS is likely to be damaged. That is because Windows didn't have enough space to write registry data out, which is very likely to corrupt the registry.

That means: re-install time, big time.

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