Vista - Problem deleting movie files

I have two small Quick time movies that will not delete. When I click on
'Delete' I get a progress box "Calculating time remaining . . ." that just
runs and runs with no progress at all. The data in the box says there are 0
bytes in the file even though they each are more than 32 Mb. Any suggestions?

Hello,

1) Try deleting the files by using your command prompt:
* kill explorer.exe process in Task Manager
* Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right-click command prompt -> Run as administrator.
-> cd FolderWhereYourFilesAre -> del FileName
2) If nothing helps, you could try this program http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/.

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo

"BobC" <BobC@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:1ECC43E7-1353-4901-9336-316B7DEDEA02@microsoft.com...
>I have two small Quick time movies that will not delete. When I click on
> 'Delete' I get a progress box "Calculating time remaining . . ." that just
> runs and runs with no progress at all. The data in the box says there are 0
> bytes in the file even though they each are more than 32 Mb. Any suggestions?

On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 08:30:00 -0700, BobC
<BobC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I have two small Quick time movies that will not delete. When I click on
>'Delete' I get a progress box "Calculating time remaining . . ." that just
>runs and runs with no progress at all. The data in the box says there are 0
>bytes in the file even though they each are more than 32 Mb. Any suggestions?

Go to Control Panel and turn off UAC (User Account Control) and then
try to delete again. You can then restore UAC if you like.

Make sure no other application is using the file when you try to
delete it. If you still can't get rid of it, try from the Command
Prompt which bypasses all the GUI garbage.

Thanks. My UAC is already turned off

"Adam Albright" wrote:

> On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 08:30:00 -0700, BobC
> <BobC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >I have two small Quick time movies that will not delete. When I click on
> >'Delete' I get a progress box "Calculating time remaining . . ." that just
> >runs and runs with no progress at all. The data in the box says there are 0
> >bytes in the file even though they each are more than 32 Mb. Any suggestions?
>
> Go to Control Panel and turn off UAC (User Account Control) and then
> try to delete again. You can then restore UAC if you like.
>
> Make sure no other application is using the file when you try to
> delete it. If you still can't get rid of it, try from the Command
> Prompt which bypasses all the GUI garbage.
>
>

Thanks. My UAC is already turned off.

Not sure of the how-to detail in your second suggestion re the Command Prompt.

Bob

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:46:04 -0700, BobC
<BobC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Thanks. My UAC is already turned off
>
>"Adam Albright" wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 08:30:00 -0700, BobC
>> <BobC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> >I have two small Quick time movies that will not delete. When I click on
>> >'Delete' I get a progress box "Calculating time remaining . . ." that just
>> >runs and runs with no progress at all. The data in the box says there are 0
>> >bytes in the file even though they each are more than 32 Mb. Any suggestions?
>>
>> Go to Control Panel and turn off UAC (User Account Control) and then
>> try to delete again. You can then restore UAC if you like.
>>
>> Make sure no other application is using the file when you try to
>> delete it. If you still can't get rid of it, try from the Command
>> Prompt which bypasses all the GUI garbage.
>>
>>
>
>Thanks. My UAC is already turned off.
>
>Not sure of the how-to detail in your second suggestion re the Command Prompt.
>
>Bob

Click on Start, then All Programs, scroll down to the Accessories
folder, click on it, there you'll find the Command Prompt. It opens a
small black window which takes you out of the GUI and back to
something similar to the good old DOS days.

If you type 'help' you'll get a menu of commands you can use and their
proper syntax which can be a little cryptic.

For example to delete a file from the command prompt you can use
either 'del' or 'erase' following by a single space then the file name
like this: del myfile.mov.

You won't get any feedback it was deleted other than seeing it is gone
if you use another command 'dir' which shows the directory. With the
Command Prompt it only says something if it doesn't understand what
you wanted to do and you made a syntax error.

You either need to go to the directory the file you want to delete is
located in using the cd command (for change directory) or just include
the path in the string like this:

C:\>del e:\junk.jpg which would delete the file named junk.jpg on your
E drive. Note the single space after the command del is critical.

If the file you want to delete is in a folder you need to specify the
full path like below which would delete a file named xxx.jpg in the
pictures folder on your E drive.

c:\>del e:\pictures\xxx.jpg

While using the Command Prompt is a little crude, it is more powerful
then trying to do the same things directly from within Windows the
good news is it generally won't fight with you once it understands
what you want to do.

if you wait a bit the movie gets deleted?

if so, what you are waiting for probably is for the thumbnail generation,
one possible solution is to ensure you have video codecs compatible with
vista (and try uninstalling nero if you have it installed)

if the thumbnail is already generated then i dont know

for sure UAC has absolutely nothing to do about this, btw

"Jume" wrote:

> if you wait a bit the movie gets deleted?
>
> if so, what you are waiting for probably is for the thumbnail generation,
> one possible solution is to ensure you have video codecs compatible with
> vista (and try uninstalling nero if you have it installed)
>
> if the thumbnail is already generated then i dont know
>
> for sure UAC has absolutely nothing to do about this, btw
>
>

The thumbnail does not display, though it may be trying to do that since the
file does not seem to fully load (the green progress bar in the url bar does
not complete) tthough it will open in the player with a double click on the
file.

"Adam Albright" wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:46:04 -0700, BobC
> <BobC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Thanks. My UAC is already turned off
> >
> >"Adam Albright" wrote:
> >
> >> On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 08:30:00 -0700, BobC
> >> <BobC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I have two small Quick time movies that will not delete. When I click on
> >> >'Delete' I get a progress box "Calculating time remaining . . ." that just
> >> >runs and runs with no progress at all. The data in the box says there are 0
> >> >bytes in the file even though they each are more than 32 Mb. Any suggestions?
> >>
> >> Go to Control Panel and turn off UAC (User Account Control) and then
> >> try to delete again. You can then restore UAC if you like.
> >>
> >> Make sure no other application is using the file when you try to
> >> delete it. If you still can't get rid of it, try from the Command
> >> Prompt which bypasses all the GUI garbage.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Thanks. My UAC is already turned off.
> >
> >Not sure of the how-to detail in your second suggestion re the Command Prompt.
> >
> >Bob
>
> Click on Start, then All Programs, scroll down to the Accessories
> folder, click on it, there you'll find the Command Prompt. It opens a
> small black window which takes you out of the GUI and back to
> something similar to the good old DOS days.
>
> If you type 'help' you'll get a menu of commands you can use and their
> proper syntax which can be a little cryptic.
>
> For example to delete a file from the command prompt you can use
> either 'del' or 'erase' following by a single space then the file name
> like this: del myfile.mov.
>
> You won't get any feedback it was deleted other than seeing it is gone
> if you use another command 'dir' which shows the directory. With the
> Command Prompt it only says something if it doesn't understand what
> you wanted to do and you made a syntax error.
>
> You either need to go to the directory the file you want to delete is
> located in using the cd command (for change directory) or just include
> the path in the string like this:
>
> C:\>del e:\junk.jpg which would delete the file named junk.jpg on your
> E drive. Note the single space after the command del is critical.
>
> If the file you want to delete is in a folder you need to specify the
> full path like below which would delete a file named xxx.jpg in the
> pictures folder on your E drive.
>
> c:\>del e:\pictures\xxx.jpg
>
> While using the Command Prompt is a little crude, it is more powerful
> then trying to do the same things directly from within Windows the
> good news is it generally won't fight with you once it understands
> what you want to do.
>
> Is the following valid?: del c:\Program Files\Agent\Data\filename.mov It says can't find file.

then i think we got it right, it may be the video codec not responding when
generating the thumbnails

just to be sure:
in control panel / personalization / folder options / "view" tab / scroll
down the list until you find something like "show always icons, never
thumbnails" and check it, accept the dialog to close it
this way, the thumbnail generation will not be called then the video will
probably get deleted fine

if this little experiment is successful, then, if you know the video codec
used, try looking for a vista compatible version which may correct this
issue
if you dont know which codec, just tell it and we'll try to guide you to
find it

on a sidenote, i myself use something called ffdshow-tryout without troubles
in vista x86, not a codec pack but 1 able to play almost anything, if you
have a 32 bits vista version and you have a codec pack installed, you may
want to try alternatives like this to solve the problem

"BobC" wrote:

> I have two small Quick time movies that will not delete. When I click on
> 'Delete' I get a progress box "Calculating time remaining . . ." that just
> runs and runs with no progress at all. The data in the box says there are 0
> bytes in the file even though they each are more than 32 Mb. Any suggestions?

Thanks to all for the helpful suggestions. I have had (a measure of)
success in that the two .mov files are deleted, but, not in an elegant sort
of way. I ended up uninstalling, through the Control Panel, both the
Quicktime and Real players. These were the two apps that played the .mov
files as far as I know. Once these players were uninstalled, the two files
displayed icons which seemed to indicate the Media Player. At this point
they both were deleted easily by the usual right click selection on each file
icon. I am grateful to all of you who took the time to respond to my initial
question and were patient with detailed explanations. I'm sure it was my
inexpertise that prevented me from successfully implementing your
suggestions. ~~~~Bob