Need help deleting already deleted files!!!

[Fullmetal660]

I have recently downloaded some songs, but found out upon listening that they weren't the ones I wanted, so I deleted them. They no longer exist in my downloads file, But still appear if I search for them on windows explorer. When I try to delete them from the search results, I can't because windows cannot find them (as they've been deleted). I've tried file-shredder, disc cleanup and defragging but they still appear when searched for. How do I get rid of these files that aren't really there?

I hope that makes sense, if not just ask and i'll explain again.

[wayfriend]

Not sure what a "downloads file" is. Do you mean a downloads folder?

It sounds like the download directory still contains file entries for the file, but the contents of the file have been removed from the disk.

To sort this out, what you need to do is repair your disk, not defrag it. You can probably do this without using the exhaustive sector scan, but if it doesn't work without it, try it with it, and go to starbucks while its running.

I'n not sure how you could end up in this position. It may be you powered down without a clean shutdown, which can leave cached directory entries unwritten. You should hope that this is all it is, as it can be repaired. (It should detect the unclean shutdown and repair itself on restart, though, maybe this got skipped?) It might be you indeed have some bad sectors on the disk. It may be how you deleted the files (you didn't specify, maybe you did something weird?).

Once you repair the disk, the files may be back again, and actually there. As repairing tends to assume you want the file back, so if it finds it halfway deleted, it undeletes it. If so, then just start all over again and delete it.

Hope this helps.

[High Lord Tolkien]

This sounds like a "how to keep my wife from finding the porn I was looking at?" question.



Is this ITunes?
ITunes sometimes creates duplicates but it sounds like you need to clear some cache info somewhere.
Did you delete your IE temp files?

How about: right click your Task Bar, "properties", "start menu", "customize", "clear"?

Maybe download some free "cleaner" programs from www.download.com and then run it in safe-mode

[Avatar]

www.ccleaner.com is one of the best disk cleaners I've used.

Agree with HLT. Probably a temp cache...maybe your "recently used documents" folder which contains shortcuts to recently used files. So it looks like a file, but if you try open it, it can't find the file, since it's only a shortcut.

Instead of opening it from the search results, try using the "open containing folder" from the right-click menu of that file. That'll at least tell you where they are, and you can probably just delete the shortcuts manually.

--A

[wayfriend]

I hadn't thought of that... those files may be merely shortcuts to the files.

Explorer's great evil is that it hides file extensions by default. Every user should turn that off before the packing is thrown in the trash.

Then again, if they were shortcuts, you'd be able to delete those easily. You would not get an error.

[Fullmetal660]

Sorted it now, was just easier to back up all my documents then wipe the entire hard disc clean with dell's factory image restore, thanks anyways guys

[High Lord Tolkien]

Sorted it now, was just easier to back up all my documents then wipe the entire hard disc clean with dell's factory image restore, thanks anyways guys

LOL!
you did all that because some "music" files were showing up on a dropdown list?

SURE........

[Cail]

Two words:

Donkey porn.

[Brother Charn]

Somebody has seen Clerks II...

dw