[stacia123]

I rather foolishly moved the files from a DVD movie onto my C: drive by dragging and dropping. (VLC is less choppy when reading from my hard drive instead of the DVD drive.) I'm now trying to delete the DVD files from C: but the permissions won't allow it.

What I've tried: The usual right click to change permissions, though none of the files are read-only. Only the folders.

Then I used the attrib -r command in DOS and get "Parameter format not correct -" with no change to the file.

What else can I try? Thank you!

[BPCS]

Right click select properties and then go to the security tab. Try settings perrmissions for the files there.

[stacia123]

I did that already, like I said in the original post.

To be more specific: The DVD movie is in a directory which has two folders, and several files are in these folders. None of the files are read-only. Only the primary directory and the two subfolders. I tried right-clicking and going to properties, but unclicking the read-only box doesn't stick. I also went in to permissions and made sure that I had full authority, which I do, but that didn't help.

I still cannot move, rename, or delete the folders.

[Elvandil]

Do you have any programs open that may be linked to the files?

[stacia123]

Unfortunately I tried that. I quit out of everything at one point before trying to delete the files just in case that was the culprit, but no dice.

[BPCS]

Slave the drive to anther computer, take ownership of the files and folders 'google take ownership in windows (your version), then delete them.

[Elvandil]

Unless you have a pretty old machine and IDE drives, you can't "slave" the drive. It wouldn't matter if you connected it to master, anyway.

Try Unlocker. It may tell you what is locking the files, but it will also allow you to delete them on next boot.

[JAKE492]

I am having the same problem with every file on my "C" drive and when I right click on any of them, I don't see "Unlocker".

[Elvandil]

Originally Posted by JAKE492

I am having the same problem with every file on my "C" drive and when I right click on any of them, I don't see "Unlocker".

Please don't post in someone else's thread about your own problem. Install Unlocker.

[stacia123]

I used Unlocker and it worked fine. The problem is I have discovered a BUNCH of files I can no longer move or delete, all videos. Some are off my own camera, one is a backup of a DVD I was in the middle of working on, one is a YouTube video I downloaded. They're not even all the same video type. I can move and delete other files (text files, pictures, etc.) without problem.

Obviously something changed and I have no idea what, and I certainly didn't change anything intentionally. I keep trying to change permissions on the files, the folders, the directories, but nothing works.

What on earth could have happened, and is there anything I can do besides just keep using Unlocker over and over again?

[DoubleHelix]

Are you having all these problems with just one folder? If so, do a copy and paste to a completely new folder in another location. Do not cut and paste. Then delete the problem folder and re-create if you want.

[stacia123]

I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner to update. I finally decided that the problem must have been copyright protection from the DVD I moved files off of. What happened is I copied and pasted to a new folder in another directory, and suddenly some of those files had the same permissions problems even though I hadn't done anything to them. Using Unlocker, I deleted the DVD files and everything was immediately back to normal. My guess is it was copyright protection.

Thanks for all your help, everyone! Unlocker really saved my bacon.