How do I get rid of non-deletable temp file?

Question

OK, here's the situation. I did a re-install of Windows XP and the computer quit halfway through the installation. I finally got XP installed on another drive, but now there is a temporary file on the first drive it tried to install on and it won't let me delete it. In addition, Window thinks there are two installs of Windows so it gives me the multiple boot screen when I turn my computer on.

1. How do I delete the temp file?
2. Will deleting it get rid of the multiple boot screen? If not, how do I get rid of that.

Answer 1

Answer 1.

Download a program called Unlocker from here: http://filehippo.com/download_unlocker/

When you click delete on the file it will give you a prompt asking you what you want to do. One of these options is to delete. Make sure you really are deleting the right files otherwise your computer will crash and you will not be able to reboot without reinstalling the OS.



Answer 2.

Go to my computer, right click, go to properties. click the advanced tab then Settings on the startup and recovery section.

Click edit. That is your boot.ini file. If your computer by default it booting into the correct location then remove the entry that does not match under the part in the line starting with "default"



An example would be the following:



default=multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)\windows

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"

)/NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /USEPMTIMER /USEPMTIMER





In this case you can see that partition = 1 in the default, so you'd remove the line that has partition(2) in it. Once done save it and exit. Be very careful doing this however as if you delete the wrong line you will not be able to boot into windows again without fixing that boot.ini file.

Answer 2

To get rid of the "ghost" item on the menu, edit boot.ini. the first drive (C, usually) is partition or drive 0, the second one is 1. Delete the line that's not the right installation.



To delete the file, restart Windows and delete the file before you do anything else. If it still won't delete, download Unlocker (http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker/3000-2248_4-10493998.html ) - it'll pop up when the file won't delete and you can set it to delete on the next reboot.

Answer 3

In "My Computer" right click the file name you are interested in deleting. Click "Properties" it's at the bottom of the window that opened when you right clicked the file. On the "General" tab look to the bottom there should be a place to check a box for "Read Only" and "Hidden". If "Read Only" is checked click on that and unselect it. Now you should be able to delete the file normally. Just drag it to the recycle or right click the file again and click "Delete".



If that fails, I would suggest you just go ahead and Format the drive.

Answer 4

Format the drive with the broken Windows install on it.