I have a folder in My Music directory which is proving very difficult to delete. it was created when i extracted a RAR file (d/led from emule). on extraction two folders of the same name were created, though one had zero bytes in it and the other had the extracted files. i deleted that folder as i didn't want it but the zero byte shadow folder would not be deleted, renamed or moved. i kept getting an error message saying : "cannot delete folder. cannot read from source file or disk." i've tried deleting in safe mode, from command prompt, even from command promt after shutting down explorer.exe to no avail. i've tried using MoveOnBoot (utility to move/delete/rename folders and files) but it too has failed. i've scanned with norton anti-virus, used spybot S&D, scanned and defragged the drive but nothing seems to work. the folder just won't be deleted. i've also done a system restore but of course that didn't work either. even stranger: while trying out different things i moved another file into the problem folder and, lo and behold, ANOTHER identical folder was created with the moved file in it. the zero-byte folder remained as it was. i deleted the second folder easily and THIS time the zero byte folder could be deleted BUT when i closed and re-opened the window to My Music, the persistent folder had reappeared. it seems to have got a life of it's own. i suspect that the original rar file was suspect. it had EMG Elite in its name (hacker groups?). All i want is to be rid of this folder without having to format my h/d.

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u need moveonboot from here: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html I Will Not Fail !!!

You will probably have to edit it out of the registry. Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks. It would be a courtesy if you would post back and let us know if the fix worked or not.

Have you tried to change the file attributes? File may be tagged as read only.

All the folders in xp are set to read only by default. Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks. It would be a courtesy if you would post back and let us know if the fix worked or not.

sorry for the delay in replying! well..like i wrote earlier, i'd tried everything including moveonboot, changing folder attributes and trying to edit it out of the registry. nothing worked and there was no reference to the folder in the registry. i DID manage to delete the My Music folder WITH the file in it. could do that after deleting the desktop.ini file. but the folder's strange behaviour doesn't end here. when i looked at the recycle bin i saw two folders there, 1. My Music, 2. the other undeletable one (which should have been INSIDE the Music folder). neither would get emptied from the recycle bin and i'd get the same error (cannot read from source file) if i tried deleting them. somehow though, i managed to put the oddball folder inside the My Music folder but still wasn't able to empty the recycle bin. i've tried putting a blank text file in it and emptying the bin, tried filling up the recycle bin with a lot of other stuff and emptying it but nothing works. my other option is to get rid of the recycle bin completely for a while and then recreating it. or formatting the h/d. any other ideas?