I always get this pop-up error everytime I tried to delete a big file (ie. 200+mb).. "Cannot delete file: It is being used by another person or program. Close any program that might be using the file and try again." when i clicked on the file which i wanted to delete.. it seemed that my hard drive is trying to load something (coz i see the hard drive light on my computer kept on flashing and i can hear the hard drive's loading sound).. until a few mins later or so.. when the hard drive finished loading watever.. i could finally delete it.. and yes.. i am sure that no one or other program was using it when i was trying to delete it.. is there a way to fix this? or it's just the way WINXP is...? thanks in advance =)

Although you may not think it is being used, it is. Either by one of your tasks that are running (Ctrl+Alt+Del, task manager) or by a service. Or it might just be that because it is so big your computer is processing information about the file in the registry or into a file somewhere ie SWAP file. While it is doing this it is in effect being used and there for not able to be deleted. You could either investigate further as to what is using it and stop that eg go into task man and test stopping processes that might be active or you might just have to put up with it.

when you try to delete it you may be opening it by acident make sure you right click and select delete otherwise if u left click you may open it accidently

yikes.. i forgot to mention that those "large files" are movies files (AVIs, to be exact).. i tried both of you guys' methods but nothing solved.. i am sure no programs nor LAN people are using that file while deleting it.. it's just as simple as when i left clicked on the movie file.. then my hard drive started to load "something" (i checked the task manager showed nothing).. i tried to delete another movie file on another computer (WinXP), and the same thing happened.. really weird.. but really thanks for the replies! =)

you will find that the rundll32 or somethign silly is using the file to generate a preview on the file, it happens to me all the time, best thing to do is boot in vga/safe mode, get rid of the thumbnail view/common taks in folders and then restart and delete the file, usually stops a thumbnail being produced.

have you try to delete it in command prompt mode?

Also check how much room you have left in trash can. If you check properties of recycle bin..you may see it is almost full. Get rid of some stuff in there. You should be able to delete it then in safe mode. You can also bypass the recycle bin by holding the shift button and hit delete...but that will rid the file for good...no recovery. Still can't get rid of it? I dont have the link handy but search google for program called "move on boot" it's free and apparently works well.