Member Avatar for locked out
locked out 0 Light Poster

I attempted to delete several large Video AVI files; about 10 gigabites each; message too large to send to recycle bin; ? delete; I hit"yes"; However they are not deleted,they still exist "somewhere" and I cannot access them to delete them; How do I know ; I ran two defrag programs; they cannot defrag these files ( hard drive 29% fragmented) and the message displays these 4 mega files as unfragmentable; they are listed as being in "norton protected" ; I removed the Norton Utilities (2002) which did not help;

So how do I find and remove these large AVI files; they are hogging 50 MB of space ??

thanks

  • 1 Contributor
  • 0 Replies
  • 89 Views

Dani AI

Generated

Practical checklist for locating and removing stubborn, hidden large media files on Windows. This covers how to find the real file paths, detect processes or services that keep files locked, check whether shadow copies or filesystem corruption are holding space, and safe ways to remove files when normal deletion fails.

  • Visualize disk usage first: use a disk map like WinDirStat or a fast indexed search like Everything to see which folders hold the space. A quick PowerShell search (run elevated) will list large AVIs:
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Filter *.avi -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 1GB } |
  Select-Object FullName,@{Name='SizeGB';Expression={"{0:N2}" -f ($_.Length/1GB)}}

  • If deletion is blocked by a handle or service, identify the locker with Sysinternals tools: Process Explorer or Handle. Running Handle against the filename shows which process holds it.

  • Shadow copies and restore points can hold large files. Inspect using vssadmin (see documentation at vssadmin) and reclaim only after confirming the contents.

  • Fix filesystem metadata problems with chkdsk (see chkdsk). Corrupt MFT entries or bad clusters can make files invisible to normal tools.

  • If permissions block removal, use takeown and icacls (docs: takeown, icacls) to take ownership and grant delete rights. If a file remains locked by the kernel or a driver, delete from Safe Mode or from an external boot environment (WinPE/Linux live USB).

Caution: back up important data before removing files or deleting shadow copies. Use vendor removal tools for leftover security software drivers and avoid deleting System Volume Information unless the consequences are understood.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.