Can't delete .mpg file
 

Hope someone can help me out here. I downloaded a short .mpg file ( 4.2 MB) from Limewire, and scanned it with NOD. No virus indicated. I tried opening it, and it ended up being a short banner ad for a stupid adult site. Now I can't delete the file. I've tried everything I can think of, including safe mode, logging on as an administrator, all of the various file shredding programs, etc. When I click on delete through windows explorer, I get a progress bar showing up, but it just goes on forever with zero progress reported. Any file deleting program simply hangs, including hijackthis...I've done a complete system scan of my hard drive, and there are no viruses. I can't even delete the folder the .mpg file was downloaded to. Please help! The file in in my user profile, and now it's showing up in !Killbox as well since I tried using that program to get rid of it.

Leaves you with the following list of programs to try:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/(free)

http://www.ewido.com(>>now called AVG Anti Spyware<< free 30 day trial which still can be used and updated after the trial ended-the best in my opinion)

http://www.ccleaner.com/download/(free)

Spybot - Search & Destroy (FREE)
And if that can't solve it go here and get professional help:

Tech Support Forum

Cheers
FOTH
:Smilywais:

not to sound smug, but this is a prime reason to have a dual boot system...deletion 'remotely' of a file like this is easy...

CCleaner didn't remove it, and neither did any of the other programs mentioned. It doesn't show up as a virus or malware of any kind. I just don't understand what kind of a file this thing is that it won't go away.

I don't know if this will work, but someone recently posted it as a solution for a file they couldn't delete.

"Drag it to your desktop and delete it from there".

Can't hurt, might work.

try hitting ctrl-alt-delete at the same time...this will bring up your task manager..take a looksy and see if you can identify a process using said file...

It doesn't seem to matter whether I try to delete the file, drag it to the desktop, rename it...whatever...it just opens a window stating Windows is calculating time required to move/delete/recycle...no progress happens, just the green bar endlessly cycling...

By now it should be clear that this is some sort of malicious file behaving that way.

Hence you'll have to take your chance and seek help at the tech forum I gave you the link to...

Cheers
FOTH
:Smilywais:

if the file is being used, then there is a process using it...have you tried viewing the task manager yet?

I have looked in task manager. There's no clear indication of any particular program using the file. I'd assume it would be a program like quicktime or something like that. Is there some way of finding out exactly what program might be using a particular file?

Gingham, You might take a look here.

UNLOCKER 1.8.5 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB. Hope this helps

in task manager look for a process that is using up resources....and spiraling up and up and up...kill that process if there is one..basically, if you have just booted up (OK, a few minutes after boot up) no process should be using any great amount of resources....find one, kill it off, then delete..then reboot...and see if said process still exists....if it does, then you have a deeper problem...

I've tried the unlocker program. It tells me there's a debugging error every time. I'll take another look at task manager. Am I the only one in the history of limewire users to have this problem?

nope...I've dealt with this before...but as I noted in my first post of this thread, I have a dual boot system, so my 'fix' was easy...I booted into my 'backup' OS, and deleted the file from there...

If you've dealt with this before, do you have any idea what kind of a file I'm looking at here? According to every scanner I can find, it's not a virus or spyware...yet it's the only file on my system I can't seem to get rid of. Under my "Users", it's included in a folder seperately created and labeled Downloads...not to be confused with "My Downloads". I can't delete the folder either.

What the hell is this thing? At one point during my various attempts to nuke it, I thought I saw a .rar extension on the end of the file name, but it doesn't show up anywhere else as such. AAAAAGGGHHHH

from what you've described, I think you have been HiJacked in some fashion....the attempt to play the video file initiated a sequence of events, and I bet you are infected as of this point...what I'm hoping (for your sake) is that the infection is limited to the presence of the video file on your machine...but I suspect it isn't...what I'm thinking (because of the fact you can't get rid of it in safe mode) is that it has attached itself to a system process...

now, I know from experience you can kill off a hell of a lot of system processes before you actually cripple your system (of course rebooting solves the issues, as said processes start right up again)....explorer.exe is one of the processes that should cripple your OS if you terminate it....what I've done in the past is to just start killing off processes and see what happens...worst case I had to hit the restart button on the box to reboot as I had crippled the OS to the point that I couldn't use the start bar to do so...The_Point being you hopefully can start randomly terminating processes and after you do so for each one, try the deleting of the file...what I would do is have folders open with the files you want to delete...kill processes via task manager, and try deletion at each step...

now, here's the way I look at situations like yours: at some point it becomes obvious that a LOT of time is being spent....and maybe a LOT more is required...so what I do is to just take a nice deep breath, take a thalamic pause, and shrug my shoulders, backup all data, and do a nice clean install and be COMPLETELY POSITIVE that the problem will be gone when I get done...

I'll try the systematic killing of system processes and see what happens. A clean install is the last resort of course, but if that's what it takes...

it would be best if you do this while offline...i.e. physically disconnected from the internet..

Well, killing all of my system processes didn't seem to fix the problem. Just out of curiosity, I tried compressing the offending file using Winrar...that worked and created a compressed copy in the same folder the file exists. I was able to delete the .rar file, but still couldn't do anything with the original. One thing I've noted is that whenever I try to run one of the various cleaners/deleters/unlockers on this file, the program ends up "Not responding". How would a file be able to have that affect on so many different types of programs?

Gingham

I have been infected with undeletable files in the recent past but nothing like the one you have.

Anyway, what I have found that works with my undeletables is to use the delete function in LW's library, that should work in most cases.

Good Luck


UK Bob

I've tried the delete function in LW...I hit the delete, and nothing happens. The file is visible in the library, but for some reason, it's like it's invisible to any program trying to delete it.

because its obviously malware, and you have been jacked IMHO....

have you tried running HiJack this and reviewing the log?

if you run the program and copy and paste the log file here I'll give it a shot...if I can't figure it out I'll direct you to a place that can and will most likely figure it out...just don't mention anything about LW there...

SUCCESS!!! The only way, and I do mean the ONLY way I could nuke this ******* was to boot from my VISTA DVD, go to the repair option, open a command prompt, and delete the documents folder under my User profile. The download file finally shows empty...what a relief. I just hope there are no remnants left anywhere on my machine. I'll scan with every program I can think of, but I've done that while the file was there, and it didn't show any infections. One of the things I ended up doing in my quest to fix this headache was to enter a line under the command prompt that created a separate administrator logon on the opening screen. Anyone know how I can get rid of that so that the system boots directly into my profile? Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I really appreciate all the responses.

schweet....

Gingham

Seems like your solution is similar to Peerless dual boot system, i.e. boot from a different partition or hard disk, using a different O/S, and deleting the malware.

Mind you, I feel that we single O/S, and without a system disk, people are screwed if we ever get this particular nasty piece of trash.


UK Bob

I honestly don't know if anything else would have worked if I hadn't used my Vista install disc. According to a friend of mine, the file was probably "broken" in some fashion, creating an endless loop of trying to read it by my system...that's why I couldn't delete it as it was always shown "in use". I don't think it was a virus or malware, but it was likely put on the network by some little turd looking to cause havok. The scary thing is it won't show up as anything to worry about when you scan it before opening it. I don't know how to prevent this from happening again, other than to completely avoid video files from LW.