The file resides on a FAT partition. I have a file with a unique character at the beginning of the file name with whitespace and the letters "Vk" and no extension. The date of the file is post dated to the future 2030. When attempting to delete the file: "cannot delete: cannot read from source file or disk".

I have attached a representation of the character which I cannot find in any character set. It is similar to that of a double dagger. I have tried all the usual methods through the restarting, DOS shell, attempted the Unlocker utility, etc. Could not rename the file. I believe the file may have been corrupted.

I imagine that booting off a live Linux CD would allow me to delete the file. I am more interested in learning more about the root of the problem rather than just ultimately deleting the file.

Scandisk may resolved the issue but I wonder if anyone could provide some insight. Thank you.

Edited April 15, 200818 yr by robd

It's character 216 on this page. But the file is apparently corrupt and a chkdsk is probably the solution.

Thank you for the response Ponch.

Overlooking the basics, I guess the tip off to file corruption would have been the error message "cannot delete: cannot read from source file or disk", post date creation, the characters from the extended ASCII set and or the inability to rename the file.

Doing a search based on the error message "cannot delete: cannot read from source file or disk" just returned solutions assuming the file was locked by the OS.

Issue:

Receiving the error message: "cannot delete: cannot read from source file or disk"

Solution:

The first and simplest thing to have done would be to have run chkdsk /f. Then work from there.

And then refer to (if need be):

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2007/06/04/how...deletable-file/