Cannot delete/copy/move .MOV files

Copied some .MOV files off my sons camera for him. They play fine, however I
cannot copy/move/delete these files. The system just hangs forever. The
system won't even allow me to right click and look at the properties of
these files. Since they are in subfolders of the pictures folder, whenever I
open the pictures folder the system perpetually scans (green bar moving
slowly at top) for as long as I have that folder open.

I even tried creating blank files of the same name and copy/pasting them
over the originals but that only crashes windows explorer.

Any clues as to how I can rid myself of these files? I find no help by
googling and no mention in MS online knowledge base...

The operative word is HOW are you trying to delete them?

From what you said it sounds maybe like a file access violation so you
can't delete a file in use even if just the folder it is in is open.
Close everything down and try to delete from Windows Explorer. If that
fails try from the command prompt. If a camera or other external
device is connected turn it off first.

If all fails try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjM4a42Mjkw

or even worse this one: Tip: If you don't know how to check printer
toner, don't try or this may happen to you and you'll freak out
everyone in the office:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj4UvCxNWww

Or check out the typical reaction of someone that just installed Vista
after having a perfectly good working copy of XP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzkby...elated&search=

Have you tried to take ownership of the file and then trying to delete it. Try and go into Safe Mode and delete. Use the command line to delete.

Try the above and let us know.

most probably the video codec got crashed while making the thumbnail

turn off thumbnails then delete the file, or simply uninstall quicktime

Just how would one go about using windows explorer to delete a file that's
in a folder without opening the folder? Is this intended to be humor?

As I said, all attempts to delete the file, (whether by selecting and
pressing the delete key or by right click and selecting delete on the menu
or via admin command prompt) result in system hang. No error messages
concerning access violations etc. All in all quite frustrating. BTW there
are no programs running that should be "using these files" nor is there any
related hardware attached to any system ports.

Tried safe mode as well and it just hung same as other attempts. Found the
problem was with QuickTime itself. Removed it and was able to delete the
files as per another respondent's instruction. Apparently QuickTime's codecs
come into play any time you access the file, even only to view system
properties, whether QuickTime is running or not...

[Michaelsataiwan]

I had the same problem with every .mov I got off my Kodak camera or saved from the internet. I was so disappointed that my shiny new laptop with Vista was so useless and unreliable for file storage, I thought I was going to have to reformat to rid the files and then only use external hard drives for my photos and videos.

I uninstalled QuickTime, and now I can move, delete, and rename the files all I want. I'm so glad I found this post.

Not for me. I don't install any of Kodak's software- it's slow, useless, space-taking junk. I just plug the camera in to the USB and use the drive folders to drag things where I want them, treating it like any other plug-in drive- works much better.

QuickTime came with my laptop because it's "popular", or perhaps hitched a ride in with iTunes, I can't remember anymore. Either way, I'm sure glad to be rid of it. I can play all my .mov files with VLC Player, which I use for everything else anyway.
My files are finally usable!

I had the same problem, I couldn't rename, move, copy or delete a QuickTime file in Vista. I found the solution to keep QuickTime installed and get all the options back that allow you to do what you want with the file.

My solution was this: I realized I had VistaCodecs installed (by Shark007). Go to your programs folder and right click on the VistaCodecs Settings Application and run as administrator. Go to the MOV tab and in the Thumbnails On/Off setting box, click "disable thumbnails". Exit out and now you can rename, copy and paste, move, delete, whatever you want to the file.

I searched for hours for the answer and although uninstalling QuickTime worked, I need to have QuickTime installed. So I hope this saves someone some time and frustration!

Thank you, this is the best advice I got in years, saved me hours of frustration. I couldn't find a solution anywhere else on the net. This has saved me !!

Here's some more good advice.
Fix your clock...unless your entire town lives 5 days behind schedule.

i also have faced the same problme and following software sort out my problem



some of the features of this softwares are:

Path too long.
Error cannot delete file: cannot read from source file or disk.
Cannot delete file: Access is denied.
There has been a sharing violation.
Cannot delete file or folder The file name you specified is not valid or too long.
Specify a different file name.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Error Deleting File or Folder
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Path too deep.