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So I downloaded a music file but I was surprised when I saw it had no extension and it was 0kB. I decided to delete it but then I got that terrible error message saying that the file is no longer in the folder I see it is in!!!

I don't think my hardware is so weak that it can't refresh my Explorer Window...

So what I first had in mind was to use admin rights cmd to delete the file as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRSKHv20Usc (yes, I had that problem before, on Windows 7 and that solved it for me).

But on Windows 8.1 I can't see short filenames for ANY file, not just the corrupt one. (Is that a bug or is it supposed to be so? My corrupt file has a dot in its name -- a disallowed character, I believe?)

What can I do to delete this file?

I tried creating and then deleting it, a new version of the same file was created again what is wrong with that?

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
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PowerUser
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  • You should be able to use a [Linux Live environment](http://superuser.com/questions/31587/how-to-force-windows-to-rename-a-file-with-a-special-character) of your choice to access the drive then delete it. When you attempt to delete the file. What error message do you get exactly? Additional [reading](http://superuser.com/questions/805882/how-to-delete-a-file-with-a-bad-file-name?rq=1) – Ramhound May 29 '15 at 12:19
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    Did you restart explorer? Refresh the folder using F5? – DavidPostill May 29 '15 at 12:22
  • Of course dot is allowed; *every* file has one on windows. Think `*.exe`, `*.doc`, etc. – psusi May 29 '15 at 12:31
  • Yes but dot is not an extension, anyway yes again, I did restart the explorer and I did try F5. – PowerUser May 29 '15 at 12:37
  • "I tried creating and then deleting it, a new version of the same file was created again" Can you explain this better? You created a new fie with the same name (in the same folder) as the file you can't delete, then deleted it, and then a new file of the same name (re)appeared? Have you run a disk check yet? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 May 29 '15 at 12:42
  • @Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Are you talking about `chkdsk` ? – PowerUser May 29 '15 at 12:54
  • Yes, that's what I'm talking about (or right click the drive -> properties tools -> error-checking) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 May 29 '15 at 13:00
  • It said that no errors were found but the file remains. – PowerUser May 29 '15 at 13:01
  • Oh yes, this has worked for me @Moab. Thanks for the solution! – PowerUser May 29 '15 at 13:33

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