Ah, yes. The old zero byte file problem. If you do a search on deleting "zero byte" or "0 byte" files, there are many suggestions. Ignore those that involve sacrificing a goat on the full moon.
Four things to try first.
- If you know where the files came from, you may be able to use the program that put them there to get rid of them. For example, if you downloaded the file and used a download manager to do it (or the file downloader built into your browser), the file may appear in that program's file list. There is often a feature to delete the file from there. That will sometimes work.
- You may be able to delete it in a command window using it's DOS shortname. Open a command window and navigate to the directory containing the file. Type DIR /X. (If the directory has a huge number of files, use DIR /X /P, which will pause when the display is full.) The DOS shortname will have a maximum of 8 characters, then a dot, then a maximum of 3 characters. The name will not contain any spaces and if it is an abbreviation of a longer name, the last (typically 2) characters of the portion to the left of the dot will be a "sequence number" consisting of a tilde (~) followed by a digit. Use the DOS delete command: DEL <shortname>. If I read your reply above correctly, it looks like the filename does not contain any form of filename extension, so in your example, the file's shortname would be no more than 8 characters.
- Try Microsoft's Disk Cleanup utility: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...nup#delete-files-using-disk-cleanup=windows-7
- Run CHKDSK /F. Open an elevated command window (type CMD in the Start Menu search box. CMD.EXE will appear in a list. Right-click on that and select run as administrator). In the command window, type CHKDSK /F. You will get a message that it can't run while Windows is running and offer to schedule it for when you reboot. Do that. CHKDSK will take a while to run so do the reboot when you won't need the computer for a while (or just wait to follow these instructions in the first place). Don't shut down the computer while CHKDSK is running.
WARNING: if there are other problems on your hard disk, there is a tiny chance that in the process of fixing that, it could create a new problem. Backup your system before you run CHKDSK just as a precaution.
Get back to the forum to let us know if this fixes it or we need to try something else (in which case, bring your goat).
