What does the recycle bin error "Cannot Delete Dc10: Access is denied." mean?

January 3, 2006 7:06 PM

What does the recycle bin error "Cannot Delete Dc10: Access is denied." mean?

My sister XP Home computer has a file in her recycle bin that cannot be deleted, restored or moved. Whenever I attempt to delete it, I get the Dc10 error. The file name is called "PS2Trial", and according to its properties, it seems to be a Windows Media Playlist file.

I've done all I can think of, including booting into safe mode, running a registry hack to delete the recycle bin (it didn't seem to work) and my google skills have also failed me. Does anyone have any ideas on how to remove this file once and for all? Is there a way to do it through DOS?

posted by Paul KC to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Hmm, that sounds evil -- sometimes the simplest solution is the best, though. Why not try a DOS del command? This reference seems pretty good.
posted by killdevil at 7:18 PM on January 3, 2006

DOS del won't help. Probably what's going on is some program has it open. The easiest way to find out which is to run process explorer. Unzip it and run it, and choose "Find Handle (Ctrl+F)" and type in PS2Trial

That will tell you the name of the EXE running it, which you can google and probably find info on, if it's not something normal. You can also kill it from processs explorer, though whether that's a good idea or not depends on what it does. It won't be disasterous though, and probably the worst case is you'll have to reboot.
posted by aubilenon at 8:13 PM on January 3, 2006

if you had a knoppix (or other kind of linux) live cd, you could boot off that, mount the offending partition and delete the file that way ... if she's not using ntfs as her filesystem, that is ... nfts might be tricky
posted by pyramid termite at 8:32 PM on January 3, 2006

Either the file is in use (open handles) or it has an ACL that prohibits deletion. If the former, then aubilenon's advice will tell you.

If the latter then you will need to change the NTFS permissions on the file before you can delete it. This is complicated by the fact that this is XP Home (hack, spit) which lacks the "Security" tab in File - Properties which is the normal place to edit ACLs. You will have to use a command line utility such as "cacls" to view/modify the ACL.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:08 PM on January 3, 2006

CACLS is your friend, my friend.
posted by evariste at 9:38 PM on January 3, 2006

Damn, should have read Rhomboid's comment first.
posted by evariste at 9:39 PM on January 3, 2006

Duh, just buy a mac! :P

It shouldn't be possible for a windows program to have access to a file in the recycle bin.

On old windows 95 machines, the Recycle bin was a regular FAT folder called 'recycled'. What file system is the disk formatted in?DC10 means that the file is the 10th file deleted from the C: drive.

If it's an NTFS system, the file will be stored in C:\Recycler\{some long string of numbers}\Dc10.ext

Change ther permissions on that file and you should be able to delete it, certanly in safe mode.
posted by delmoi at 10:09 PM on January 3, 2006

probably what's going on is some program has it open. The easiest way to find out which is to run process explorer.

Actually, the easiest way is to use WhoLockMe. You can just right click and select "Who Lock Me?". Process Explorer works but I find this program much more convenient.
posted by smackfu at 5:49 AM on January 4, 2006

delmoi, you can still get things stuck in the trash under OS X Tiger.
posted by scruss at 6:22 AM on January 4, 2006

If the process that is holding the file "open" is Explorer, you have to jump through some hoops to delete it.

This involves

1. open a DOS prompt (Start->Run, cmd.exe), change directories to where the file is (do this first!)
2. then use the Task Manager to kill the Explorer process (yes, you can do this - desktop will temporarily disappear).
3. in DOS prompt, delete the file
4. back in Task Manager, choose File->New Task, type "explorer.exe", hit okay. Desktop will reappear.
posted by Dunwitty at 6:41 AM on January 4, 2006

I used this freeware to do that.
posted by apathy0o0 at 7:16 AM on January 4, 2006

I'm not sure if anyone reads these threads once they're a day old, but I thought I'd update you all on my problem. I tried downloading the applications suggested (Process Explorer and WhoLockMe), but Process Explorer couldn't find the file in the recycle bin, and WhoLockMe didn't support modifying files in a recycle bin, it seems.

So I still am not sure if there is a process that is locking this file. How can a file be accessed when it's already in the recycle bin anyway?

Regarding the CACLS, I have attempted to use it, but I'm somewhat limited by my lack of DOS knowledge. I can't seem to find the file because I don't even know what directory to look for it under. Once I get to the C: RECYCLER> directory, in DOS, what do I do from there? Typing in "dir" doesn't show me any files present. Again, I am limited by lack of DOS knowledge.

Thanks for any help.
posted by Paul KC at 2:09 PM on January 4, 2006

This reportedly worked for someone having a similar issue.

There's another thread with advice here here but the original poster didn't report if it worked.
posted by Pryde at 6:21 PM on January 4, 2006

Pryde, thanks for the links, but I tried both solutions and neither of them worked for me. When I tried advice from the first link, it said "Recycler\S-1-5~1/Dc10.wpl - Access is denied."

When I tried the steps from the second link, it said "File not found - *.*".

Perhaps this is just an unsolvable problem :(
posted by Paul KC at 11:39 PM on January 4, 2006