Your problem could be this: whatever virus scanner you're using has marked
it. The very things you are experiencing are synonymous with the situation I
describe, a situation I recently experienced with BitDefender.

The solution is to turn off virus scanning momentarily. You may find that
you can then access the file.

Sidebar: as I bitched to BitDefender, these virus scanners absolutely must
have a "false positives" list maintained by the user. I'm tired of BD
carping about FILES I CREATE, telling me they are virii, when, of course,
they aren't.

In the history of software--a sine wave--we are once again in a Dark Age
trough.

m

"SG" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Try this...
See if it will let you delete the last Folder or Sub-Folder first, if so,
then delete each one starting from last to first.

--
All the best,
SG
"dratner" wrote in message
...
I am re-using a USB drive, previously on my XP PC, On my new Vista PC.
There
are several old files on it, created by the XP PC, that Vista will not
let me
delete. I removed the "read only" attribute, went to security and made
sure
I had all administrative rights. The file folders have 25 or so number
filenames. In the folder is a file called "update". It may be a
Microsoft
file. How can I delete these old files? Thanks.