Corrupted Files Are Not Deleting? Here’s How to Force Them

Try fixing the hard drive errors to resolve the problem

5 min. read

Updated onOctober 6, 2023

updated onOctober 6, 2023

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You will finddeleting files pretty quickly, as all you need to do is select the file and hit the Delete button. However, there are times when you struggle to delete files, especially if they are corrupt.

In this guide, we will show you how you can fix the problem of corrupted files are not deleting on your Windows PC. Let us check out the guide.

Why can’t I delete corrupted files on my PC? Often, the simple process of pressing the Delete key won’t work in deleting the corrupted files on your PC. There are several reasons why corrupted files are not deleted on your PC, some of which are listed below.

Let us now check out the solutions that will help you resolve the problem of corrupted files not deleting.

How can I delete corrupted files on my PC?

Before you apply the actual solutions, we would suggest you make sure that you use an administrator account to delete the files.

Chances are that you aren’t using the admin account in order to delete the files. Some folders require special access before you can delete them.

Simply, switch over to an admin account and check if your problem of corrupted file not deleting is fixed or not. In order to learn how you can become an admin on your PC, you can read our dedicated guide onhow to make yourself an admin.

Let us now apply the advanced solutions to resolve the problem.

1. Use Command Prompt

If the normal method of deleting the corrupted files isn’t working, then we would suggest you take the first step in force deleting them by using the command prompt as shown above.

2. Delete files in Safe Mode

Often some programs can conflict or interfere with the smooth performance of the PC and can also cause malfunction with simple operations. You can try booting your PC in safe mode and then try deleting the corrupted files and hopefully resolve the problem.

3. Close the Explorer process

Sometimes an issue with the Windows Explorer or theFile Explorer processcan cause multiple issues on your PC. In such a case, we would suggest you restart the File Explorer process and check if this resolves the issue or corrupted file not deleting.

4. Fix your hard drive

After fixing the hard drive errors, we would suggest you try deleting the corrupted files and hopefully resolve the issue.

If this doesn’t work, then we also have a guide that lists down some of thebest file deleter softwarethat will help you remove any type of file from your PC.

That is it from us in this guide. We would suggest you check out our dedicated guide onhow to force delete any folderif it is not getting deleted via the usual method.

Let us know in the comments below, which one of the above solutions fixed the problem for you.

Corrupted Files Are Not Deleting? Here’s How to Force Them#

How can I delete corrupted files on my PC?#

1. Use Command Prompt#

2. Delete files in Safe Mode#

3. Close the Explorer process#

4. Fix your hard drive#