Solving Error: Cannot Copy File - Windows XP SP2

[VietDao29]

Huhuhu, this is just sssssoooooo weird...
My friend asked me to copy, and send him some guitar scores. And I agreed. I also told him to give me a USB, since mine is only 512 MB, and the file is approximately 700 MB. So he gave me a 2GB one.
I plug it to my computer. Right click on the file, and then choose Send To... Removable Hard Disk. I often do this, and it seems normal at the start.
But then, after about 40% the file has been copied, it came to a halt, and an error message pops out of nowhere, telling me that:

"Error copying File or folder: error: Cannot copy <file name> The volume for a file has been externally altered so that the opened file is no longer valid."

Ok, after staring at it for a while, then decided to remove the USB, then wait for 1 minute, and put it back in, and tried to delete the file.

The file size reduced to 0, but it's still there. Yes, and I tried to delete it again, and again. Another message pops out, telling me that:
"Cannot delete <file name> : Access denied
Make sure the disk is not full, or write protected, and that the file is not currently in use."

This is driving me nuts, of course, the file was not currently opened, nor was the drive protected, or full, since more than 50% of the space is free.

So I tried to renamed the original file, and gave it another try. Even worse, now, the message pops out right away, and no amount of the file was copied.

So, I went online, searching for the phrase, and luckily, I found Microsoft... @___@ What it tells me to do can be written in only 2 lines:

"User Action:

Create a new file on a different volume. If you continue to get this message contact your system administrator."

So... ok, I gave up. M$ seems to think that everyone is expert at IT, they didn't even care about explaining the "volume" thingy. Do they expect that everyone can understand what "volume" is?. =.="
In fact, reading there instruction is of no use, I couldn't even understand it... What they wrote can be written by a little 3-year-old baby.

Please, please, somebody, help me. WHat should I do now? Is it a bug, or something? I've never seen this before. ---------------

Ah, btw, I am using Wins XP, SP2, if that may help. :)

 

[neutrino]

Yes, I have seen those messages a few times before, a long time ago, although I don't remember what I did to make them go away. Have you tried rebooting your PC? Eject the USB drive, reboot and try things again.

 

[turbo]

Boot up in safe mode (hit F8 repeatedly when you see the BIOS banner) and navigate to the file with explorer and delete it. I had a similar 0 byte file that XP would not let me delete and I had to get into safe mode to kill it.

 

[ukmicky]

Try reformatting the usb memory stick.

 

[BoredNL]

Use linux to destroy the file!

BURN! BUURRN!

AHH

Ok, no more coffee for me.

 

[BoredNL]

Btw, try copying a different file to the drive. Perhaps the pen-drive is going bad.

A format doesn't sound like a bad idea. If windows gives an error every time, then maybe it's a windows error. Try using linux to copy the file over. (You can probably use a live-cd to do this if you don't have linux installed)

 

[VietDao29]

Hi
Thanks everyone.
Well, I had to format the whole USB, and it worked fine again. Thanks everyone.

Btw, I also have something more to ask.
After formatting the disk, I noticed that Windows had written some hidden file to it. Can I delete those files? What are those files used for? Are they for covering the bad sector of my disk?

Once again, thank you very much. :)