Windows 7: Could not find this item - when deleting files

I was just trying to clean up some files which got downloaded via Firefox into the "My Downloads" directory. On a few of them I get "Could not find this item. This is no longer located in ... Verify the item's location and try again."

I've run chkdsk on the drive and it comes up clean. Any ideas as to why this is occurring and how to get rid of the files?

-- Geoff

Is it possible that you have already deleted the file?

Are you running a lot of RAM intensive applications?

I have run into a problem where explorer does not automatically update when running a lot of RAM intensive applications. Therefore, when you delete (or rename, or move ...) a file, explorer retains its original state until you refresh.

If I delete a file, it remains in explorer. If I try to delete it again, explorer says it can not find the file.


Mark

F5 usually works.

I have the same thing occurring in my system, I have 4gb of ram running Windows 7 ultimate x64 ... ntfs file system ..
F5 was my first choice but didn't help ...
secondly
Since I thought it was access related, I've tried to use the excellent reigstry hack "take ownership" which I LOVE but in this case it wasn't related to the problem ... kind of annoying ....

well, it's not the end of the world but like I said it's annoying

you all have a good one
//Ken1

A Reboot will take care of most of these issues.
Couple this with chkdsk /r during the reboot and you increase the chances of success.

Those that aren't taken care of by this process are usually a result of deeper corruption of the file system or symptoms of a malware infestation.

I've found that a reboot did take care of making the files disappear. It's just very disconcerting. I've run chkdsk and no problems have been found. All of the software on the system is straight from the vendor, so I feel relatively safe. I haven't seen it since that incident, so I'm not worrying about it too much.

I think there is also another cause - lack of available ram.

I can reproduce this on three different machines at will. All I need to do is run an app (sql server with a large database) that consumes large amounts of Ram (even if there is ram available). For example if physical Ram usage is above 4.8Gig on a machine with 6Gig, explorer does not refresh automatically. If physical Ram usage drops to about 4 Gig, automatic refresh starts working again.

Mark

I realize this is an old post; but I came across this same problem. I was trying to delete a folder and a message came up and said "Could not find this item". I tried chkdsk, rebuilding index, safe mode and refreshing then rebooting. Nothing worked. But I did try running DOS command and typed attrib -s-h-r <folder name> /S /R.

Might be wrong on the /S /R . Then I del <folder name>. I thought it didn't work. But I then looked at the folder on the driver and it was gone. Weird problem.

adding my two bits - as I've encountered a similar issue on a raid 1 partition.

For instance: Rename a file in windows explorer from say "leary.mp3" to "Leary.mp3".

Unless i hit F5 to refresh, it still shows me the old lowercase name.

System idle otherwise - and lots of RAM available - hoping it's fixed by the eventual SP1...

I know this is a bit late, but I found a quick workaround:

1) Open a Command Prompt.
2) Browse to the folder containing the buggy file.
3) Type 'dir /x' to obtain the 8.3 formatted filename.
4) Delete the file using the 8.3 filename, e.g. 'del NEWDOC~1.DOC'

Hope this information may spread and help other users with the same problem.