Deleted files still showing

On several occasions I've deleted files/folders and then found later that they are still showing in the Library or even the true folder. When I go to delete them again Windows says it can't find them - obviously because I deleted them! This looks like a serious Win7 bug. I've never hit this problem with XP and it means I just can't trust an explorer window to tell me the truth. A Chkdsk shows no filing system errors. This is a full Win 7 release on a new Dell PC.

Are these files/folders that you have created? If they were created by someone else, you may not have permission to delete them and you will need to ask the owner of the files to delete. Read more about User Account Control and gaining permissions here: What is User Account Control?. You also cannot delete a file (or the folder that contains it) if the file is currently open in another program. Make sure that the file isn't open in any program, and then try to delete the file or folder again.

If they are files created by you, I wonder if the simple reboot that Rich suggested will solve the problem. Good luck and keep us updated!

Cheers,
Cassandra
Microsoft Windows Outreach team

Thanks for the various replies. My system uses Win 7 as installed by Dell and all the files have been created by me either on the new PC or on the old XP PC and Windows Transfer used to move them over. As Windows tells me it can't find them when I try to delete them a second time indicates that Windows did indeed flag them as deleted. I will try a re-boot next time but XP never needed this; it always erased all evidence of a file to the user when deleted.

PS I'll try and correct 'Mhoterborad'! Yes, my sound card is part of the main board.

This is an example:
I deleted the first one, but it didn't disappear, and I created the second one with the same name...

It can't hurt to run
sfc /scannow
from an elevated command prompt.