Deletion of Desktop Icon

Dear Friendly Helpers,

I am running XP home edition. In my meanderings and various downloads a file (an icon) keeps staying on my desktop that I cannot remove. When I try to delete it the message reads "cannot delete file: cannot read from source file or disk." It appears to be the remnant of a program that I tried and then uninstalled (Directory Opus). The properties of this file inform me that it is a "file" of 0 bytes. That's it. In Exporer under my identity I can see it listed under Desktop; however, when I try to view this file on my desktop from another identity it is not listed. The name of this file is "Directory Opus v8[1].1.0.8."

Here's what I have tried thus far:
1. Deleting it from Safe Mode - no luck.
2. Deleting it from Run.. cmd.. etc. - no luck (the file is not even listed here)
3. A friend told me to download GiPi@FileUtilities which I did but it did not remove it either.
4. I have made a new identity for myself and the bothersome file does not appear on the new desktop; however, it's going to take me a long time to transfer all my data from my old identity to the new so I don't really want to do this yet as a final solution.

Unfortunately, I cannot attach this file to any email so that you can view it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.... My direct email is waat4@cogeco.ca.

Many thx!

Chatrang

 

It sounds like a problem with the FAT. (Please note I don't mean FAT32, every filesystem including NTFS uses a FAT, FAT32 just took the name).

I'd try running error checking on the drive. Just right click the drive go to properties and then the tools tab. If that doesn't fix it then it's hard to say what to do. It's most likely a bad sector on the HD. SO it could be a little tricky to clear up completly.