Hi Betty Ann & Preston,

To start with, by default all files transferred (copied) from a CD or 
DVD  are Read Only,especially if copied from CD-R or DVD-R.
So, to do anything with them ,you always have to unset Read Only in the 
Properties panel of the file or folder.
Additionally, if the drive is formatted with NTFS, you may have to take 
ownership of the file or folder.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421
and
http://www.winxptutor.com/ownership.htm

Also check settings:
R-click folder > Properties > Security tab
make sure that you have full control as Administrator,if not give full 
control.
(give control to users as well if desired.)

A little app that unsets Read Only can be found at  
http://www.crispybytes.com/
and   http://www.crispybytes.com/clearreadonly/
However that may not hold if you didn't take ownership.

Peter.


Betti Ann and Preston Smith said the following on 28/11/2007 7:39 PM:
> Hi
>
> I have a USB external drive (F:) running on my home build 'puter - OS 
> is XP SP2 with all updates
>
> There are folders and files in F:\ - all files can be 
> deleted/modified.  All folders are marked read-only and as a 
> consequence I can not delete any files within these folders.  I can 
> not delete the read only attribute of these folders or subordinate 
> folders
>
> The message I get is
>
> Error Deleting File or Folder
>
> Cannot delete XXXXX.XXX: Access is denied
> Make sure the disk is not full (it is not) or write protected and that 
> the file is currently not in use (it isnot being used)
>
> These files/folders were copied from the PC to a DVD then to the 
> external drive.
>
> I use this drive on a daily basis to do Quicken backups without problem
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts on how to delete these files?
>
> Thanks
> Preston
>
>             Do you want to signoff PCSOFT or just change to
>                    Digest mode - visit our web site:
>                   http://freepctech.com/pcsoft.shtml
>
>

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