How to delete a read-only file?

Using winXP service pack2, Office XP. Full privalages on this comp.

I have a "Word" file that I want to put on a CD-RW disk. When I went to save this file to the cd-rw, it would not work. I saved it to the hardrive, and then saved it to cd-rw. It was saved as a read-only file, but I was not prompted for this option. I cannot delete it from the cd-rw.
How can I delete it? Or change it to read/write?
How can I save to cd-rw without saving to hardrive first?
Is there a setting, so it will not be saved as read-only?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Properties-> uncheck read only...or am i missing something here...

©opy®ight, I tried that, it still will not let me modify or delete the file.

"An error occurred applying attibutes to the file:"
"Access is denied"

Tried ignoring this and still did not work.

If its on your harddrive..

.take ownership..then change the permissions??

MLF

Well its not on the hardrive anymore. It is not a big file, so I will be redoing it, the problem is, I can't remove it from the cd-rw. I guess when I start over, I will make sure it has write access before I save it cd-rw. I would think there is a way to save it to cd-rw with write permission without saving it to the harddrive first?
Thanks for your suggestions.

You can have problems when the CD-RW was written with different progs.. even different versions of the same prog.. this could be why your unable to change the attribute or delete the file from the cd-rw..

With Windows.. 9x to XP..Unless there is a registry hack, all files on optical media assume the status of Read Only, even after being copied to a HDD.. this goes for CD-r, CD-RW DVD's etc..

CD-RW, if it is using tha normal ISO9660 file system, may not have
the capability to save a file in anything other than read-only.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/softw...ict166786.html

Maybe there is a different file system you have to use if you want to
delete or rewrite files.
:cool:

Thanks guys for the info. One question though, how do people use cd-rw or dvd-rw as backup media, especially incremental backups? Am I missing something?
And is there a way to delete this file? It will not even allow me to add any other files to this cd-rw.

Ok i went through google for ya and this is the solution to the problem but you guys probably arent using the same software or whatever, but it may help....

Quote:

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I just un-installed all 3 burner programs I had used for testing. I also un-installed any and all traces of Sonic software thru out the system including the register. I also stopped all start up programs. I stopped any and all anti virus and security programs and ioslated the naked system from the web.
I then reinstalled Sonic and DLA from my OEM disk. It worked. I now can drag and drop files to the cd and it sees them as normal files as per the DLA program which allows you to use a CD as a hard drive and copy files to it and delete etc etc. Why this didn't work before is beyond me. I worked with the Sonic people for 1.5 hrs doing the same thing and that didn't work. As a former Bell(Verizon) System worker who worked in digital computor switching for 25+ years, I guess the term FM applies.
FM = F****** Magic. Thanks again for all the help. Maybe what I want thru may help someone else out. Stripping the system may have been the key.

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Source: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread30677.html

and this

Quote:

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The only way to achieve what you want to do is to use 'Packet writing' - Nero's version of this is InCd - I do not know what Sonic's equivalent is called. In Packet Writing the CD is formatted and can be used as a large floppy disk. Exactly how it works I have not had need to investigate.

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http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=47393

You possibly already tried this, but is it not possible to just format the cd-rw again?
If it's read only you should at least be able to copy the data to the pc before doing so.

Just my 2 cents... ;)

Type on the command line:

cacls <filename> /G <adminusername>:F

Then you will be easily be able to delete the file after that.

You cannot save any files to CD's using Word, unless you are using a packet writing software mentioned below. CDs and CDRW's are not floppies (yet) but CDRW's will be when Mt. Rainier support is coming in Microsoft Vista.

As mentioned above, files placed on CD's and CDRW are given a READ ONLY attribute.
When you move said files back to a FAT32 formatted hard drive, the attribute is still READ ONLY.
If you move said files to an NTFS formatted hard drive, the READ ONLY attribute is removed.

What you are looking for which the guys didn't mention, is the ability to read/write from the CDRW, like you can with a floppy. This is accomplish with a packet writing program such as Adaptec DirectCD and Roxio InCD, among others.

If you are trying to delete a file from a CDRW and you are not using a packet writing software, then your option is to erase the CDRW using Nero or whatever.

I will not go into multi-session CD's as not to complicate an easy answer.
It looks like you are using Native XP to burn files to a CD, which is why you cannot burn more of them. Native XP doesn't support multi-session.

:)

[Edit: Correction! ©opy®ight mentioned packet writing in a quote ]

The answer to a question in ©opy®ight's quote is "The packet writing software used by Sonic is DLA ."

:D