Removing orphan vmware images

Question

I am trying to remove some VMWare images that were created by a machine that is no longer available. We do not plan to use VMWare and would like to clear up the space.

I get a message Cannot delete [filename]... for all of the files in these directories.

Can anyone tell me how to delete them (short of reformatting)?

Thanks

-- edit --
The OS is Windows and the only machine that used the images isn't on the network any more. Process Explorer is showing no processes accessing the files.

-- edit --
From the command prompt removed the system attribute and was able to delete the drive files, but still cannot remove the configuration files. WTF? Anyway, I got most of the space back.

Answer 1

Ensure that both the files and the directories are not read only. Don't rely on the Windows Explorer properties page for that, as it has a bug that has existed since Windows 95. Turn on the attributes column instead.

If you're sure VMware isn't running and the files are not read only install unlocker and use that to delete them.

Answer 2

Most likely the files are in use. Is VMWare still running them?

Answer 3

On linux run lsof to see what process is access. Linux does not actually delete a file until all processes that are accessing it are no longer running.

On windows use process explorer (sysinternals.microsoft.com) to see what process is accessing those files.