Forum Discussion
Windows 11 cannot delete 0KB files, prompting that administrator permissions are required?
A file became corrupted, turned into 0KB, 360's force delete tool was ineffective, and deleting it prompts for administrator permission. How can it be deleted?
Hi,
A 0 KB file is not necessarily corrupted. I reproduced the issue in a PowerShell test environment: a file with broken NTFS permissions (inheritance disabled and no effective access rules) becomes impossible to delete, even with admin rights.
You can check the ACL with:
Get-Acl "C:\Path\File.txt" | Format-List
If inheritance is disabled, restore it:
$acl = Get-Acl "C:\Path\File.txt"
$acl.SetAccessRuleProtection($false, $true)
Set-Acl "C:\Path\File.txt" $acl
Then try deleting again:
Remove-Item "C:\Path\File.txt"
Other causes include:
- checking if a process is locking it (Task Manager or openfiles.exe),
- deleting it from an elevated PowerShell prompt,
- using Remove-Item -Path \\?\C:\Path\File.ext for invalid names,
- running chkdsk /f if the entry is orphaned.
These cases are common and don’t always indicate corruption.