How to Delete the Undeletable in Win XP

Recently I found I could delete the content inside a folder but not the folder itself. Every time I hit “delete key”, a warning message showed up:

Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk

When googling the solution, I tried the method of using command mode to delete the file (the 9 steps listed here), but after trying the dos commands I knew (del, rd, move etc), I kept receiving this message:

The system cannot find the file specified.

I gave up solving by myself and sought help from some utility tool. Several places, including the one mentioned above, suggested Unlocker. With few steps (download, install, and run), voilà, the folder was gone!

I wish I weren’t so stubborn in doing by myself.