Quote Originally Posted by Big Booger
A shot in the dark here, but try running the system file checker.

Click start/run/type sfc /scannow

Make sure you have your XP CD handy and insert it when asked. And reboot.

Then see if you can remove the AVI files, mp3, etc...

This sounds like a deeper trouble than just the fix mentioned in this post. DO you have any antivirus software installed? Or any other file protection software? If so try disabling them and see if the deletion problem still occurs.
i did all of the above but it still needs to restart to delete avi files.
any other suggestion?