Q44608: UNLINK Does Not Work If the File Is Not Closed

Article: Q44608
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 4.00 5.00 | 5.10
Operating System(s): MS-DOS | OS/2
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | S_QuickC | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 1-JUN-1989

Question:

I am using the function UNLINK to delete a file. UNLINK seems to
delete the file, but I do not get the disk space back. Why?

Response:

The C run-time function UNLINK does not work properly if the file you
are trying to delete is not closed. If the file is not closed, the
File Allocation Table is not be updated properly and CHKDSK reports
lost clusters. These lost clusters are the unclosed files which tried
to delete.

You can recover the lost disk space by running CHKDSK /F. This
information also applies to the C run-time function REMOVE.