I have a file on a backup usb drive that I get the following error: # ls -ls P* ls: cannot access Power usage.xls: Input/output error How can I delete this file so that the nightly backup will write out the current version to the backup drive? I tried: # rm -f Power\ usage.xls rm: cannot remove `Power usage.xls': Input/output error Which you can see did not work. thanks _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ See if OpenOffice or LibreOffice has the file open. The temp file name should have tilde in front of it. For example, ~Power usage.xls. Delete that file and that may resolve the input/output error. Best regards, James