hyperv: Unable to remove machine directory: ....vmcx: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

[tstromberg]

I have the same problem and tried this:

> minikube stop
*
X Unable to stop VM: open C:\Users\Csongor Halmai\.minikube\machines\minikube\config.json: The system cannot find the file specified.
*
* minikube is exiting due to an error. If the above message is not useful, open an issue:
  - https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/new/choose

and then

> minikube delete
* Removing C:\Users\Csongor Halmai\.minikube\machines\minikube ...
*
X Unable to remove machine directory: remove C:\Users\Csongor Halmai\.minikube\machines\minikube\minikube\Snapshots\0113C205-19E6-4E44-9903-D0AA9C750A39.vmcx: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
*
* minikube is exiting due to an error. If the above message is not useful, open an issue:
  - https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/new/choose

This seems to be show-stopper for me. :(

> minikube version
minikube version: v1.9.0
commit: 48fefd43444d2f8852f527c78f0141b377b1e42a

Originally posted by @halmai in #4286 (comment)

[tstromberg]

Hey @halmai -

I'm very curious about what happened here, because it's not supposed to be possible, but clearly it is. From your stop output:

X Unable to stop VM: open C:\Users\Csongor Halmai\.minikube\machines\minikube\config.json: The system cannot find the file specified.

minikube was asked to stop a cluster that does not have any local state associated to it, so it failed. Is it possible that you accidentally deleted or moved C:\Users\Csongor Halmai\.minikube\machines, or do we have a bug somewhere?

Alternatively, is it possible that you called stop with a pre-v1.9.0 version of minikube first? We didn't handle Hyper-V deletion so well before.

As far as your delete output:
X Unable to remove machine directory: remove C:\Users\Csongor Halmai\.minikube\machines\minikube\minikube\Snapshots\0113C205-19E6-4E44-9903-D0AA9C750A39.vmcx: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

This is stating that Hyper-V does in fact have a virtual machine running from this directory, even if the minikube state is gone. This is recoverable by launching the Hyper-V console and shutting the minikube VM down. Then minikube delete should function as expected.

Let me know how it works out. If the instructions work, I'll make sure the error message points users to the appropriate solution. We can do a lot better here.

[halmai]

@tstromberg thanks for the quick response.

It is possible that the files it was unable to delete were coming from an earlier version of minikube. However, even after stopping Hyper-V Host Compute Service from the Task Manager, I was unable to delete the files, which is strange. Both minikube delete and manual delete via Explorer failed.
The solution I chose was to reboot win10 in safe mode and delete all the Snapshots manually. After a normal reboot everything works fine.

[tstromberg]

Thanks for the info. I wonder if deleting the VM from Hyper-V would have yielded a different outcome.

Can you confirm that minikube stop and minikube delete now work properly on your system?

[medyagh]

we need to update this suggestion
stopping minikube will not help with deleting
but deleting it from the hyperv manager helps

Minikube v1.9.2 [Approved]
minikube package files upgrade completed. Performing other installation steps.
 ShimGen has successfully created a shim for minikube.exe
 The upgrade of minikube was successful.
  Software install location not explicitly set, could be in package or
  default install location if installer.

Chocolatey upgraded 1/1 packages.
 See the log for details (C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\logs\chocolatey.log).
PS C:\Windows\system32> minikube delete --all --purge
* Removing C:\Users\medya\.minikube\machines\minikube ...
*
* [FILE_IN_USE] Unable to remove machine directory remove C:\Users\medya\.minikube\machines\minikube\disk.vhd: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
* Suggestion: Another program is using a file required by minikube. If you are using Hyper-V, try stopping the minikube VM from within the Hyper-V manager
* Documentation: https://docs.docker.com/machine/drivers/hyper-v/
* Related issue: https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/7300
PS C:\Windows\system32> minikube delete --all --purge
* Removing C:\Users\medya\.minikube\machines\minikube ...
*
* [FILE_IN_USE] Unable to remove machine directory remove C:\Users\medya\.minikube\machines\minikube\disk.vhd: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
* Suggestion: Another program is using a file required by minikube. If you are using Hyper-V, try stopping the minikube VM from within the Hyper-V manager
* Documentation: https://docs.docker.com/machine/drivers/hyper-v/
* Related issue: https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/7300
PS C:\Windows\system32> minikube delete --all --purge
* Removing C:\Users\medya\.minikube\machines\minikube ...
*
* [FILE_IN_USE] Unable to remove machine directory remove C:\Users\medya\.minikube\machines\minikube\disk.vhd: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
* Suggestion: Another program is using a file required by minikube. If you are using Hyper-V, try stopping the minikube VM from within the Hyper-V manager
* Documentation: https://docs.docker.com/machine/drivers/hyper-v/
* Related issue: https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/7300
PS C:\Windows\system32> minikube delete --all --purge
* Removing C:\Users\medya\.minikube\machines\minikube ...
* Removed all traces of the "minikube" cluster.
* Successfully deleted all profiles
* Successfully purged minikube directory located at - [C:\Users\medya\.minikube]
PS C:\Windows\system32>