Extremely Critcal Error After erasing unused space

A

Anonymous

Guest
After running the erase unused space task, when I try to access my external NTFS drive Windows tells me the drive is not formatted and would I like to format it. There seems to be no way to get into it. When I look at the drive properties, it shows as completely full. I have tried all of the suggested solutions with no success. Please help me!!! All of my critical data is on that drive!
 
Tom,

Are you sure you only did a Freespace and not a full erase?

When erasing free disk space, Eraser fills your hard drive with temporary files and overwrites them. It could be that the temp folder ~ERAFSWD.TMP got lodged in your system and did not get deleted at the end (which it should).

IMPORTANT: You have tried ALL of the following?

Option 1:
Untick cluster tips in Eraser preferences and select a one pass option and run Eraser again. This should return your full freespace allocation.

Option 2:
It could be that either Eraser was terminated abnormally or the system crashed causing the temporary files to be lodged there and the temp Folder (~ERAFSWD.TMP) may have used up your diskspace. You can remove the folder “~ERAFSWD.TMP” and all the files in it to reclaim the disk space
How to find the ~ERAFSWD.TMP Folder to erase it:
1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click on View->Options and Show Hidden Files.
Run a Find.
3. If found Erase it.
If you wish to use the command prompt you can type “deltree X:\~ERAFSWD.TMP”, where X is the drive letter

Option 3:
1. Run ScanDisk.
2. Using File Finder in Windows, look for files that were changed around the date/time you ran Eraser. This may find ~ERAFSWD.TMP.
3. Erase it.
Option 4:
Turn off System Restore in System Control Panel applet
How to turn on/off System Restore in ME
1. Right click the My Computer icon on the Desktop and click on Properties.
2. Click on the Performance tab.
3. Click on the File System button.
4. Click on the Troubleshooting tab.
5. Put a check mark next to 'Disable System Restore'.
6. Click the 'OK' button.
7. You will be prompted to restart the computer. Click Yes.
8. Re-enable the Restore Utility, follow steps one to seven and on step five remove the check mark next to 'Disable System Restore'.
9. Reboot again.

How to turn on/off System Restore in XP
1. Right click the My Computer icon on the Desktop and click on Properties.
2. Click on the System Restore tab.
3. Put a check mark next to 'Turn off System Restore on All Drives'.
4. Click the 'OK' button.
5. You will be prompted to restart the computer. Click Yes.
6. Re-enable the Restore Utility, follow steps one to five and on step three remove the check mark next to 'Turn off System Restore on All Drives'.
7. Reboot again.

If your drive is compressed (with third-party compression software) and you did not turn off the cluster tip erasing, you must recompress the drive to restore the lost space – next time, do not use cluster tip erasing on compressed drives.

The following question is from our FAQ page - might help:
Q: I get the messsage "NTLDR is missing" and cannot boot up to Windows.
A: Go to: http://www.tinyempire.com/shortnotes/fi ... issing.htm

Best regards,
Admin
 
I have tried all of that and nothing will let me into the hard drive. When I try to search or do a scandisk, nothing happens. The drive properties show that it is completely full.
Tom
 
I found a pretty good uneraser program on that link for about $50. It found the files and restored them for me. Thank you.
I still would like to know what happened. I didn't do a full erase, just unused space.
 
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