Inapplicable error message when erasing flash drive

[DWalker07]

I read the topic about erasing USB flash drives, and I know it's not really secure since all cells on the flash drive may not get overwritten (still, the data cells become inaccessible through normal channels, right?). Anyway, I wanted to do a one-pass erase of one folder on a flash drive that I am giving away. And I think that the simple "unerase" or "recover lost data" programs won't work after running Eraser like this.

Running Eraser (windows 7 Pro x64, running as admin user) on a folder on a 64GB Lexar flash drive gives me the error "The file G:\Foldername is currently in use and cannot be removed". I don't understand that message; no one is trying to remove the drive; the Eraser program should be trying to overwrite the data on the folder. eraser works fine for me erasing local disk files or folders.

I get the same error message whether I start the Eraser shortcut as administrator and then schedule the erase, or if I right-click the folder and try to erase the folder that way.

Any suggestions, other than to smash the drive with a hammer?

 

[DWalker07]

Wait, I think I know the problem. Eraser seems to be erasing all of the files and subfolders correctly, and then failing when it tries to erase the folder that I pointed it to. So it's doing almost everything I want, it just fails at the final step of erasing the folder itself.

Strange, even when the folder I am trying to erase has no files or subfolders, the error message still appears and the folder doesn't get erased.

There's still an issue "Erasing an empty folder on a flash drive fails" but I don't really care too much about that; the name of the folder doesn't contain any sensitive information (in my specific case).