Can´t erase Files on Network Drive

[Eraser_User]

Hello, I have a Question. With the Version 5.8.8 I can erase Files on Network Drive in my Homenet.

I have Install the Version 6.0.6 and here I can´t erase Files on Network Drive in Homenet.

I use Windows XP Home Edition.

The Error report is:
Session: Freitag, 12. Februar 2010 19:42:24
Freitag, 12. Februar 2010 19:42:24 Error Die Datei oder das Verzeichnis ist kein Analysepunkt. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80071126)
Translation: The file or directory is not a reparse point.

Please help me. I mainly must erase Files in Homenet.

Greatings from Germany
Samuel

 

[DavidHB]

This may be by design: Joel can advise on that. However, you will wish to be aware of the following quotation from Eraser 6 help:

Erasing files over the network may work; however it will more likely fail to securely erase your file as data is modified through the network protocol and the semantics required for erasure may not be present. Furthermore, you are very likely to saturate the network, which is very inconsiderate.

Eraser 6 tends to be even more open about relevant system limitations than Eraser 5; it may be that the files did not fully erase under Version 5, either.

You do not say whether the network drive is on another computer or in a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system. In both cases, there will be an operating system of some sort between Eraser and the drive. Eraser is designed to run on the operating system which is directly hosting and controlling the drive. This is difficult with a NAS, though some NAS housings can also function as USB drive housings; in such a case, Eraser should be used with the drive in USB mode. If the NAS is a multiple-drive RAID array, I would not use Eraser on it at all.

David

 

[Eraser_User]

Hi David,

I don´t understand what you read. I have a Homenet. One Computer with System XP Home Edition (from this computer I want start Eraser) and the other Computer (here I want delete Files) have the System XP Professional.

Is this possible with the Version 6.0.6 or not?

I have the Authorization to modify the Files on the other Computer from me, I can delete them in Thrash, so I think I can them also delete with Eraser - Or not?

Samuel

 

[DavidHB]

Samuel

Firstly, it isn't just a matter of permissions as such. You have to remember how Eraser works. An ordinary delete (or move to the Recycle Bin) simply changes the File Allocation Table; it doesn't remove the data, and it doesn't access the sectors in which the data resides. Eraser, on the other hand, accesses the actual sectors so that it can overwrite them. On the computer on which Eraser is running, Eraser can of course use the system resources which provide this access; on a network computer, it is not working directly with the resources that control the disk, but through the intermediary of the network protocols, which do not necessarily provide this access, as it is something they are not designed to do.

In these circumstances, the help file says that erasure of files on a network drive will probably fail, which seems to me both clear and honest.

I'm sorry If I confused you with the reference to NAS; you can ignore that. If what you have is simply two networked computers, then the only safe advice is to do the erasing on the machine which the files/folders physically reside. I believe that that advice would be true of any erasing program (including Eraser 5); the help file for Eraser 5 explicitly says that you should not erase files over the network, as it will "not work as expected".

From this you will see that there is a big difference between deleting and erasing, and we cannot reasonably infer that, because deleting works over a network, erasing will also work.

I hope that explains things.

David

 

[Eraser_User]

Hi David,

thank you for explanation.

I think I will just mark the files over the network for deletion and them delete directly on the Machine.

Or I start Eraser on the other Computer with an Remote-Programm.

Thank You.

Greatings from Germany (Sorry bad English)
Samuel

 

[DavidHB]

I think I will just mark the files over the network for deletion and them delete directly on the Machine ... Or I start Eraser on the other Computer with an Remote-Programm.

Both of those should work.

Sorry bad English

If I understand it (which I do), it's fine. In English, despite what Herr Studienrat may have told you, there is no equivalent of 'Rechtschreibung'.

David

 

[Joel]

Okay, let me explain a little more...

Eraser 6 had a bug dealing with network drives, which could throw such a problem. I've fixed that in trunk (you can try an Eraser 6.0 nightly build).

But having said that, what David's mentioned still holds. You're running this at your own risk. Eraser works on the assumptions that David stated in his posts and in networked computers/drives the assumption may not hold. For networked computers, it may still work, but don't take my word as gospel -- try it out yourself because computers work differently (e.g. source/destination OSes etc) and I won't be able to test every single combination. Rather, I am saying this from an engineering perspective that if the networking protocol ultimately gets the file written to disk just like if a disk would be written on the local computer, then the assumption that the file's contents may be overwritten is valid.