deleting "randomly named files"

jfblodi

jfblodi

New Member
@Joel

A newb PC user here. Regarding the eraser process using up tremendous amounts of memory, you mentioned in the FAQ that one can "delete the folder which contains a randomly-named name, containing random filenames (quite a few dozen)". I found a file under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\Alphabet.xml that has stuff like this in it...

<item ID="!" name="" char1=":" char2="," char3="1" char4="?" />
<item ID=""" name="" char1="." char2="n" char3="l" char4="y" />
<item ID="#" name="" char1="*" char2="F" char3="H" char4="x" />
<item ID="$" name="" char1="5" char2="x" char3="F" char4="&" />
<item ID="%" name="" char1="E" char2="r" char3="f" char4="B" />
<item ID="&" name="" char1="I" char2="f" char3="6" char4="L" />
<item ID="PhraseSet1" count="50" word1="Adventure Works sells good used ski equipment." word2="Keep on listening; I hear jazz music nearby." word3="She applied Monday at the Graphic Design Institute." word4="They bought office furniture from Northwind Traders." word5="Her address is now 48692 Maple Lane." word6="Little bunnies quietly hopped across Fleet Street." word7="Blue Yonder Airlines usually has cheap flights." word8="Our manager is originally from Las Vegas." word9="Xerxes, the king of Persia, invaded Greece." word10="Zavin called late last night from San Jose." word11="Contact darren@proseware.com with any questions." word12="We missed you at the big stamp exhibition." word13="Your appointment is on December 13th at 12:00." word14="Use code #8006 to open the right garage door." word15="Erin runs all of our Marketing & PR teams." word16="Quality is more important than quantity." word17="Every year in July, we vacation at the beach." word18="I heard about the "secret project" Saturday." word19="No, not unless you take Kelly with you!" word20="Use forms #79803-8A and 9B please." word21="Please schedule me for 4:15 p.m. Thursday." word22="He saw Beth W. in the grocery store." word23="Our best friends moved to New Zealand." word24="Often, http://www.cohowinery.com/ has good wines." word25="Xylophones are great gifts... for other children!" word26="Call me this Friday at (425) 555-0197." word27="I saw a Pileated woodpecker near the zoology lab." word28="See if http://www.thephone-company.com has the information." word29="I recommended Trey Research for the Dixon job." word30="Vegetarian cooking classes begin

Not wanting to erase a perhaps necessary file, do you think this the is one? If it is, how much do I delete...the ink part, or the Alphabet part? Or what? Thanks,John
 
No, this is not the file. The files created when Eraser wipes free space contain meaningless (=random) garbage, and their names are similarly meaningless. Also, these files are created in a randomly named folder in the root of the target drive.

David
 
The topmost folder - E:\ on the E: drive, for instance. 'Root' is the standard term, in all operating systems I know of, for the original/starting/topmost folder on a drive or in a file system.

David
 
David, I guess what I need to know is, how can I find & identify the specific folder in which to delete these files. Since I was erasing data in C: drive, is that where I should search? And so, would the "topmost folder" in C: be the 1st folder? My folders in C: are listed alphabetically....1st Intel, then New Folder, 3rd PerfLogs, 4th Program Files, 5th ProgramFiles(x86), then: Users, Windows, BOOTSECT.BAK, msdia80 and RebootLog. In the 1st folder (Intel) is only Intel chipset, not randomly named files.

Appreciate your patience.
 
You should look in C: . As the folder is randomly named and files are typically listed in alphabetical order, it can appear anywhere in the list. But it is usually easy to spot; even System folders are not quite as randomly named as this one will be.

David
 
Did you do a free space/unused space erase in the first place? If so, on which folder?
 
Yes...I did it in C: drive.

In another comment Joel, you said: "Alternatively, go to the Task Log and search for the path which raised the error that the directory cannot be deleted. That's the path that requires deletion."

Well, when I did that, I found this: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\Alphabet.xml

And in that folder was stuff like this:

"<item ID="PhraseSet1" count="50" word1="Adventure Works sells good used ski equipment." word2="Keep on listening; I hear jazz music nearby." word3="She applied Monday at the Graphic Design Institute." word4="They bought office furniture from Northwind Traders." word5="Her address is now 48692 Maple Lane." word6="Little bunnies quietly hopped across Fleet Street." word7="Blue Yonder Airlines usually has cheap flights." word8="Our manager is originally from Las Vegas." word9="Xerxes, the king of Persia, invaded Greece." word10="Zavin called late last night from San Jose." word11="Contact darren@proseware.com with any questions." word12="We missed you at the big stamp exhibition." word13="Your appointment is on December 13th at 12:00." word14="Use code #8006 to open the right garage door." word15="Erin runs all of our Marketing & PR teams." word16="Quality is more important than quantity." word17="Every year in July, we vacation at the beach." word18="I heard about the "secret project" Saturday." word19="No, not unless you take Kelly with you!" word20="Use forms #79803-8A and 9B please." word21="Please schedule me for 4:15 p.m. Thursday." word22="He saw Beth W. in the grocery store." word23="Our best friends moved to New Zealand." word24="Often, http://www.cohowinery.com/ has good wines." word25="Xylophones are great gifts... for other children!" word26="Call me this Friday at (425) 555-0197." word27="I saw a Pileated woodpecker near the zoology lab." word28="See if http://www.thephone-company.com has the information." word29="I recommended Trey Research for the Dixon job." word30="Vegetarian cooking classes begin"

Sounds like pretty "random" stuff to me, plus, I don't ever remember typing anything like that. But David didn't think so. Also, it says that folder was last modified in 2006, which, the folder I'm looking for should be dated from the other day when I ran Eraser (I would think).

Then he said: "But it is usually easy to spot; even System folders are not quite as randomly named as this one will be."

Problem is, ALL these folders look "randomly named" to me...was wondering if I can tell by checking the "created on"/"last modified" date of a file? Or, would it help you if I listed some of the names of these folders?
 
You're looking at file contents. Look at file names. Please copy and paste the last 10 entries of your task log.
 
OK....

Session: Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:22 PM

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Error C:\pagefile.sys did not have its cluster tips erased because of the following error: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070020)

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information Files in C:\Documents and Settings did not have their cluster tips erased because it is a hard link or a symbolic link.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\Alphabet.xml did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\chslm.lex.bin did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\chslm.wdic2.bin did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\chtlm.lex.bin did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\chtlm.wdic2.bin did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\Content.xml did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\dicjp.bin did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:23 PM Information C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\dicjp.dll did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file
 
That looks more like the first ten items than the last ten. Could you list every single directory in the C:\ drive, not including subfolders?
 
Do you mean these?...

Intel
New Folder
PerfLogs
Program Files
Program Files (x86)
Users
Windows

Then, there's these after the above folders:

BOOTSECT.BAC
msdia80
RebootLog
 
BTW, here's the ten entries from the other end:

Session: Thursday, July 15, 2010 7:30:22 PM
Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-cwevbtargets_i_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_c37d79947764f189\Workflow.VisualBasic.Targets did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-cwevbtargets_i_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6002.18005_none_c79fb49c7171cda9\Workflow.VisualBasic.Targets did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-perfcnt_ini_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_718da32dfe6647eb\PerfCounters.ini did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-perfcnt_ini_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_718da32dfe6647eb\PerfCounters_D.ini did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-perfcnt_ini_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6002.18005_none_75afde35f873240b\PerfCounters.ini did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-perfcnt_ini_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6002.18005_none_75afde35f873240b\PerfCounters_D.ini did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-system.workflow.activities_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_3265f2e277fead59\System.Workflow.Activities.dll did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-system.workflow.componentmodel_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_8be419790e15a8ca\System.Workflow.ComponentModel.dll did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:08:57 PM Information C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\x86_wwf-system.workflow.runtime_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_651add99a006f9de\System.Workflow.Runtime.dll did not have its cluster tips erased because you do not have the required permissions to erase the file cluster tips.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 9:03:05 PM Fatal The task was cancelled.
 
When you initially said "tremendous amounts of memory" what sort of memory are you referring to: RAM or disk space? Your C:\ folder is clean, i.e. there are no temporary files left behind.
 
Well, I don't remember...all I know is, when I was running eraser the other day, I kept getting these warnings telling me my memory was almost full, and to delete unnecessary files. Also, my internet homepage was just blank boxes. And then, a couple Word files I had open became unreadable because I could see the text was being overwritten, which made me afraid all my documents were going to be ruined, so I cancelled the eraser task. After I did that, the warnings stopped, my homepage became accessible again, and my docs readable.

I'm running eraser again now and I think I found the folder. It's called rAT-VWKd'-f{1S5P_m, and it's got a bunch of mumbo-jumbo file names, and is growing quite fast, & all the files are 216 MB.

So, is this the folder's contents I should be deleting periodically during the erase?
 
jfblodi said:
Well, I don't remember...all I know is, when I was running eraser the other day, I kept getting these warnings telling me my memory was almost full, and to delete unnecessary files. Also, my internet homepage was just blank boxes. And then, a couple Word files I had open became unreadable because I could see the text was being overwritten, which made me afraid all my documents were going to be ruined, so I cancelled the eraser task. After I did that, the warnings stopped, my homepage became accessible again, and my docs readable.

I'm running eraser again now and I think I found the folder. It's called rAT-VWKd'-f{1S5P_m, and it's got a bunch of mumbo-jumbo file names, and is growing quite fast, & all the files are 216 MB.

So, is this the folder's contents I should be deleting periodically during the erase?
Click to expand...

How did you find that folder? If it wasn't in C:/ then how did you go about looking for it? If you used Eraser then how did it tell you?
 
jfblodi said:
Well, I don't remember...all I know is, when I was running eraser the other day, I kept getting these warnings telling me my memory was almost full, and to delete unnecessary files.
Click to expand...
That's normal, if "memory" is referring to "hard disk space."

jfblodi said:
Also, my internet homepage was just blank boxes. And then, a couple Word files I had open became unreadable because I could see the text was being overwritten, which made me afraid all my documents were going to be ruined, so I cancelled the eraser task. After I did that, the warnings stopped, my homepage became accessible again, and my docs readable.
Click to expand...
Applications don't like low-disk space conditions. But that is required for Eraser to do its thing.

jfblodi said:
I'm running eraser again now and I think I found the folder. It's called rAT-VWKd'-f{1S5P_m, and it's got a bunch of mumbo-jumbo file names, and is growing quite fast, & all the files are 216 MB.

So, is this the folder's contents I should be deleting periodically during the erase?
Click to expand...
The folder name is never the same for every session, on purpose to impede attribute analysis. You can delete the files, but that will just mean your erase will never finish running.
 
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