did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system

J

JBDive

New Member
In trying to run an unused space erase on Win7 x64 I am getting the below message.

C:\Program Files\DVD Maker\Shared\DvdStyles\BabyGirl\Bear_Formatted_MATTE2_PAL.wmv did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a system file

Now I really doubt that DVD Maker is a system file or is Erase unable to access anything int he Programs directory?
 
Re: did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a sy

I had similar when I was using Eraser - except the list of files Eraser couldn't service was quite a long one?
 
Re: did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a sy

Yes, on the system (C:) drive, the list of 'errors' can be immense - tens of thousands of entries is quite normal. I think that these 'errors' (which are actually more like facts of life) should not really appear in the log, and, for future versions, Joel is considering the best balance between keeping users informed, and not bombarding them with error messages they can do nothing about.

Because so many cluster tips just cannot be erased on the C: drive, there is an argument for disabling cluster tip erasing on that drive. Non-system drives tend to be much easier to deal with, and there is much to be said for keeping data, especially sensitive data, on a non system drive or partition. If SSDs ever become popular, we shall, I guess, all be doing that in any case.

System files are so called, not because they are part of the system, but because they have the System attribute set. Files that are part of a program installation may well have that attribute set. Windows files are typically protected by being assigned to the hidden System user,; even users with Administrator status do not have write access to such files.

It will not have escaped your notice that I have used the word 'system' in this post with 3 quite different meanings. That's Windows for you.

David
 
Re: did not have its cluster tips erased, because it is a sy

XP (was it Win2k?) added another definition of "System", when the System File Checker utility monitors the file for changes. However, this definition would be unlikely to apply in this case, and it would sound like the System attribute be more fitting.

In any case, this sounds like a benign warning so it should be fine.
 
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