Eraser 6.x issues

V

Vol4Ever

New Member
I was having lots of problems with the latest build not erasing folders, and constantly stopping with errors. The same thing would happen with the recycle bin.

Consequently I jumped back to 5.7 which I like MUCH better . . . . . . except for 2 problems:

1 - Major slow speed difference!
2 - Recycle bin problems. It simply says "Recycle bin is empty" when trying to erase the RB, but there are definitely files in there.

I'd be willing to go back to 6.x, but I'd like to see 2 things there:

1 - Fix the problem with folders not deleting
2 - Add back the popup menu that says something to the effect of "Are you sure you want to erase these x files, and y folders". I always liked knowing a snapshot of what it was getting ready to do as opposed to a blind start.

Great software, though! Just a few little kinks. :)
 
There shouldn't be a disparity in the speed between v6 and v5, unless you have got files which are open -- Eraser then tries to force the files to be unlocked before erasing them. That could account for the difference in speed.

How does Eraser say that the recycle bin is empty, and how are you able to counter check if there are files in the recycle bin? Have you tried creating a task in v6 manually to erase the recycle bin? Eraser v6 queries Windows directly for the number of files in the recycle bin, so we operate on what Windows gives us. However, when the task is executed, Eraser erases all files in the user's recycle bin.

The problem of folders not deleting -- that is an acknowledged bug - it affects only folders with subfolders in them.

The confirmation dialog was added in the 6.2 nightlies, it will not be ported back to 6.0 for stability reasons (too much code churn)
 
Maybe the speed difference is just because 5.x showed each individual file as it was being erased (although they are flying by way faster than can be read). Moving games back & forth from my jailbroken iPhone, I wind up with directories with literally a few thousand tiny files broken into lots of directories. I had never noticed that the directory erase problem was tied to directories within directories, but I'll pay more attention to that. I do recall all the files being gone, but just directory names remaining + an error showing in the task log. Is that consistent with the known bug?

Oddly enough, I upgraded my work machine to 6.2.something (the latest build I could find). It seemed to be fairly stable today, including clearing the recycle bin with no problems. It did pop up the confirmation dialog, but it only asked if I was sure I wanted to delete the files. It didn't quantify HOW MANY files or HOW MANY directories. In my opinion, that should be somewhere on the main options page for the user to configure the confirmation however he wants (e.g. none, yes/no only, yes/no with detailed summary, etc).

FYI, I don't do anything with the scheduler. All of my actions for either directory, file or recycle deleting are all launched through the right click method.
 
It would be computationally expensive (= slow) for Eraser to calculate the number of files or directories which will be deleted, unless you are referring to the number of items which was selected when Eraser was started. Perhaps the Windows delete confirmation dialog is what you're after?
 
I don't know exactly how it did it, but Eraser 5.7 reported this information. I would right click on a folder name in Windows Explorer and select erase from the menu. Their was an almost immediate popup that said "Are you sure you wish to erase these 4,300 files in 29 directories", or something to that effect.

I would re-install 5.7 and do a screenshot, but I'm scared to now that 6.1.0.2284 seems to be working OK.
 
I don't remember Eraser 5.7 doing that... if you do manage to get a screenshot somehow do let me know, the code is rather hard to trawl through since the only remaining copy is in the version control archive and I'd need to narrow it down to candidate source files.
 
OK. I downgraded our home computer to 5.7 to get screenshots of the issues I mentioned.

#1 - File count
I right clicked on my Windows/System folder since I know there are TONS of files in there. Here is the screen that shows up almost immediately after clicking erase.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30802749/Photos/rcount.jpg

#2 - Recycle bin problems

First screenshot is my recycle bin opened in Windows Explorer showing that there are a few jpg's in there.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30802749/Photos/rbin.jpg

Second screenshot is what pops up when right clicking recycle bin & clicking erase. Notice the icon on the desktop also shows the bin as full

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30802749/Photos/emptyrbin.jpg

I'd like to go back to the absolute latest (even if it's a beta build), but I want to wait until 2 things are fixed:

1) Fully deleting folders & subfolders

2) Is anyone working on a way for it to work WITHOUT running in the system tray, which I assume ties up memory? I only erase files & the recycle bin on demand with right click. I don't do anything at all with the scheduler.

Thanks Joel!
 
Vol4Ever said:
OK. I downgraded our home computer to 5.7 to get screenshots of the issues I mentioned.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I got the code I need to compare.

Vol4Ever said:
I right clicked on my Windows/System folder since I know there are TONS of files in there. Here is the screen that shows up almost immediately after clicking erase.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30802749/Photos/rcount.jpg
Click to expand...
Eraser 6 uses a similar approach to getting a list of files and folders requiring erasure. However, the Eraser 6 method is constrained by the speed of the .NET framework, which seems to be significantly slower than that of using the Win32 API (used by Eraser 5.) Thus, although this may be a short wait on v5, on v6 I expect it to be a much longer wait. I'll need to do some benchmarking, however.

Vol4Ever said:
Second screenshot is what pops up when right clicking recycle bin & clicking erase. Notice the icon on the desktop also shows the bin as full

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30802749/Photos/emptyrbin.jpg
Click to expand...
Unfortunately this is a v5 bug -- v5 has been archived away because there simply isn't enough development resources to maintain both versions, and as such there would be no official solution to this (people are free to post patches, however)

Vol4Ever said:
I'd like to go back to the absolute latest (even if it's a beta build), but I want to wait until 2 things are fixed:

1) Fully deleting folders & subfolders
Click to expand...
This is in the works.

Vol4Ever said:
2) Is anyone working on a way for it to work WITHOUT running in the system tray, which I assume ties up memory? I only erase files & the recycle bin on demand with right click. I don't do anything at all with the scheduler.
Click to expand...
Eraser 6 will always require a copy running in memory, regardless of whether it would be in the tray or not. This is because one of the goals of 6.2 is that Eraser will schedule all requested erasures on the computer to ensure that erasures are controlled centrally. This reduces the seek time associated with erasing files on the same drive in parallel. This is also the reason why Eraser 6 would require much thought before it can be made portable.
 
As an afternote, if you really do not want the scheduler running in the background, you can disable its startup entry in the registry/msconfig and exit when a context menu erase triggers it to start.

Generally, Eraser when running consumes no CPU resources, and < 20MB memory most times.
 
Hey Joel. Did you ever get a chance to check if it would be feasible to add back the confirmation dialog "are you sure you want to erase x files in y directories"? Just curious.

Thanks for all you do. AWESOME software.
 
Vol4Ever said:
Hey Joel. Did you ever get a chance to check if it would be feasible to add back the confirmation dialog "are you sure you want to erase x files in y directories"? Just curious.
Click to expand...
It's already in the 6.1 beta builds, but will not be in a full release of the software until 6.2 is released.

This may seem like an argument for routinely using a nightly build; the trouble is that, in the nature of things, some of these builds are unstable, and the odd one can do serious damage. Joel usually spots and fixes problems (and withdraws bad builds) very quickly, but if you are the person who has installed a rogue build you will not be a happy bunny. Unless you want to test a 6.1 build for yourself (I'd suggest not on a machine you use for mission critical work), it's best to stick with 6.0.9.

David
 
I'm fine with Beta builds as I am "somewhat" tech savvy, although not a programmer. Earlier today I D/L and installed Eraser 6.1.0.2580, 22/3/12 6:05pm. It's working fine, but the confirmation popup still just says "Are you sure you want to erase the selected items?". There's no file count.
 
That's going to be a relatively low priority task; you can edit the contents of the task before you execute it.
 
If 2580 is working well for you (as it currently is on my reserve machine), that's fine. I hope that you understand my caution about recommending normal users to install a 6.1 build; things are currently moving too fast on the programming front for that to be a safe option.

And I agree with Joel about the file count; the confirmation dialog relates to all kinds of erasing, so programming this is likely to be a messy job. The core priorities for me are (1) to get the key features of Eraser 6.2 (especially running the erasing engine as a service) implemented, (2) to get the Task List converted to XML so that it is more portable between versions and (3) to improve the way Eraser logs its activities.

David
 
No rush from me at all. The following reply "It's already in the 6.1 beta builds, but will not be in a full release of the software until 6.2 is released." just implied the functionality was already there in the beta 2580 I downloaded. No biggie. Thanks guys!

~Vol
 
Sorry I was misleading. At least the "are you sure" (which I believe is the important bit) is now there.

Common sense says that if you are unsure what you are erasing, you should either quit out or press the options button to see the task. Actually, it it occurs to me that the button would be better labelled if it were called 'Task Details', because that is what appears when you press it.

David
 
Ahh. You're right. I had forgotten that the confirmation dialog had disappeared in its entirety there for a while. Until you & Joel said it, I had never actually clicked the "options" button on the popup. I just tried it, but all it shows is the top level directory name scheduled for deletion. Nothing about how many subdirectories or files are contained within.

But Joel is also right that's not a critical need. It was just neat to have in the older 5 versions, and I thought it was something that might be really easy to add back in 6, but I'm gathering that the programming methodology has COMPLETELY changed in the 6 series.
 
Vol4Ever said:
... I'm gathering that the programming methodology has COMPLETELY changed in the 6 series.
Click to expand...
You are not wrong. Wholly new code (and managed code at that), and even a different programming language (C#). But the really big change was in the philosophy of the way Eraser is designed to work.

Eraser 5 was at heart an application, sitting in a window taking up space on the desktop. That was what we expected applications to do, and Eraser 6 came as a bit of a shock. It took me ages to work out that context menu erasing, that is working more as a function of Explorer, is the core of what Eraser 6 does, ideally working in the background while the user does other things. Eraser 5 wanted to tell you (in modal dialogs) every detail of what it was doing; Eraser 6 simply acknowledges your instruction, gets on with the job and tells you when it has finished, and does this without interference with any other work you might have on hand. (Except, of course, when the Eraser task is a free space erase; that will always hog the machine, because it consumes so much hard drive bandwidth.)

Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, and the first full release of Eraser 6 (6.0.6) was, frankly, so buggy that the disadvantages were all too apparent. With, I think, most if not all of the bugs ironed out, 6.0.9, although it works in the same way, feels to me like a different application, simply because it functions smoothly and reliably in daily erasing tasks. The down side is that the comfort blanket of all the information Eraser 5 used to give you while it squatted on your desktop is not there any more. I have elsewhere on the forum suggested ways in which Eraser 6 logging might be improved, but in other respects I have come to the view that the Eraser 6 approach is more intuitive and less error-prone than Eraser 5, and I wouldn't want to go back.

David
 
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