Eraser Has to Close when erasing unused space

J

jberaser

Member
I am having a problem trying to erase unused disc space. When I do it from Windows Explorer right click menu, after about 20% of erasing cluster tips I get the Windows dialogue saying that Windows Explorer has a problem and has to close, and the error log shows a problem in a temp file with explorer.exe.mdmp. So I tried running if from the scheduler to run overnight starting at 12:01AM. This morning the message box was open again, this time saying that Eraser had a problem and had to close. The error report showed to files in a temp directory, eraser.exe.mdmp and appcompat.txt. I'd post screenshots but I can't see how to do it here.

The eraser log shows the erasing started at 12:01am, but because the app had to close there is not finishing time shown, so I have no idea how far into the process Eraser got, or if it got anywhere at all.

Any ideas what the problem is?

Regards,

JoeB
 
Hi jberaser

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Until you are able to give some more information such as your operating system and running programs you might want to try the following.

Run Eraser in safe mode, if that works then please write back and let me know. We can then try to work out what is conflicting with Eraser. To save time while testing you could choose the random single pass wipe.

Just out of interest if you are running Vista do you have shadow copy running also ?
 
Overwriter said:
Hi jberaser

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Until you are able to give some more information such as your operating system and running programs you might want to try the following.

Run Eraser in safe mode, if that works then please write back and let me know. We can then try to work out what is conflicting with Eraser. To save time while testing you could choose the random single pass wipe.

Just out of interest if you are running Vista do you have shadow copy running also ?
Click to expand...

Sorry, should have sent that other info. I'm running a Pentium 4, 2.6gh, 2 gig ram, 160gb SATA HD with 80gb free space on Windows XP Pro. And I was running Eraser using the one pass random when I had my problems. I can use eraser to erase files and folders with no problems, it's just the unused space that causes a problem.

Can I run eraser on free space when using the computer? If not, I won't be able to test it again until tonight. And if I'm going to run it in safe mode I'll have to do it from the right click menu of Windows Explorer.

Regards,

JB
 
Hi jberaser

It would be better not to use your computer when wiping free space, so leave it until tonight if you have to.

You didn’t mention what other software you were using at the same time, antivirus, anti spyware, backup or restore software etc. You might find disabling one of these whilst erasing might work.

Are you using XP’s system restore ?

After you have tried a few tests please write back and let me know what happened.
 
I also kill all non-essential processes with Windows Task Manager, to get the Windows Task Manager press the keys Ctrl+Alt+Delete. It allows better cleaning of the cluster tips and helps with programs that are scheduled to write to the disk..therefore interfering with the unused disc space wipe.
 
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