Error: Windows XP /Access to the path is denied.

E

eraseduser

Member
Windows XP x86 (logged in with an Administrator account)

Eraser_6.0.7.1893


Hello,

I did the following: New Task ----> Add Data ---> Unused disk space (C:\)

Unused disk space (C:\), completed with errors

Error:
Session: Dienstag, 11. Mai 2010 06:52:50
Dienstag, 11. Mai 2010 07:19:58 Error Access to the path 'C:\[)sUFG=(3ljogXPD'_\asvp{N)6A~4PngHOn[' is denied.


The error happens when the free space on C:\ is almost zero. In C:\[)sUFG=(3ljogXPD'_\asvp{N)6A~4PngHOn[' all the unused disk space is filled with data.

Why does erasing the unused disk space fail?
 
This looks like the known issue with Eraser. During a free space wipe, when the drive is full (because Eraser has filled all the free space with files filled with pseudorandom data, thereby wiping whatever was there before), the OS sometimes either crashes Eraser or denies it access to the files it has created, and it cannot delete them. The workaraound is to delete (not erase) the files manually.

The files are randomly named and are in one or more randomly named folders in the root of the drive. The folder on your drive is (I guess) just such a folder, and the 'data' in it is random rubbish. Delete it, and all will be well. To check whether the wipe has left any genuine user data, run a file recovery program such as Recuva (which is free). Expect to find some data, but very probably none that raises any security or privacy concerns.

Joel is working hard on the underlying problem. I hope that we might see the back of it in the next release of Eraser.

David
 
DavidHB said:
The workaraound is to delete (not erase) the files manually.

Delete it, and all will be well. To check whether the wipe has left any genuine user data, run a file recovery program such as Recuva (which is free). Expect to find some data, but very probably none that raises any security or privacy concerns.

Joel is working hard on the underlying problem. I hope that we might see the back of it in the next release of Eraser.

David
Click to expand...

That is what I did. I deleted the pseudorandom data files manually and of course I checked with Recuva since I must be sure. But nothing was well because 177588 files where detected by Recuva, almost the same amount as before running Eraser. And this raises my security and privacy concerns of course.

This is really annoying because first I need a working and reliable programm and second wiping the unused disk space of large disks takes awful lot of time. If the result is rubbish what a waste of time.
 
eraseduser said:
I deleted the pseudorandom data files manually and of course I checked with Recuva since I must be sure. But nothing was well because 177588 files where detected by Recuva, almost the same amount as before running Eraser.
Click to expand...
Recuva will detect the files created by Eraser and then deleted, of course. But all they are is random data, not private information. It is pretty easy to see which files were generated by Eraser (nonsense file names and folders, or in the root folder) and which create potential privacy/security hazards. Did you find any in the latter category? Are there any personal user files you believed you had erased and which are recoverable (i.e. Recuva has actually recovered them, not that it says it can; in such a case Recuva often provides a preview)? Are there any messages in the Task log which say that such and such a file could not be erased for whatever reason?

I fear there may also be a misunderstanding. Erasing (whatever program does it) does not 'empty' the free space. It simply fills it with files of useless data. That data may be recoverable, but it is still useless. If all that Recuva finds is lots of useless files, Eraser has done its job.

eraseduser said:
And this raises my security and privacy concerns of course.
Click to expand...
But, given what I have said, it should not necessarily do so. Only if specific personal data you wanted to erase or wipe has been recovered is there an issue. And in such circumstances, the Eraser Team will wish to know exactly what happened. Like you, I am a user not a programmer. And in the dozens of experiments I have carried out during beta testing, with a number of versions of Eraser on three different operating systems, I have not had a single case in which I can demonstrate that Eraser, having reported that a task has completed, has failed to destroy data I wanted destroyed.

eraseduser said:
This is really annoying because first I need a working and reliable program and second wiping the unused disk space of large disks takes awful lot of time. If the result is rubbish what a waste of time.
Click to expand...
My experience is that Eraser is a working program, albeit one that can still be improved. And, if the result is rubbish in the sense I have described, that is in fact the result that users want - private data put permanently beyond recovery.

David
 
Recuva did only detect a few files created by Eraser and then deleted, but all the rest are my old files.

On my Computer with Windows 7 x64: If I use Eraser to wipe unused disk space and then check with Recuva, Recuva does not find one file.

On my Computer with Windows XP x86: If I use Eraser I have the described problem.
 
I had this problem once again:

Windows XP x86 (logged in with a user account, no Computer Administrator account)
Eraser_6.0.7.1893

I did the following: New Task ----> Add Data ---> Unused disk space (C:\)

Unused disk space (C:\), completed with errors
Error Access to the path 'C:\[)sUFG=(3ljogXPD'_' is denied.


So I decided to use Eraser to erase 'C:\[)sUFG=(3ljogXPD'_' with all its files using

Select Data to Erase ---> Files in Folder ----> Include Mask: *:*


When the wiping was finished the following was left:

C:\[)sUFG=(3ljogXPD'_

adY9lPmDJ8({+YH=-a
Ikpdh6o44=T--))N9R
aTZQDq+-!gN{,gb+2V
dAE6lx4h0t[vRCf7QY
yk~GjA6H}-MT+cvIOr
l2Rdqo12LcjS j=JAQ
]BlzmDxkiA6wFycru}
8f9QHMmHHUJoa!0rxz
{j7Zk{d'{(nQp68=oz
axgZIrefa7bhr8EbMc
ud 60ARuRUoW{PzT,G
dkWUqZ'P6RJiWcb3_Y
o1TLaFSsN'OS4_h zt

each of these files having 0 kB.


Doing it again left the following:

C:\[)sUFG=(3ljogXPD'_

Eord2EM`yG8'1q]3ol, 0 kB


Doing it again deleted the last file and the directory.


What is wrong?
 
eraseduser said:
What is wrong?
Click to expand...
In my view, nothing at all.

If all that is happening is that Eraser is leaving traces of the files it created that Recuva can see, there is no problem. I too have seen inconsistencies in the results from Recuva following different wipes with different versions of Eraser on different OSs. I cannot detect any pattern in these inconsistencies, and I cannot say whether they arise from Eraser from Recuva or from the file system (or, indeed, from some interaction between them). What I can see from them, however, is that Eraser is doing its job.

David
 
DavidHB said:
Recuva will detect the files created by Eraser and then deleted, of course. But all they are is random data, not private information. David
Click to expand...

I have no problems with the pseudorandom data files detected by Recuva. I know that these pseudorandom data files do not contain any private information.

When the wiping failed and Eraser completed the task "Unused disk space" with errors the pseudorandom directory with its pseudorandom data files remained on the disk and the free disk space was almost zero.

DavidHB said:
This looks like the known issue with Eraser. During a free space wipe, when the drive is full (because Eraser has filled all the free space with files filled with pseudorandom data, thereby wiping whatever was there before), the OS sometimes either crashes Eraser or denies it access to the files it has created, and it cannot delete them. The workaraound is to delete (not erase) the files manually.David
Click to expand...

I ran Eraser to delete the pseudorandom data files and afterwards ran Recuva.

Recuva should have shown only pseudorandom data files. But this was not the case.

Instead Recuva did only detect a few pseudorandom data files created by Eraser and then deleted, but all the rest are old files.

This inconsistency is a problem. If Recuva would only show the pseudorandam data files - believe me - I would not post here.

On my Computer with Windows XP x86 (logged in with an Administrator account) the free space wipe of Eraser_6.0.7.1893 does not work, and let Eraser erase the pseudorandom data files does not lead to the result that Recuva only shows pseudorandom data files.

DavidHB said:
Only if specific personal data you wanted to erase or wipe has been recovered is there an issue. And in such circumstances, the Eraser Team will wish to know exactly what happened.
Click to expand...

The name of my old files can tell what I did private.

I made Unused disk space C:\

The directory was C:\b{01Mk0XUkqeiY3aFD with 61 pseudorandom data files each having 221.184 kB.

Recuva does not show 61 pseudorandom data files but only 6. All the rest are old files.
 
Did you by any chance enable the plausible deniability option in the Settings?
 
 

Attachments

The problem is that when the error happens the item: 'Old resident file system table files' (wiping the file system table) is interrupted by the error and not completed.

The result is that the file names stored in the system file table (MFT) are not deleted. These file names can be compromising.

If someone wants his unused disk space to be wiped it is always because someone wants to get rid of all traces of files and names of files.

For the moment I am not satisfied with Eraser.
 
I responded to this in the other thread.

David
 
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