Hard drive 99% full after running Eraser, b4 was 25% full

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FredricJLowe

New Member
I installed and ran Eraser 6.0 the other night, It didn't finish. I reviewed some of the forum questions and for Vista it said to Run as Administrator which I did. It completed with errors. Erase then stopped working. I uninstalled and reinstalled and then I was getting memory errors. My 450gb drive that before Eraser had about 330gb free was down to less than 2mb. Dell automatically deleted 3mb. I looked for a folder called Garbage but there was none when I did a search. I then searched for all files since around Jan. 28 and I saw over 1500 that occupied 216mb of space. I sent these to the recycle bin and then rechecked the C drive. Now I have over 330gb of free space. The folder that remains is now empty and is called: C:\WP76EAu!0DU94hR)9m. My question is this the garbage that you referred to in other posts Joel?

One of your replies said to delete system restore. But how do you do that and if you did that, how could you bring your computer back to a previous last known good configuration if something happened to the existing configuration?
I unistalled Eraser and will await your reply as to what to do now. When I reinstall it, and run it to wipe the hard drive free space, when I get the completed with errors what do I need to do?

Will the free space always hog up the hard drive and must I always go back and search for them to delete them if I was to run a eraser wipe hard drive task monthly?

Thank you for your help on this Joel.
 
Yes, that's the folder. Delete it.

I didn't mention anything about system restore, could you link me?
 
Hi Joel,

I found it under the FAQs:

Report this postReply with quote[v5] Why do I have reduced Free Space After Using Eraser?
by Overwriter » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:39 pm

If you have used the wipe free space option in Eraser and subsequently noticed that your “free space” has dramatically reduced then try one or all of the following.

Search your computer for the following file and delete it.

~erafswd.tmp


Delete and disable system restore.

Empty your Recycle Bin.

Run Eraser wipe free space again.

Make sure you have the latest version of Eraser by checking here.


I was reading more of the posts that others are having using Vista. You said a nightly build 6.2 should fix this problem. Do you mean that the large garbage folder that fills up the entire hard drive when Eraser wiped will not be there any longer? Or will there always be a garbage folder everytime yiou do a wipe unsued space? If tjhere will always be a garbage folder, how do you know what the name of the file is? I had no clue, but when I did a search of files after Jan. 26 I just highlighted all of them since properties said it was 216mb.
 
FredricJLowe said:
I found it under the FAQs
Click to expand...
That was for v5... I should create a new one for v6.

FredricJLowe said:
Do you mean that the large garbage folder that fills up the entire hard drive when Eraser wiped will not be there any longer? Or will there always be a garbage folder everytime yiou do a wipe unsued space? If tjhere will always be a garbage folder, how do you know what the name of the file is?
Click to expand...
I don't: and it's by design. We don't want the files to be obvious to people. I can hence only describe what the folder may look like, not what it is called. The task log would have the name of the folder, however.
 
Joel,

Eraser stopped working as the hard drive filled up with the garbage folder. I uninstalled it. I found the garbage folder as you know from a previous post and have about 320gb free of my 450gb hard drive. I downloaded the latest nightly build and rebooted the computer. But I received an error message that Erase is not working. I right cliked on the Recyle Bin and tried to open Eraser but still received the same error message. What do I need to do for this to work again?
 
I think for this you need to delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Eraser 6\Task List.ersx

Getting the new nightly build won't fix the errors in getting rid of these files... there hasn't been a fix yet, if that's your intent. I've checked the code paths and it already does attempt to prevent such errors from occurring but it is rather sensitive (especially on > Vista systems)
 
Joel,

I did a search for %LOCALAPPDATA%\Eraser 6\Task List.ersx but it didn't find it. I also searched the registry but to no avail.
 
Did you define any custom erasure methods? Then go to the registry and delete HKCU\Software\Eraser\Eraser 6
 
No I didn't define any custom erasure methods. I copied and pasted your path to the Find in Regedit but nothing was found. I then did a Find for Eraser and nothing was there after I uinnstalled Eraser 6 nightly build. What would you suggest I do now Joel. Thank you for all of your assistance on this.
 
What's in C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local? Any Eraser folder there? I'm presuming you're using Vista/7 - the search function is less than accurate. You need to enter the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Eraser 6 path directly into the explorer address bar.
 
I entered the path but search didn't find it in Explore in Vista. But I did find the folder and deleted it along with the task list.ersx you mentioned. It had 15mb in it. Also in the Erase folder was the crash reports which contained over 3gb.
 
That's the file we're looking for. There's no need to search it -- it's set to that folder, and I use %LOCALAPPDATA% because that environment variable is set regardless of Windows localisation. Does Eraser start now?
 
I dowloaded and installed the latest nightly buiild and then rebooted. I right cliked on recycle bin and I see Eraser but there are no submenus to the right. It just has the right facing black arrow. I wanted to try it on the Recycle Bin. So how can I get this to Erase the Recycle Bin? When I cliked on the desktop icon for Eraser, the Eraser Schedule appears and it is set for the Guttman Lite pass, Pseudorandom, and the check mark is set to integrate into Windows Explorer. I didn't schedule anything as one of the posts said It has to be run as system administrator for it to finish. That was the problem the first time, it just stopped after about 75-80%.

Now, I don't see that %LOCALAPPDATA% file in the Local folder. In fact, there isn't an Erase folder there.

So I didn't try to see if Eraser works until I hear if it is properly installed. I'll let you know if it works once I hear back on this post. Thank you Joel.
 
FredricJLowe said:
I dowloaded and installed the latest nightly buiild and then rebooted. I right cliked on recycle bin and I see Eraser but there are no submenus to the right. It just has the right facing black arrow. I wanted to try it on the Recycle Bin. So how can I get this to Erase the Recycle Bin?
Click to expand...
Is there anything inside the bin? Eraser's context menu won't appear if the recycle bin is empty.

FredricJLowe said:
Now, I don't see that %LOCALAPPDATA% file in the Local folder. In fact, there isn't an Erase folder there.
Click to expand...
Just type that (exactly) into the address bar inside the explorer window and hit enter. Don't worry about that if Eraser is starting fine though.
 
There wasn't anything in the recycle bin. I deleted an Excel and then tried it and the menu appeared. It started the task in the taskbar and said it was executed.

There isn't %LOCALAPPDATA% in Explorer. I see the Eraser icon in the taskbar now which I didn't when I was getting the "Eraser has stopped working" error message. I am in the midst of running Eraser now to erase unused disk space with pseudorandom 1 pass. It has been running for about 2 hrs now and is about 12% completed. I'll let it run as I go to sleep now. I'll keep you posted when I awake in about 8 hours of its progress.
 
FredricJLowe said:
There isn't %LOCALAPPDATA% in Explorer.
Click to expand...
Well, key it into the address bar ad verbatim and it'll expand to a path, which does exist.
 
OK Joel, the scan completed 100% but said it completed with errors. I looked at the logs and the Error messages were that it couldn't access the cluster tips for a bunch of files. Do you want me to paste the log?
I didn't understand what you advised me to do in the preceding post, to enter it verbatim and the path will expand. I copied and pasted that file name from your post. Do you mean I need to type it rather than copy & paste? And what do you mean that the path will expland?
 
FredricJLowe said:
OK Joel, the scan completed 100% but said it completed with errors. I looked at the logs and the Error messages were that it couldn't access the cluster tips for a bunch of files. Do you want me to paste the log?
Click to expand...
There are some files on the system drive that Windows (Vista and 7) just won't let you access. Others can only be accessed if you run the program as administrator (aka "run elevated"). So your results could be quite normal.

FredricJLowe said:
I didn't understand what you advised me to do in the preceding post, to enter it verbatim and the path will expand. I copied and pasted that file name from your post. Do you mean I need to type it rather than copy & paste? And what do you mean that the path will expand?
Click to expand...
If you type (or paste) %LOCALAPPDATA% into the Windows Explorer address bar (to replace in full what is already there) Windows will recognise it as a defined 'environment variable', which it will interpret or expand it so that it takes you to the folder C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Local, which is where you will find an Eraser 6 folder containing the file Task List.ersx. The advantages of using the environment variable are (1) it is shorter, (2) the path description is does not change with the user name and (3) it ignores any folder option to hide hidden files and folders, and AppData is a hidden folder.

Hope this helps,

David
 
Thank you David. Yes, that helped. So copied that file and pasted it into the address bar and it expanding and searched for that path, but there was nothing there. Could it be that I deleted that folder in a post above to Joel when I found the task list.ersx? I then searched for that in my entire computer in Explorer but still nothing appeared.

So if Vista doesn't let you access some of those files, does that mean that when I erased the free space that it really isn't entirely erased and could be recovered somehow?

I ran the program as administrator as one of the posts had said to do for Vista.
 
FredricJLowe said:
Thank you David. Yes, that helped. So copied that file and pasted it into the address bar and it expanding and searched for that path, but there was nothing there. Could it be that I deleted that folder in a post above to Joel when I found the task list.ersx? I then searched for that in my entire computer in Explorer but still nothing appeared.
Click to expand...
Odd. Are you sure that no C:\Users\<your user name>\Appdata\Local\Eraser 6 folder exists? I defer to Joel, but I thought that Eraser needs that folder to run. Windows Search by default doesn't look for or in hidden folders. Also make sure that in Folder Options (in Control Panel), you have ticked the box to enable hidden files to be seen; this is unticked by default.

FredricJLowe said:
So if Vista doesn't let you access some of those files, does that mean that when I erased the free space that it really isn't entirely erased and could be recovered somehow?
Click to expand...
No, space marked by the file system as free is wiped. A cluster tip is the bit at the end of the space allocated for an existing file which is not used by the file data; space is allocated in chunks, and file lengths are rarely an exact multiple of whatever size of chunk is in use, so there is almost always a bit of the allocated file space left over (Note: this is a very simplified explanation!). If the file is inaccessible; its cluster tip will not be erasable. As this applies to only a small proportion of (mostly system) files, the chances that the cluster tip will contain some of your private data in recoverable form (even by the cleverest specialists) are pretty low. My tidy mind, no doubt like yours, would like anything I want erased to be erased; unfortunately, the good folk at Microsoft have different ideas.

FredricJLowe said:
I ran the program as administrator as one of the posts had said to do for Vista.
Click to expand...
For some things, apparently, that doesn't help.

David
 
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