Task Report indicates possible failure

[mmn]

I get the following message in Task Properties, Statistics after scheduler has run:

Task Report:

Processed = 6 times
Successful = 0 times
Terminated = 1 times
Possible failure = 5 times

Statistics (average):

Erased area = 137480642 kB
Data written = 206739046 kB
Write time = 24270.15 s
Write speed = 8518 kB/s

I have scheduler set to run 1 pass of pseudorandom data every night. The OS is Vista Premium. Why is Eraser reporting 0 successful overwrites and 5 possible failures even thought it has averaged 137.5 gb erased area? Thanks in advance for your help.

Mark

 

[Joel]

Because the free space erase doesn't erase any files. The failures are likely failed cluster tip erasures.

 

[nicwhitep]

I have the same problem, could you expand what failed cluster tip failures means exactly? Is there any way to overcome the failure.

 

[DavidHB]

I have the same problem, could you expand what failed cluster tip failures means exactly?

When Windows or any other OS writes a file to disk, it allocates the space for it in blocks or 'clusters' of a fixed size. So it is rare that the file will exactly fill the allocated space; usually, there is a bit of free space not occupied by the file at the end of the last cluster, which is the cluster tip. That space will not have been overwritten, and could contain sensitive user data (though it mostly doesn't). If so instructed, Eraser will erase cluster tips, but it can't do this if Windows or another program locks the file. On a running system, particularly on a system drive, this will happen more often than not.

Is there any way to overcome the failure.

Not really, but it is unlikely to be a major problem for most people. 100% security is unachievable. If your only problem is unerased cluster tips, you are probably at or above 99%.

Hope this helps.

David