won't erase folders - access denied

[joelallen123]

Hi,

FIrst of all, I'm sorry if you get this question a lot.

I'm trying to erase on another hard drive which I have plugged in through a USB. When erasing, it gives me errors that it can't erase certain files and subfolders and that access is denied. I checked the box that forces locked files to unlock for erasing and it still doesn't work.

Thanks for your help,
Joel

 

[Joel]

You can try to exit Eraser (from the notification area icon), and restart Eraser as an administrator (Right-click the Eraser shortcut, Run as Administrator) before running the task again. If that doesn't work, most likely you'll need to reassign permissions on those affected folders. Alternatively, if your intent is to get rid of the whole drive, you can format the drive and do an unused space erase, which may be cleaner than erasing all files (due to shadow copies, MFT/FAT entry gaps etc)