Vista - Disk Cleanup Bug

I have the same issue as Jim Johnson. I am not very computer literate though.
This happened twice to me now. I need help. Everything seems to be there, but
I can't open any of my programs and all my personal files are missing. Like
Jim, I also lost all icons and programs, had to use my vista disk to load and
repair windows, then tried to fix it with system restore. Everything seems to
be there, but acts like its not and needs to be reloaded. I would like to get
all my files back and my programs working again without reinstalling them all
again. The last time this happened it was very difficult to fix, because I
had to uninstall some programs that wouldn't uninstall with this issue. Did
anyone figure out the problem and how to get it all back?

"Jim Johnson - Serenity Consulting" wrote:

Hi all

I came across this forum after having lost the entire contents of my H/D including the o/s, (vista Premium), yes I used the disk cleanup utility!

Like previous posters, I noticed that, "Per User Archived Error Reporting" and "Per User Queued Error Reporting" were listed in the delete unwanted items options, they showed at least 21gb of data on each option, I was puzzled as to what they were, and now wish I'd found this forum before I pressed the GO button. Ive since found other forums with entries similar to this,
I wonder why a patch isn't released, or would that mean that MS will be admitting liability for probable data lose exposing them to multi law suites?

Two days later and Ive now just finished setting up the O/S again, and my temper and astonishment at a Bug this bad that can be released on a "Finished" product is beyond belief. after 12yrs in PC's I have never even came across a VIRUS that has done this sort of damage before. I would love to contact MS about this and rant at them, but for £46 a time, I wouldn't feel any better.

PS: I do back up, I lost no data, and only had the inconvenience of setting my OS, but the next person might.

yours astounded and bemused
Kev

get ccleaner and don't use disk cleaner.
here's the link CCleaner - Home
it's free and works on vista.

Many thanks Shub! I thought it was just me(!) but the experiences of other posters above are painfully reminiscent of mine last Summer when Disk Cleanup decided to destroy most of my files, forcing me to reformat and reinstall pretty much everything! Bonus is that DC no longer has to trawl through '114Gb' of erroneous files and thus completes much quicker!

Boris,

Are you saying Vista formatted your hard drive all by it's self without you
even knowing it?

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

"Boris Yeltsen" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:e62bd5c7ba425b27ea9b628158aa5eb6@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/se...-registration/
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/ye...cleanup-issue/

Although Disk Cleanup shouldn't enumerate all the file system objects for deletion, registry cleaners are to blame for the most part.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
The Winhelponline Blog: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog
Windows® Troubleshooting: http://www.winhelponline.com

"Boris Yeltsen" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message news:e62bd5c7ba425b27ea9b628158aa5eb6@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

This has just happened to me.Ive lost alot of stuff.Lucky I have another
HD with xp on it and I could boot into that and download some undelete
programs.Freeundelete is a good one.It will get back 99% of your files
if you dont transfer anything at all to the HD with the deleted files on
it.
However silly me transfered files back to the affected HD for
storage.And of course that overwrote much of the undelete info before I
could copy it.At least I got important pw's etc first.However now I have
removed vista completely.And am sending it back to MS 1 year later with
my receipt and a letter of demand for a refund for the cost of the
software and if not to take legal action.This is not just a bug this is
a fatal fault and they shouldnt be selling software with bugs as serious
as these.This software is still not even a beta version if it has errors
this serious where the software itself formats your whole computer
without you even knowing.This is not a hardware fault hacking or virus
this is a fault in vista and I want a refund.


--
Boris Yeltsen

If the OP is saying Vista formatted their hard drive through Disk Cleanup
and can prove this to me then if MS doesn't reimburse their monies, send me
the disk and I will. I'll bet you I can advertise it on EBay and make a
fortune given the fact of what we have already seen sale there. Lets see, a
piece of Toast sold for thousands, a Walking Cane that was haunted went for
a lot too, so if I advertize it right, something like The Magical Vista Disk
and describe what it can do, I should get a good return on my investment.

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

"Ramesh, MS-MVP" <ramesh@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uTJOn9NtIHA.1768@xxxxxx
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/se...-registration/
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/ye...cleanup-issue/

Although Disk Cleanup shouldn't enumerate all the file system objects for
deletion, registry cleaners are to blame for the most part.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
The Winhelponline Blog: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog
Windows® Troubleshooting: http://www.winhelponline.com

"Boris Yeltsen" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:e62bd5c7ba425b27ea9b628158aa5eb6@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

This has just happened to me.Ive lost alot of stuff.Lucky I have another
HD with xp on it and I could boot into that and download some undelete
programs.Freeundelete is a good one.It will get back 99% of your files
if you dont transfer anything at all to the HD with the deleted files on
it.
However silly me transfered files back to the affected HD for
storage.And of course that overwrote much of the undelete info before I
could copy it.At least I got important pw's etc first.However now I have
removed vista completely.And am sending it back to MS 1 year later with
my receipt and a letter of demand for a refund for the cost of the
software and if not to take legal action.This is not just a bug this is
a fatal fault and they shouldnt be selling software with bugs as serious
as these.This software is still not even a beta version if it has errors
this serious where the software itself formats your whole computer
without you even knowing.This is not a hardware fault hacking or virus
this is a fault in vista and I want a refund.


--
Boris Yeltsen

"Boris Yeltsen" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:e62bd5c7ba425b27ea9b628158aa5eb6@xxxxxx-gateway.com...
Boris,

You need to slug down some more Vodka and learn how to use and
understand Vista. As the old saying goes, "the biggest problem with
computers lies between the computer and the chair." I'm sorry if this
offends you but that's usually the case.
You said "The software itself formats your whole computer without you
even knowing." I don't think so. Good luck with your legal action.

C.B.


--
It is the responsibility and duty of everyone to help the underprivileged
and unfortunate among us.

SG;3730438 Wrote:Yes.I was running disk cleanup utility.It told me it was going to
delete error reporting files ONLY.Which I had error reporting turned
off anyway.
I had the same problem as these other people with there being large
amount of data in the error reporting section.
I thought this was just a bug in Vista User Interface showing the wrong
numbers.
Of course being a full paid MS operating system I thought this would
never happen as it would always take precautions to protect from
destructive format of the whole system from ITSELF.Well it doesnt.
All that needs to happen to format the whole HD during next disk
cleanup without a person knowing is for 1 folder name to be removed
from the 4 registry entries in the registry section for error
reporting.
If this was due to registry cleaners it would remove the whole registry
key.Not just remove the folder name and replace it with *.* .
This is a vista error.This shows the software is defective to so easily
make it possible to format the HD.Without even telling the person.
Yet dont even have any aknowledgement of the serious issue from MS and
first reports of it doing this to people I can find go back to start of
2007.
The people most affected by this are the ones who have sheduled
cleanups at night while they sleep.They wake up in the morning with an
empty hard drive.
I will be successfull in getting a refund because I have the old drive
as evidence with the file system emptied, folders intact with no data,
with no viruses etc, and have extracted and saved to dvd the log of it
deleting the whole system.
It says disk utility deleting my documents music videos c:\program
files etc etc.
Vista is not safe to use if it can do this what else is there that
hasnt been found yet.Its to much risk of data loss.
Would have to backup every hour which is pointless.


--
BorisYeltsen
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>>>If this was due to registry cleaners it would remove the whole registry
key.Not just remove the folder name and replace it with *.* .<<<

So what you are saying is Registry Cleaners are "safe" and 100% accurate.
Without knowing the code in any Registry Cleaner out there how can you say
what they are capable of removing?. In both sites Ramesh posted both XP and
Vista machines had cleaners ran on them and that's were the problem lies.
Disk Cleanup did what it was design to so, delete what was reported to it
and because these cleaners had messed with the settings it gets it info from
how would Disk Cleanup know any different. I'll grant you this is a
"serious" problem and from searching the Net it doesn't seem to be wide
spread, thus it may not have brought enough attention to be addressed.
Somehow MS needs to address this and perhaps set a Flag in Disk Cleanup no
matter what causes this to happen, Registry Cleaners or whatever and to
alert the user in some way. If it cannot be done through Disk Cleanup then
somehow it needs to be set through the Registry where those Keys cannot be
changed by any software.

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

"BorisYeltsen" <BorisYeltsen.39dzzd@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BorisYeltsen.39dzzd@xxxxxx