Vista - Disk Cleanup Bug

05-14-2008

>> Somehow MS needs to address this and perhaps set a Flag in Disk Cleanup no matter what causes this to happen

Yes. I certainly agree. If the "Folder" key, or the "FileList" value is absent (I have enough evidence that certain registry cleaners cause this), Disk Cleanup takes *.* as the default and cleans up the entire drive.

<MSDN>
If this value is absent, the root folder of the current volume is used. The DDEVCF_DOSUBDIRS flag is needed in that case to search the entire drive.
</MSDN>

That's a bad idea IMHO.

--
Regards,

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

"SG" <sorry@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:%23U%23oiWbtIHA.4952@xxxxxx

Quote:

>>>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

Quote:

>
> SG;3730438 Wrote:

Quote:

>> 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...

Quote:

>> >
>> > This has just happened to me.Ive lost alot of stuff.Lucky I have

>> another

Quote:

>> > HD with xp on it and I could boot into that and download some

>> undelete

Quote:

>> > programs.Freeundelete is a good one.It will get back 99% of your

>> files

Quote:

>> > if you dont transfer anything at all to the HD with the deleted files

>> on

Quote:

>> > 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

Quote:

>> > could copy it.At least I got important pw's etc first.However now I

>> have

Quote:

>> > removed vista completely.And am sending it back to MS 1 year later

>> with

Quote:

>> > 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

Quote:

>> > a fatal fault and they shouldnt be selling software with bugs as

>> serious

Quote:

>> > as these.This software is still not even a beta version if it has

>> errors

Quote:

>> > this serious where the software itself formats your whole computer
>> > without you even knowing.This is not a hardware fault hacking or

>> virus

Quote:

>> > this is a fault in vista and I want a refund.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Boris Yeltsen

>
> 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
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> BorisYeltsen's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=49194
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=799645
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

dan1701a · 05-14-2008

I guess I'm pretty lucky - I have used Disk Cleanup once on my new laptop, but never used a registry cleaner. I had the same "per user" and "System archived" error reporting files, and cleaned them up, but they were nowhere near as big as the ones shown by the OP. Maybe "lucky" isn't the right word, because typically I use registry cleaners to take care of the trash left behind by uninstalling programs. Guess I won't be doing that with Vista.

05-14-2008	#21 (permalink)
Ramesh, MS-MVP n/a posts	Re: Disk Cleanup Bug >> Somehow MS needs to address this and perhaps set a Flag in Disk Cleanup no matter what causes this to happen Yes. I certainly agree. If the "Folder" key, or the "FileList" value is absent (I have enough evidence that certain registry cleaners cause this), Disk Cleanup takes . as the default and cleans up the entire drive. <MSDN> If this value is absent, the root folder of the current volume is used. The DDEVCF_DOSUBDIRS flag is needed in that case to search the entire drive. </MSDN> That's a bad idea IMHO. -- Regards, Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User] The Winhelponline Blog: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog Windows® Troubleshooting: http://www.winhelponline.com "SG" <sorry@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:%23U%23oiWbtIHA.4952@xxxxxx Quote: Quote: Quote: >>>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 Quote: > > SG;3730438 Wrote: Quote: >> 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... Quote: >> > >> > This has just happened to me.Ive lost alot of stuff.Lucky I have >> another Quote: >> > HD with xp on it and I could boot into that and download some >> undelete Quote: >> > programs.Freeundelete is a good one.It will get back 99% of your >> files Quote: >> > if you dont transfer anything at all to the HD with the deleted files >> on Quote: >> > 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 Quote: >> > could copy it.At least I got important pw's etc first.However now I >> have Quote: >> > removed vista completely.And am sending it back to MS 1 year later >> with Quote: >> > 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 Quote: >> > a fatal fault and they shouldnt be selling software with bugs as >> serious Quote: >> > as these.This software is still not even a beta version if it has >> errors Quote: >> > this serious where the software itself formats your whole computer >> > without you even knowing.This is not a hardware fault hacking or >> virus Quote: >> > this is a fault in vista and I want a refund. >> > >> > >> > -- >> > Boris Yeltsen > > 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 > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > BorisYeltsen's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=49194 > View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=799645 > > http://forums.techarena.in >
My System Specs

05-14-2008	#22 (permalink)
dan1701a Vista Home Premium 32-bit 4 posts	Re: Disk Cleanup Bug I guess I'm pretty lucky - I have used Disk Cleanup once on my new laptop, but never used a registry cleaner. I had the same "per user" and "System archived" error reporting files, and cleaned them up, but they were nowhere near as big as the ones shown by the OP. Maybe "lucky" isn't the right word, because typically I use registry cleaners to take care of the trash left behind by uninstalling programs. Guess I won't be doing that with Vista.
My System Specs

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