View Full Version : Shredder tool failure!
Lancelot
2006-11-05, 03:46
Hi
I am deleting data from the external hard disk with the "secure shredder" tool. This worked fine in the beginning, but after deleting a couple of GB I started to get more and more problems.
It seems there is a limit how much the shredder can handle at one time, so I had to close Spybot many times in order to empty the shredder window and restart it to continue the work.
But at a point the problems started. It came to a point where Spybot simply closed itself down when I tried to shred some files. Several of the problem files was located in an old backup of temporary internet files. I had to delete them the ordinary way. (I forgot to delete the temp files before I made the backup. A mistake, I know.)
One very large file (I don't remember in what folder or what sort of file it was) became a problem, the shredder would not shred it until I renamed the ending to txt.
The last problem I have now, is a backup file 5.8 GB large. When I try to shred it, Spybot shuts down.
Is this a bug? I have tried to reboot but it does not solve anything. I do not suspect it is a malware problem, I am an advanced user and know more than the average user how to avoid risks and protect my pc. Norton, Spybot and Ad-aware does not find anything of interest. I also use WinPatrol.
Lancelot
2006-11-05, 04:10
I found another thread where heat is said to cause similar problems. I do not think temperature is the reason in my case. I had the pc completely shut off for 15 minutes and made a new try. Spybot shut itself down again when trying to shred that backup file.
This can`t be a bug.
How much `Number of shreds` are you using ?
spybotsandra
2006-11-06, 09:40
Hello,
Some users have reported that the Secure Shredder freeze if they shred big files.
They also have told us that if they close the tool with the Taskmanager and then open it again,
some files are shredded and that they could use it normally again after that.
Can you confirm this?
If you like, we would recommend an other tool for deleting sensitive data. The tool "Eraser".
http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/
Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
Lancelot
2006-11-06, 20:39
This can`t be a bug.
How much `Number of shreds` are you using ?
Only five. That's the default number and I guess anything above that is not necessary.
Lancelot
2006-11-06, 21:05
Hello,
Some users have reported that the Secure Shredder freeze if they shred big files.
They also have told us that if they close the tool with the Taskmanager and then open it again,
some files are shredded and that they could use it normally again after that.
Can you confirm this?
Only a few times when Spybot froze and did not respond, I closed it with the task manager. Most of the times Spybot did not freeze, it just closed itself down.
I am deleting old backups of a computer. There isn't much sensitive data (if any at all?), but instead of searching for possible sensitive data I just shred everything.
When I use the shredder, several things may happen:
1. The shredder works perfectly.
In the beginning it worked perfectly. Maybe I did not put so many files into the shredder. The problems occured a little later same day.
2. The shredder works (more or less).
I move a folder into the shredder, the folder may contain many sub-folders and a few thousands of files. The total size may be 50 - 1000 MB. The shredder typically shred 50 - 80 % of the files, and I have to repeat the process.
3. The shredder will not do anything, Spybot quits.
This happened many times. It also happened every time I tried to shred a particular folder in the temp internet files folder. Shredding other folders worked, but this folder would not let Spybot shred it. The folder did not contain very much files. Restarting Spybot did not help, the same happened each time.
4. The shredder will not do anything, Spybot stops responding (it does not quit).
This happened several times. I don't remember what I tried to shred in thos cases. But I believe it was a single 5.8 GB large file.
How large amounts of data can the shredder handle? From my experience one single 5.8 GB file is too large. Spybot either quit or froze.
noel-pr7
2006-11-07, 01:36
Lancelot, you may want to use another tool for shredding files. I use the built-in Shred feature of xplorer2 to wipe out files off my machines.
Lancelot
2006-11-07, 03:39
Thank you all, I think I'll try the "Eraser" recommended by spybotsandra. :)
How large amounts of data can the shredder handle? From my experience one single 5.8 GB file is too large. Spybot either quit or froze.
I think that Shredder can handle 1 GB (1024 MB).
Where did you get that backup ?
Lancelot
2006-11-08, 00:22
I think that Shredder can handle 1 GB (1024 MB).
Where did you get that backup ?
It's a backup created by Win XP. The file name is Backup.bkf
Most of the other backups are however created by third-party backup programs.
Lancelot
2006-11-08, 00:32
Can I post a suggestion here? I hope someone in the Spybot development team will read it.
Please improve the documentation in Spybot. Make it clear for the user that this shredder has its limitations.
And one little problem is that after shredding many files, the shredder window are full of completed jobs. In order to clear the window, Spybot needs to be shut down and restarted. This should not be necessary.