Vista Disk Cleanup Bug

[_spaceman_]

Has anyone on this forum encountered the dreaded Vista disk cleanup bug (documented at http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.ht...ssageID=2531664 and http://takeforum.info/pages/new69s4o637770.html) yet? I have, and I find it amazing that this bug isn't all over the tech news sites. I'll post my experience if anyone is interested, mine was on a Dell Inspiron 6400 running Vista Business Edition X86.

Essentially what seems to happen is the disk cleanup tool identifies half the victim's files/data (including core system files required for bootup) as windows error report files and attempts to "clean them up", rendering your computer unbootable and causing significant data loss. Mine occured after I upgraded from XP (I chose the upgrade option so Vista would recognize my dual-XP boot setup). Since doing a fresh install of Vista, the disk cleanup tool does not seem to be affected by the bug as it seems to give a reasonable Mb "assessment" of the total size of detected error report files (data deletion is preceeded by obscenely large amounts of error report files being detected - like 98Gb on a 25Gb partition). I don't have the cojones to actually run it, as I don't want to reinstall Vista again!

I recommend that people use the error report cleanup option with caution - if you're getting multiple Gb amounts of error report files being detected, don't run the tool!!!

UPDATE: My bad, it looks like there's already a thread on this topic: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=92767

Edited July 24, 2007 by _spaceman_

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Has anyone on this forum encountered the dreaded Vista disk cleanup bug (documented at http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.ht...ssageID=2531664 and http://takeforum.info/pages/new69s4o637770.html) yet? I have, and I find it amazing that this bug isn't all over the tech news sites. I'll post my experience if anyone is interested, mine was on a Dell Inspiron 6400 running Vista Business Edition X86.

Essentially what seems to happen is the disk cleanup tool identifies half the victim's files/data (including core system files required for bootup) as windows error report files and attempts to "clean them up", rendering your computer unbootable and causing significant data loss. Mine occured after I upgraded from XP (I chose the upgrade option so Vista would recognize my dual-XP boot setup). Since doing a fresh install of Vista, the disk cleanup tool does not seem to be affected by the bug as it seems to give a reasonable Mb "assessment" of the total size of detected error report files (data deletion is preceeded by obscenely large amounts of error report files being detected - like 98Gb on a 25Gb partition). I don't have the cojones to actually run it, as I don't want to reinstall Vista again!

I recommend that people use the error report cleanup option with caution - if you're getting multiple Gb amounts of error report files being detected, don't run the tool!!!

UPDATE: My bad, it looks like there's already a thread on this topic: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=92767

Yes any wise man would use Vista cautiously. I have too experienced the same luckily only on a test box. No I won't be adopting Vista until at least sp1 which is due any day now.

[Shub]

Has anyone on this forum encountered the dreaded Vista disk cleanup bug (documented at http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.ht...ssageID=2531664 and http://takeforum.info/pages/new69s4o637770.html) yet? I have, and I find it amazing that this bug isn't all over the tech news sites. I'll post my experience if anyone is interested, mine was on a Dell Inspiron 6400 running Vista Business Edition X86.

Essentially what seems to happen is the disk cleanup tool identifies half the victim's files/data (including core system files required for bootup) as windows error report files and attempts to "clean them up", rendering your computer unbootable and causing significant data loss. Mine occured after I upgraded from XP (I chose the upgrade option so Vista would recognize my dual-XP boot setup). Since doing a fresh install of Vista, the disk cleanup tool does not seem to be affected by the bug as it seems to give a reasonable Mb "assessment" of the total size of detected error report files (data deletion is preceeded by obscenely large amounts of error report files being detected - like 98Gb on a 25Gb partition). I don't have the cojones to actually run it, as I don't want to reinstall Vista again!

I recommend that people use the error report cleanup option with caution - if you're getting multiple Gb amounts of error report files being detected, don't run the tool!!!

UPDATE: My bad, it looks like there's already a thread on this topic: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=92767

After hours of research and cursing when my own disk cleanup decided to kill my OS, I figured I'd try to find a cure - and I have!

Open Regedit (start - run - regedit) and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches

There you will find 4 keys called Windows error reporting.

Now if you look closely you will see that one (or more) is missing the Folder string.

Now, lets get to fixing it.

If you are in the " Windows Error Reporting Archive Files " key

Right click - New - Expandable String Value.

Call it Folder and use the following entry:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive

If you are in the " Windows Error Reporting Queue Files " key

use: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue

If you're in the " Windows Error Reporting System Archive Files " key

use: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive

and if you're in the " Windows Error Reporting System Queue Files " key

use: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue

This worked for me atleast, i tried removing the Folder string and the bug was back, hope this helps guys!