Altap Salamander Support Forums

I have noticed that when deleting a file locked by another program SS gives me a meessage, but then deletes the file as soon as the file is no longer locked. I was running Videoredo editing an mpg and saved out an edited version. I tried to delete the original mpg, but got the message that the file was locked. When I closed VideoRedo, SS deleted that file, but also all other mpg files in that directory.

I immediately tired to use undelete. I was able to undelete some files to another drive, but several files had 0 bytes. I have tried numerous other undelete and ntfs data recovery utilities, but none can help. The MFT and Alloc entries are there but the reference to any blocks seem to be gone. I did nothing else that would have written to that drive.

I also have done several disk tests, and they all report no problems. I have used SS for years without any issues. I lost 150GB of video!

How did you delete your files? Using Delete (Recycle bin) or Shift+Delete (immediate delete)?

I suppose you have default "Move all deleted files and directories to the Recycle Bin" option turned on in Options > Configuration > Recycle Bin?

We have no single report of this type from our users. It looks like some software/hardware malfunction on your computer (virus, partition corruption, other factors). Servant Salamander will not delete files you have not selected. It will not delete any files spontaneously (at least you must click the Retry button).

brodgers wrote:I have used SS for years without any issues. I lost 150GB of video!

I have a few questions:

1. What OS do you have?
2. How many physical disks do you have and what capacities?
3. How are you disks partitioned - what file system do you have on them? You mentioned NTFS on broken drive...
4. You mentioned that you have used SS for years without issues. How long do you use SS with your actual HW configuration, where did you notice this problem?
5. What partition/disk was affected?
6. You lost 150GB on one partition I suppose. Did you hear about problems with disk with capacities over 137GB? See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=303013

as far as i can remember I had the same problem.
i tried to delete one file that was locked and after i closed the locking application another files were missing.

what did i do: (as far as i remember)
i had virtualdub in frameserver mode connected to cinemacraft
i redered a mpg test seqence and viewed the result in a second instance of virtualdubmod.
after that i rendered the complete file to another name.
then i tried to delete the testfile and got the errormessage. so i closed virtulaldubmod and suddenly the final version was away. (not the testfile i tried to delete.)
i know this sounds like a user mistake but i swear it wan't.

[*]What OS do you have?: WINXP
[*]How many physical disks do you have and what capacities?
[*]How are you disks partitioned - what file system do you have on them?
1) C:\ 40GB ntfs
2) D:\ 190GB ntfs
3) E:\ & F:\ 2x80 hardware RAID splitted to 19GB fat32 and 134GB ntfs
4) network 200GB (dosn't work correctly, maybe a crashed head, i didn't find the time to save all datas stored on this drive, so this drive is still running)
5) network 120GB
6) network 8GB

[*]What partition/disk was affected?
disk 3 (on drive f:\ the 134GB ntfs) optimized for speed, videoediting
but it was not a failure of the system and it wasn't the fist time ss deleted files after closing the application that locks the file.
before ss i used the old wincommander and as far as i know this never happend.

[*]You lost 150GB on one partition I suppose. Did you hear about problems with disk with capacities over 137GB? See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=303013.
until now i only lost one 2.6GB file and a view small image files(fotunately nothing really uniqe ).
i have never heard of any problems until your entry - thanks.

What Servant Salamander does (in case you are not using Recycle Bin) when you're deleting a file:
1) call the DeleteFile API
2) if function fails, retrieve error information and display error message box
2.1) handle Retry / Skip / Skip All / Cancel buttons

That's all folks
The only potential for a bug is on the Windows side: DeleteFile returns an error state and somehow deletes the file later (when it is unlocked).

Jan Rysavy wrote:The only potential for a bug is on the Windows side: DeleteFile returns an error state and somehow deletes the file later (when it is unlocked).

Strange, problem of .me is that at the end deleted file is not the one which was previously locked...

Jan Rysavy wrote:What Servant Salamander does (in case you are not using Recycle Bin) when you're deleting a file:
1) call the DeleteFile API
2) if function fails, retrieve error information and display error message box
2.1) handle Retry / Skip / Skip All / Cancel buttons

That's all folks
The only potential for a bug is on the Windows side: DeleteFile returns an error state and somehow deletes the file later (when it is unlocked).

I suppose this is better link.

Wouldn't be problem in remark: "The DeleteFile function marks a file for deletion on close. ...". Looks crazy, but if true, then DeleteFile don't delete, but set mark to delete. Of course, if file is not locked, system removes it immediately (hope).

Datalog wrote:I suppose this is better link.

Thank you, link is fixed.

Datalog wrote:Wouldn't be problem in remark: "The DeleteFile function marks a file for deletion on close. ...". Looks crazy, but if true, then DeleteFile don't delete, but set mark to delete. Of course, if file is not locked, system removes it immediately (hope).

Yes, we know this behaviour from our workstations: you delete the file, operation successfully ends (no error message is displayed), but file is still there. File is deleted when the last handle to the file is closed.

.me wrote:as far as i can remember I had the same problem.
i tried to delete one file that was locked and after i closed the locking application another files were missing.

.me, why do you think that your files were deleted by Servant Salamander?

Jan Rysavy wrote:

.me wrote:as far as i can remember I had the same problem.
i tried to delete one file that was locked and after i closed the locking application another files were missing.

.me, why do you think that your files were deleted by Servant Salamander?

1) i never use windows explorer
2) only these applications were active:
ss, virtualdub in frameservermode or virtualdubmod(to view the small testfile), cinemacraft, firefox, some windows tweaks

btw. i often delete files using shift-del so i bypass the trashcan to get more hd space. i guess i did it that time.
im not sure whether it was ss but i don't know another application that did it.
and i'm quiet sure that i tried to delete the right file because i sorted by filesize. and the testfile had also a completely different name.

i cannot eliminate a windows error. i only wrote my comments here because i wanted to say that i think brodgers problem could possibly be a general problem. i still love and use ss and if this will happen again i will tell you. okay?

.me wrote:i cannot eliminate a windows error. i only wrote my comments here because i wanted to say that i think brodgers problem could possibly be a general problem. i still love and use ss and if this will happen again i will tell you. okay?

I'm sorry if my post sounds offensive... just trying to understand what is going on

I accidentally came across this discussion when looking around if someone else also experienced all mpeg files in the directory deleted when using videoredo. It happened to me using Windows Explorer. I neither use nor even know Servant Salamander, so it is definitely not SS's fault; it seems rather to be a Videoredo bug.

Tenzin, thank you for this information. Please stop posting OT links to various undelete tools (two posts deleted).

This doesn't help you but..
I think the issue is with VideoRedo. I was 'Ad removing' one of my recorded shows when VideoRedo crashed. It deleted all my 'video' files (.mpg, .rec, .ts) from a number of folders that it previously had access and no other program was running at the time.

Using a number of recovery utilities could not locate most (any) of the files.

not a happy camper!

what I found tonight was a version I downloaded from a usenet forum deleted everything in each folder that I was working on. Everything was fine until I hit the close X and then I noticed the folder showed no more files.