This is the strangest thing. I use an old copy of Bearshare which I like and don't want to replace. It works fine in Windows 7 x86 in compatibility mode using Windows XP SP2. The problem is, if I want to erase a file afterward, Heidi Eraser (version 5 or 6) will not erase it. It starts up and shows the progress bar, then immediately shuts down. The error message is not very useful - just says "not all files could be erased." These files can be deleted by Windows and can be erased by File Shredder. I tried Unlocker to see if the files were locked by Bearshare, but it says no locking handles are found. Other than these files, Eraser is able to erase other files on my computer. The drive is formatted with NTFS. Any ideas? I like using Eraser because I think it does a great job of erasing the free space and I'd like to use it to erase files as well.
I didn't think about that. It would be inconvenient to have to do it that way, but I'll give it a try just to learn if it works.
Thought I'd follow this up since I learned what the problem was: sparse files. By default, Bearshare is configured to enable sparse files. Eraser can't erase sparse files. I configured Bearshare to disable sparse files and I was then able to use Eraser to remove the files I downloaded.