WDsmartware building etilqs_ files in my windows temp folder - filling my drive!

that is really not a solution for WDsmartware…

And sure if it doesn’t work use another program…

that’s a serious defect that should be corrected or the product should not be distributed.

I can think of a few programming ways to fix that problem, why not make the effort and fix it?

thanks for the comments

john

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Tell that to WD, not to me. As far as I know this is intentional since working with shadow copies instead of the original files decreases the possibility of data corruption, so I don’t think they will “fix” this if this is how it’s meant to work…

I must be having the same problem?  I have lost 5 gigabytes from my hard drive in the last few days, tracked it down to the etilqs_ files in my temp folder and the most recent change I’ve made to my PC is creating a back-up plan using SmartWare.  This doesn’t seem right.  I’ve noticed my PC has slowed down a bit too.

I have just spoken with WD Tier 2 support agent [deleted], and he says that the creation of the etilqs files is the proper operation of Smartware.  He also stated that the Windows operating system (all versions) incorporates the SQ engine and is supposed to delete the etilqs files automatically, thereby preventing the filling up of our internal drives.  When I told him that this was not happening with my copy of Windows 7, he indicated that it was a Microsoft problem, that my OS was not operating properly.  

Apparently a lot of us have defective copies of the Windows operating system.

I must have multiple WIndows XP defects too :slight_smile:

None of my computers EVER have created these “etilqs”, except the one and only one that recently had the WDSMartWare installed on. Their support once told me the “DIsk Cleanup” removes these files. It doesn’t. I just need to remember to go into my Windows\Temp folder once in a while and remove them.

Shadowing files is fine… Using SQL-Lite (I think that’s the name they once mentioned), without deleting the files it creates, is not ok. They need to find a different way to “shadow” files, if that’s the case.

Robert -

What I have found is that if you go into the temp folder using Windows Explorer, and highlight all of the etilqs files, then delete them, you will get rid of all of the ones except those created today.  I guess that is as good as it gets.

Yes of course… and that’s what I’ve been having to do. But, contrary to what WD told me, the WIndows “Disk Cleanup” does not do that. Think about all the people out there who aren’t involved with these threads on this forum. They probably have no idea what’s going on, or why they might be running out of disk space.

Absolutely!  It took me about 45 minutes of searching on the Internet to figure it out.  Plus I was in a panic state because my SSD was totally full when I turned my PC on that morning.  I had 35Gb worth of etilqs files.  

While the software is working as designed (some on here may not agree on the design), we have changed this behavior in our 1.6.x version.  The files will still be created, but will be much smaller.

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OK, thanks Brandon.

Question: Wouldn’t it make sense to move these files to a location that Windows Disk Cleanup can remove? \windows\temp is not cleared by Disk Cleanup (at least not on XP it doesn’t appear to be). Perhaps one of the “Documents and settings… Local Settings…Temp” related locations would be better?

(Of course, I still prefer if the application could just remove the files it creates)

I’ve followed the excellent advice of Lucky_Phil (page 10 of the WDFME.exe RAM hog topic) in order to regain use of my computer and retain WD SmartWare in the hope that it will be improved.  I’ve set WDFMEService to manual (using Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services) and created switches using .cmd files on the Desktop as he suggested to turn WDFME on and off.

I’ve noticed that etilqs files are created in Windows/Temp as soon as I turn on WDFME.  These are deleted immediately when WDFME is switched off, which I presume is WD’s intention.  If this happens there is no problem

However if I turn on WDFME and then later simply ‘Turn Off Computer’ the etilqs files are not deleted.  This represents what most users would do, so it’s no wonder they build up over time.

I’ve also notice that the etilqs files are created almost as soon as WDFME is switched on as ‘0 kb’.  Most are gradually populated but some seem to remain empty all the time, even when the backup is complete. Is this another issue?

I’m using XP on a Sony Vaio Laptop with a relatively small C: partition for system and program files so any permanent buildup of hidden ‘temp’ files is a real problem.

Watchful -

Your observations are the same as mine other than I’ve not experimented with switching WDFME off, but irrespective of that, most folks don’t do that, they shut down their PC which allows files to accumulate.

WD was very responsive to my postings on this issue.  Initially I was told that the retention of the sqlite files in the Windows temp folder was a MS Windows problem, and the WD software was working as it should.  Subsequent to that I was told that the next release of WDSmartware will continue to place these files in the temp folder, but that they will be significantly smaller than the 2GB per day files users are now getting.

In the mean time, I suppose we all have to manually erase the temp folder and empty our recycle folder daily.  That’s what I do, and now it has become habit.

I have a 128GB solid state drive as drive 0 on my PC, and I strive to keep about 1/3 of it free, so this is a real issue for me as well.

CharlieATL wrote:

Watchful -

Your observations are the same as mine other than I’ve not experimented with switching WDFME off, but irrespective of that, most folks don’t do that, they shut down their PC which allows files to accumulate.

WD was very responsive to my postings on this issue.  Initially I was told that the retention of the sqlite files in the Windows temp folder was a MS Windows problem, and the WD software was working as it should.  Subsequent to that I was told that the next release of WDSmartware will continue to place these files in the temp folder, but that they will be significantly smaller than the 2GB per day files users are now getting.

In the mean time, I suppose we all have to manually erase the temp folder and empty our recycle folder daily.  That’s what I do, and now it has become habit.

I have a 128GB solid state drive as drive 0 on my PC, and I strive to keep about 1/3 of it free, so this is a real issue for me as well.

I wanted to clarify something that you mention in your post.  WD is going to address this issue, however, these files will still exist.  We are reducing the amount of information stored in these files as apart of other back-end changes related to CPU and memory usage.  These files will be significantly smaller.

What you are seeing here isn’t a “bug” per se as the software is working as designed, but this is a bad user experience which will be addressed.

Hope that clears things up.

Yessir, thanks Brandon.  I bolded that part of my post to make it stand out.

Brandon, many thanks for your quick reply. 

I’m still not sure whether the “the software is working as designed” mean:

The etilqs files being deleted if I close the WDFME process

Or the etilqs files not being deleted if I simply ‘Turn off the Computer’.

And if the software is designed not to delete the files, is there any harm in deleting them manually, eg does this increase the time needed to back up in future?

I would be grateful for your comments.

I’m a little confused. It seems like a few posters are saying that these temporary files DO get erased nicely, if the WD software is “turned off”, but do NOT get erased, if the computer is shut down.

If that’s true, then it almost sounds as if the WD software isn’t doing its own graceful internal “shut off”, when it receives a notification that Windows wants to shutdown. All applications receive a notification that Windows is terminating. This is the time for applications to gracefully shut themselves down, delete files, close files, etc.

Watchful wrote:

Brandon, many thanks for your quick reply. 

 

I’m still not sure whether the “the software is working as designed” mean:

 

The etilqs files being deleted if I close the WDFME process

 

Or the etilqs files not being deleted if I simply ‘Turn off the Computer’.

 

And if the software is designed not to delete the files, is there any harm in deleting them manually, eg does this increase the time needed to back up in future?

 

I would be grateful for your comments.

The files are not deleted by our software.  If you delete them manually, there is no harm.  Windows will not be able to delete the file that is being written to.  Doing a simple “disk clean up” in Windows gives you the option to delete the temp files, which is the easiest way to remove these.

“The files are not deleted by our software.  If you delete them manually, there is no harm.  Windows will not be able to delete the file that is being written to.  Doing a simple “disk clean up” in Windows gives you the option to delete the temp files, which is the easiest way to remove these.”

Hi Brandon, Is it true that these files do get deleted if the WD Backup function is simply turned off as opposed to just shutting down Windows? That’s the impression I got reading someone else’s comments.

By the way, Windows “disk cleanup” does not delete files in that location. At least it doesn’t on WinXp

Robert_C wrote:

“The files are not deleted by our software.  If you delete them manually, there is no harm.  Windows will not be able to delete the file that is being written to.  Doing a simple “disk clean up” in Windows gives you the option to delete the temp files, which is the easiest way to remove these.”

 

Hi Brandon, Is it true that these files do get deleted if the WD Backup function is simply turned off as opposed to just shutting down Windows? That’s the impression I got reading someone else’s comments.

 

By the way, Windows “disk cleanup” does not delete files in that location. At least it doesn’t on WinXp

These are hidden files and will not be deleted by “Disk Cleanup”. If there is a way to include them, I’m not sure what it is.