File Share Encryption

Almost every day I find about 27 files on my HD all labeled PGPshredpattern0,1, 2, A, B, C, etc. all have the same file size 1,953,792. any ideas what is causing these files to be created?

Hi jman92101,

I just wanted to find out if you had any feedback or luck with this issue?  I'm having the exact same issue, only difference is, the files comsume the remaining space on my drive.

I have been poking and prodding over this for a while now, hoping to give you some good news, but I only have some speculation at this point, and haven't been able to reproduce the issue.  As far as I can tell, this is a completely new, never-before-seen issue.

Jman, do you have Symantec Endpoint Protection installed?  If so, what version?  Did you use PGP Disk > Shred Free Space, or have it scheduled to run regularly?

Are the systems in either of your cases 32-bit?  2GB is the max file size for 32-bit systems or applications, so I am trying to see if the OS might be 32-bit or if the PGP Shredder operates in 32-bit mode.  My guess would be the latter.  In any case, as a file is shredded, the "pattern" might simply be the area of the drive that gets shredded, essentially creating a temp file which overwrites (shreds) the original data in that space.  I would guess these temp files are typically hidden, and something is either interrupting the shredding process before the final iteration/pass (by default it is 3 passes), so the temp files don't get deleted/removed properly, or something is trying to restore files that it deems have been deleted in error, like an antivirus/security/DLP-type program.  It is then 'restoring' these temporary shred files, giving them a hexidecimal suffix as they are all named the same "PGPshredpattern".

Unfortunately, I don't have more to go on at this point than hunches and educated guesses, but I am trying a variety of things in an attempt to reproduce the issue.

Files are being created by the PGP Shredder during the operation Shred Free Space from ( PGP Disk > Shred Free Space)

Shred Free Space can be run manually or setup via Schedule Task. If it's schedule they run on a daily basis by default and if not changed performing 3 passes. When "shredding free space with space fill method" runs it creats on C drive PGPshredpatternX.tmp files (each file less than 2GB filling up all available disk space ) and then once disk space is full shredding alghorithms delete those files. If anything unexpected happen that interrup this process (for example task schedule process is killed, process run with many passes during working hours and suddently stopped, machine was rebooted/shutdown, AV detection recognized those fiales as malicious etc..) those files might not be removed and they will be abandon on C drive. The only way then is to remove them manually and look for the reason why this process/task was interrupted (History of Schedule tasks jobs / event viewer logs). Verify your Schedule Tasks jobs to see if you have got by default a PGPshredVolumeC.job there which symbolize this task.

Hope this helps to get better visibility on the issue.

Adam is spot on here.  He assisted with the case I logged.  My shred schedule was set up for 7 passes, hence the pgpshredpattern.tmp file seemed to have been permanantly filling up the space on my disk.

It was merely running through all the passes.

Thanks Adam!