What does HRESULT 0x0004241A (VDS_S_DISK_PARTIALLY_CLEANED) mean?

VDS_S_DISK_PARTIALLY_CLEANED

This is a partial-success result from IVdsAdvancedDisk::Clean. VDS can remove partition information without proving that every requested sector was overwritten. The API distinguishes a normal clean, which targets metadata near the beginning and end of the disk, from a full clean that writes zeros across the device. This status matters because the disk can become uninitialized while the sanitization pass is incomplete.

Why this state matters

Do not infer secure erasure from the absence of partitions. Requery the partition style and extents to confirm the layout is gone, then treat the I/O failure as a separate media or path problem. If the original requirement was data sanitization, preserve the full-clean request and failed device identity; creating a new partition table after the warning can hide the evidence without completing the overwrite.

Diagnostic focus

• Confirm whether bFullClean was TRUE; partial-clean implications differ between metadata clean and whole-disk zeroing.
• Requery the disk partition style and extents to verify whether the disk is now uninitialized.
• Collect storage and device I/O errors from the same interval and identify unreadable or unwritable regions.
• Do not certify the disk as sanitized solely because VDS no longer enumerates partitions.

Technical references

IVdsAdvancedDisk::Clean · VDS_PARTITION_STYLE · IVdsDisk::QueryExtents · VDS_DISK_PROP · MS-VDS error codes

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