diff --git a/weed/storage/erasure_coding/ec_decoder.go b/weed/storage/erasure_coding/ec_decoder.go
index bdcbc5084..abba2526b 100644
--- a/weed/storage/erasure_coding/ec_decoder.go
+++ b/weed/storage/erasure_coding/ec_decoder.go
@@ -215,6 +215,7 @@ func min(x, y int64) int64 {
 
 // WriteDatFileAndVacuum reconstructs volume from EC shards and then vacuums deleted needles
 // This reuses existing WriteDatFile and volume compaction logic to achieve the same result more cleanly
+// Creates cleaned volume files (without generation) that are ready for generational EC encoding
 func WriteDatFileAndVacuum(baseFileName string, shardFileNames []string) error {
 	// Step 1: Use existing WriteDatFile to reconstruct the full volume
 	datFileSize, err := FindDatFileSize(baseFileName, baseFileName)
@@ -243,9 +244,11 @@ func WriteDatFileAndVacuum(baseFileName string, shardFileNames []string) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to read volume version: %w", err)
 	}
 
+	// Create cleaned volume files (without generation suffix)
+	// These will later be copied to generation-aware names by encodeVolumeToEcShards()
 	return copyDataBasedOnIndexFileForEcVacuum(
 		tempDatFile, tempIdxFile, // source files (with deleted entries)
-		baseFileName+".dat", baseFileName+".idx", // destination files (cleaned)
+		baseFileName+".dat", baseFileName+".idx", // destination files (cleaned, ready for generational encoding)
 		version,
 	)
 }
diff --git a/weed/worker/tasks/ec_vacuum/ec_vacuum_task.go b/weed/worker/tasks/ec_vacuum/ec_vacuum_task.go
index 2356e0d10..f4330a6aa 100644
--- a/weed/worker/tasks/ec_vacuum/ec_vacuum_task.go
+++ b/weed/worker/tasks/ec_vacuum/ec_vacuum_task.go
@@ -403,12 +403,13 @@ func (t *EcVacuumTask) decodeEcShardsToVolume() error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to reconstruct and vacuum volume: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	t.LogInfo("Successfully decoded EC shards to filtered normal volume", map[string]interface{}{
+	t.LogInfo("Successfully decoded EC shards to cleaned volume", map[string]interface{}{
 		"dat_file":                 datFileName,
 		"idx_file":                 idxFileName,
 		"original_dat_size":        datFileSize,
 		"deleted_entries_filtered": true,
-		"note":                     "deleted needles physically removed from volume",
+		"note":                     "cleaned volume ready for generational EC encoding",
+		"next_step":                "will create generation-aware EC shards",
 	})
 
 	return nil