After running 'chkdsk c: /f' from the command prompt, I get the prompt
to run at startup which I say yes to.

At startup, I get the 10 second countdown, and then immediately the
message: "An unspecified error occurred."

Is there any way to find out WHAT the error is?

It happens on both c: and d: (paging file) drive. I can run chkdsk c:
/p from the recovery console ok, and both disks are fine.

It's as if chkdsk can't get control or lock the drive. I've
uninstalled, NAV 2007, SpySweeper, PerfectDisk 8 and a few other
utilities that I thought might be involved. Same results.

But, the boot startup is so early. XP Pro SP2.

On Feb 5, 1:13 pm, John. <noem...@cox.net> wrote:
> After running 'chkdsk c: /f' from the command prompt, I get the prompt
> to run at startup which I say yes to.
>
> At startup, I get the 10 second countdown, and then immediately the
> message: "An unspecified error occurred."
>
> Is there any way to find out WHAT the error is?
>
> It happens on both c: and d: (paging file) drive. I can run chkdsk c:
> /p from the recovery console ok, and both disks are fine.
>
> It's as if chkdsk can't get control or lock the drive. I've
> uninstalled, NAV 2007, SpySweeper, PerfectDisk 8 and a few other
> utilities that I thought might be involved. Same results.
>
> But, the boot startup is so early. XP Pro SP2.

I think the recovery console uses the OS CD to load the console. That
would mean that copy of chkdsk running is the one from the CD. Perhaps
your local copy of chkdsk has been corrupted somehow. See if you can
extract it from the CD, back into your windows\system32 folder.

hello john,

i use this method when chkdsk
encounters an error after I scrub
my harddisk.

boot up to the recovery console via
your win setup cd.

at the c prompt run chkdsk

(for other options run chkdsk/?)

i think the above will take care
of that corrupt file and clean up your mft.

- dl
"John." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
After running 'chkdsk c: /f' from the command prompt, I get the prompt
to run at startup which I say yes to.

At startup, I get the 10 second countdown, and then immediately the
message: "An unspecified error occurred."

Is there any way to find out WHAT the error is?

It happens on both c: and d: (paging file) drive. I can run chkdsk c:
/p from the recovery console ok, and both disks are fine.

It's as if chkdsk can't get control or lock the drive. I've
uninstalled, NAV 2007, SpySweeper, PerfectDisk 8 and a few other
utilities that I thought might be involved. Same results.

But, the boot startup is so early. XP Pro SP2.

On Mon, 5 Feb 2007 13:15:56 -0600, "db"
<databaseben.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>i use this method when chkdsk
>encounters an error after I scrub
>my harddisk.
>
>boot up to the recovery console via
>your win setup cd.
>
>at the c prompt run chkdsk
>
>(for other options run chkdsk/?)
>
>i think the above will take care
>of that corrupt file and clean up your mft.
>
>- dl

I did boot from the Recovery Console CD, ran chkdsk c: /p several
times until no errors reported (also d: drive).

Still same problem from within XP startup.

Any way to find or log the error? The xp message "an unspecified
error occurred" doesn't help me much!

There is a bootlogging option that
you can initiate from the boot menu
screen (f8).

I don't remember all the details for it,
but basically it will make a log of all
the events occurring during the boot
process. The log can then be viewed
via safemode or something.

Go to Microsoft.com and double check
this particular option for booting to get
an exact idea of this method.

Another error log available is the one
generated by the system. This can
be ascertained via the desktop from
the admin tools.

As a thought, while you're at
Microsoft.com getting the exact
information for bootlogging, you might also want to
search for something like "Chkdsk errors"
and see what might result from the
in-query.
"John." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
On Mon, 5 Feb 2007 13:15:56 -0600, "db"
<databaseben.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>i use this method when chkdsk
>encounters an error after I scrub
>my harddisk.
>
>boot up to the recovery console via
>your win setup cd.
>
>at the c prompt run chkdsk
>
>(for other options run chkdsk/?)
>
>i think the above will take care
>of that corrupt file and clean up your mft.
>
>- dl

I did boot from the Recovery Console CD, ran chkdsk c: /p several
times until no errors reported (also d: drive).

Still same problem from within XP startup.

Any way to find or log the error? The xp message "an unspecified
error occurred" doesn't help me much!

i found this which may be
of some help

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en
"John." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
After running 'chkdsk c: /f' from the command prompt, I get the prompt
to run at startup which I say yes to.

At startup, I get the 10 second countdown, and then immediately the
message: "An unspecified error occurred."

Is there any way to find out WHAT the error is?

It happens on both c: and d: (paging file) drive. I can run chkdsk c:
/p from the recovery console ok, and both disks are fine.

It's as if chkdsk can't get control or lock the drive. I've
uninstalled, NAV 2007, SpySweeper, PerfectDisk 8 and a few other
utilities that I thought might be involved. Same results.

But, the boot startup is so early. XP Pro SP2.