ALL DATA LOST ???? HELP "bad links in lost chain at cluster"

[lionking_x]

Hi,

I am running WinXP on an nforce AMD XP1700 system. I am using it as
a storage computer. I have 3 harddrives - a small 40gb with the OS and two
others (80gb and 250gb). The 80gb was almost full (under 500mb left) and the
250gb drive had 150gb of files on it. For some DUMB reason i decided to copy
all the files from the 80gb drive to the 160gb. It said that it would take
about 130minutes. When I came back 4 hours later, the computer had locked up
(trying to copy the same file over and over - had copied about 80% of the
files). I could not stop the process - only option was to reboot.

When I rebooted, scandisk took over. For the last 2 days I have a scrolling
message on the screen that says "bad links in lost chain at cluster
********* corrected" (last check is was at 4,900,000 and counting).
Sometimes there is a line where the word "truncated???) is at the end of it.
I had read a couple of places on the web that mentioned that 160gb
harddrives had either 4.1mb of clusters (can't be true since I am at 4.9mb)
or 41mb of clusters (which means the computer has another 37mb more to go -
or another 18 days - YUCHHHHH).

If I were to stop the process, would the only files lost be the ones that I
was trying to copy from one drive to another? Would the files that are on
the 80gb be OK? Would the files that were on the 250gb drive originally
(100gb) be OK? Would the only ones that would be toast be the ones that were
to be copied? Would they be converted to chk files?

HELP HELP HELP!!!!!

spk

 

[Sten Westerback]

Hi,

I am running WinXP on an nforce AMD XP1700 system. I am using it as
a storage computer. I have 3 harddrives - a small 40gb with the OS and two
others (80gb and 250gb). The 80gb was almost full (under 500mb left) and the
250gb drive had 150gb of files on it. For some DUMB reason i decided to copy
all the files from the 80gb drive to the 160gb. It said that it would take
about 130minutes. When I came back 4 hours later, the computer had locked up
(trying to copy the same file over and over - had copied about 80% of the
files). I could not stop the process - only option was to reboot.

Really? So the task manager didn't respond to your request to kill
Explorer.exe
or didn't you have time to wait?

When I rebooted, scandisk took over. For the last 2 days I have a scrolling
message on the screen that says "bad links in lost chain at cluster
********* corrected" (last check is was at 4,900,000 and counting).
Sometimes there is a line where the word "truncated???) is at the end of it.
I had read a couple of places on the web that mentioned that 160gb
harddrives had either 4.1mb of clusters (can't be true since I am at 4.9mb)
or 41mb of clusters (which means the computer has another 37mb more to go -
or another 18 days - YUCHHHHH).

Hehe... what makes you think there are errors on all clusters?

If I were to stop the process, would the only files lost be the ones that I
was trying to copy from one drive to another?

Probably not. Firstly the OS doesn't remove source before the destination is
written. Secondly,

Would the files that are on the 80gb be OK?

I can't see why they wouldn't be as good as they are normally. Deleting
files just marks the clusters as unused and you can even undelete them
unless you have already overwritten them.

Would the files that were on the 250gb drive originally (100gb) be OK?

Probably, unless they has always been corrupt even if you haven't noticed
it as you... possibly.... haven't even run chkdsk c: /f /r ....

Would the only ones that would be toast be the ones that were to be copied?

To be copied? Uncopied files should still be on the disk if the disk is OK.
At least if your use NTFS....

Would they be converted to chk files?

That's the way it tries to save cross-linked files which i suppose you have.
AFAIK cross-linked files are possible only on FAT32 systems so i would
recommend you convert to NTFS when you get your system restored
(from your backup media)....

HELP HELP HELP!!!!!

Bye

- Sten