chkdsk c: /f gives "An unspecified error occurred" error message

[John.]

This is probably an XP issue, but can anyone help me getting "An
unspecified error occurred"?

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

After startup, I get the 10 second countdown, and then immediately the
message: "An unspecified error occurred." and then chkdsk terminates
and xp pr sp2 loads.

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 to do full scan for bad sectors, and both
disks are fine.

I don't think it is an actual drive problem because it happens
immediately after starting chkdsk, almost as if there is some XP
return code problem.

I've thoroughly scanned the pc with multiple anti-malware products,
and everything seems ok otherwise.

Any ideas on what it is, or how I can get more info to debug this?
There's nothing in the event viewer logs, probably because it happens
so early.

Any ideas on how to debug or get more info, or resolve?

 

[Michael Cecil]

This is probably an XP issue, but can anyone help me getting "An
unspecified error occurred"?

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

After startup, I get the 10 second countdown, and then immediately the
message: "An unspecified error occurred." and then chkdsk terminates
and xp pr sp2 loads.

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 to do full scan for bad sectors, and both
disks are fine.

I don't think it is an actual drive problem because it happens
immediately after starting chkdsk, almost as if there is some XP
return code problem.

I've thoroughly scanned the pc with multiple anti-malware products,
and everything seems ok otherwise.

Any ideas on what it is, or how I can get more info to debug this?
There's nothing in the event viewer logs, probably because it happens
so early.

Any ideas on how to debug or get more info, or resolve?

Perhaps you have something loading at boottime that is interfering with
the chkdsk process. What things are listed in the bootexecute string in
the registry at the following key?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

You can enable boot logging from the Safe Mode menu screen. Perhaps that
can show what's happening.

 

[Rod Speed]

Thats likely significant because while chkdsk can just give
up like that on some subtle NTFS problems, you're unlikely
to have developed those on two different partitions.

Odder and odder.

Except that the repair console is quite different to the installed XP.

I'd try and overnight memtest86 run, it could be that you have a
minor memory problem thats only visible in the startup chkdsk run.

Might be early bad caps on the motherboard too.

Might even be a bad power supply, excessive
ripple can produce the weirdest symptoms.

Yep.

Perhaps you have something loading at boottime that is interfering
with the chkdsk process. What things are listed in the bootexecute
string in the registry at the following key?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

Its unlikely to be that because that comes after the chkdsk run at startup.

You can enable boot logging from the Safe Mode menu screen.
Perhaps that can show what's happening.

Ditto.

 

[John.]

Perhaps you have something loading at boottime that is interfering with
the chkdsk process. What things are listed in the bootexecute string in
the registry at the following key?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

You can enable boot logging from the Safe Mode menu screen. Perhaps that
can show what's happening.

The BootExecute key shows the normal: autocheck autochk *

I enabled boot log, but I think that is after the pre-windows chkdsk
runs.

Other that this annoyance, everything is working fine. I just have to
use the Recovery Console to run chkdsk which is annoying.

Any other ideas?

 

[John.]

I'd try and overnight memtest86 run, it could be that you have a
minor memory problem thats only visible in the startup chkdsk run.

I swapped my two 512mb memory cards and tried again. Same results.
Of course I can still run chkdsk from the Recovery Console, but kind
of inconvenient.

 

[Rod Speed]

I swapped my two 512mb memory cards and tried again. Same results.

Thats not good enough, try an overnight run of memtest86+

Of course I can still run chkdsk from the Recovery Console, but kind of inconvenient.

And thats running on PE, not XP.

 

[Michael Cecil]

The BootExecute key shows the normal: autocheck autochk *

I enabled boot log, but I think that is after the pre-windows chkdsk
runs.

Other that this annoyance, everything is working fine. I just have to
use the Recovery Console to run chkdsk which is annoying.

Any other ideas?

Do you actually have the autochk.exe file in system32? No other ideas. I
see some references where people have needed to format and restore their
files from backup to fix the problem, but not a specific reason for the
error.

 

[John.]

Do you actually have the autochk.exe file in system32? No other ideas. I
see some references where people have needed to format and restore their
files from backup to fix the problem, but not a specific reason for the
error.

Yes, it's there. Your suggestion though has led me to review the
security and permissions for the c: drive and folders. Some look a
little strange, but so far no luck. It is almost like the autochk
program is getting denied access to the drive or some other registry
abnormality affecting this only. (I'm not planning to reformat just
for this. Think I'll wait awhile for Vista if I'm going to redo
everything.)

Thanks for your ideas.

 

[Cl.Massé]

This is probably an XP issue, but can anyone help me getting "An
unspecified error occurred"?

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

After startup, I get the 10 second countdown, and then immediately the
message: "An unspecified error occurred." and then chkdsk terminates
and xp pr sp2 loads.

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 to do full scan for bad sectors, and both
disks are fine.

I don't think it is an actual drive problem because it happens
immediately after starting chkdsk, almost as if there is some XP
return code problem.

I've thoroughly scanned the pc with multiple anti-malware products,
and everything seems ok otherwise.

Any ideas on what it is, or how I can get more info to debug this?
There's nothing in the event viewer logs, probably because it happens
so early.

Any ideas on how to debug or get more info, or resolve?

Apparently, the chkdsk exe on your hard drive is corrupt. With the recovery
console, you use the one on the installation CD. The solution is to copy it
again from the CD.

Something like: expand E:\I386\chkdsk.ex_ C:\Windows\system32\chkdsk.exe