How did chkdsk with NO SWITCHES delete my entire HDD?

[GRISSOM]

Hello everyone,

I read your similar topics but didn’t find this chkdsk question
answered:

After abnormal (pull the plug) shut down, chkdsk preceeded loading
Windows XP (normal) and I clicked "Yes" to allow chkdsk to check for
errors (normal) and did not use any switches (normal) and when chkdsk
hit Stage 3 of 3 it began deleting all files on the HDD.

How did chkdsk delete everthing on the HDD without any chkdsk
switches?

IF it is NOT suppose to be possible for chkdsk to do this without
setting a switch then there may be a new chkdsk virus? -- or old one
that I’m unaware of that gets past Norton?

 

[philo]

Hello everyone,

I read your similar topics but didn't find this chkdsk question
answered:

After abnormal (pull the plug) shut down, chkdsk preceeded loading
Windows XP (normal) and I clicked "Yes" to allow chkdsk to check for
errors (normal) and did not use any switches (normal) and when chkdsk
hit Stage 3 of 3 it began deleting all files on the HDD.

How did chkdsk delete everthing on the HDD without any chkdsk
switches?

You did not get the option..it ran chkdsk /f automatically

 

[Andy]

Hello everyone,

I read your similar topics but didn’t find this chkdsk question
answered:

After abnormal (pull the plug) shut down, chkdsk preceeded loading
Windows XP (normal) and I clicked "Yes" to allow chkdsk to check for
errors (normal) and did not use any switches (normal) and when chkdsk
hit Stage 3 of 3 it began deleting all files on the HDD.

If you're talking about autochk that can run when Windows is booting,
and can be canceled by the user hitting a keyboard key, then it will
repair the file system if it detects problems with the file system. In
other words, the only "switches" available is your canceling its
running.

 

[philo]

You did not get the option..it ran chkdsk /f automatically

I should also add that the files were probably not deleted...but may still
be there as .chk files.
Depending on what type of data was on the drive...it might still be
recoverable.

If there were text files or jpg's then it's often as simple as changing the
suffix back
to it's original...
but other types of files can be quite difficult to recover .

data recovery software may be needed

 

[NoConsequence]

Hello everyone,

I read your similar topics but didn’t find this chkdsk question
answered:

After abnormal (pull the plug) shut down, chkdsk preceeded loading
Windows XP (normal) and I clicked "Yes" to allow chkdsk to check for
errors (normal) and did not use any switches (normal) and when chkdsk
hit Stage 3 of 3 it began deleting all files on the HDD.

How did chkdsk delete everthing on the HDD without any chkdsk
switches?

IF it is NOT suppose to be possible for chkdsk to do this without
setting a switch then there may be a new chkdsk virus? -- or old one
that I’m unaware of that gets past Norton?

Try asking over on the General XP group. This is not hardware
related.

 

[You Know Who ~]

A hard disk problem is not hardware related???
What planet are you living on? you truly are of no consequence

ykw~

 

[NoConsequence]

A hard disk problem is not hardware related???
What planet are you living on? you truly are of no consequence

ykw~

The SOFTWARE that was used wrong caused this. The HD had nothing to
do with it. It spins and does what it was told to do. Hence, this
post is in the WRONG group.

Oh, and by the way, post BELOW the message. It's the proper protocol,
after all.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

After abnormal (pull the plug) shut down, chkdsk preceeded loading
Windows XP (normal) and I clicked "Yes" to allow chkdsk to check for
errors (normal) and did not use any switches (normal) and when chkdsk
hit Stage 3 of 3 it began deleting all files on the HDD.

How did chkdsk delete everthing on the HDD without any chkdsk
switches?

It's part of the "Kill, Bury, Deny" tradition of file system "repair"
that has been getting worse and worse since Win98.

What runs automatically after startup is not ChkDsk, but AutoChk - and
AutoChk *only* works in "trsut me I'll fix it automagically" mode.
IOW, the /F is implicit, and cannot be avoided.

So you have a choice between:
- running a write-happy OS on an unfixed file system
- letting AutoChk irreversibly "fix" your data out of existence

You can stop AutoChk from starting automatically in response to the
"dirty" flag being set (indicating a bad exit) by editing the line
that runs this in the registry. Find this...

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager]
"BootExecute"=

....and edit it to this...

autocheck autochk /k /k:E /k:F /k:G /k:H /k:I /k:J /k:K /k:L /k:M
/k:N /k:O /k /k:Q /k:R /k:S /k:T /k:U /k:V /k:W /k:X /k:Y /k:Z *

....to suppress AutoChk on all volumes except C: - each /k:? excludes
that letter from checking and "fixing".

After X years of NT, we *still* have no properly-UI'd, user-controlled
file system repair tool such as Scandisk. ChkDsk's UI and limited
feature set dates from before MS-DOS 6 !

--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -

Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!