NTFS Corruption?

[Stephan Rose]

I seem to be seeing some weird things happening to my XP file system.

One directory is inaccessible in every way shape and form with errors
telling me that it can't read from the disk.

Then I have 2 additional directories that are both pointing to the same
identical content. Their names are even identical save that one is missing
the last character.

Of course, chkdsk, being dumber than a rock, finds absolutely no
problems and thinks everything is just peachy. But it's quite apparent
that this is not the case.

Anyone have any suggestions beyond the usual Microsoft Fix: reformat,
reinstall and screw up master boot record / dual boot?

Thanks,

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

å›ã®ã“ã¨æ€ã„出ã™æ—¥ãªã‚“ã¦ãªã„ã®ã¯
å›ã®ã“ã¨å¿˜ã‚ŒãŸã¨ããŒãªã„ã‹ã‚‰

 

[Clark]

I seem to be seeing some weird things happening to my XP file system.

One directory is inaccessible in every way shape and form with errors
telling me that it can't read from the disk.

Then I have 2 additional directories that are both pointing to the same
identical content. Their names are even identical save that one is missing
the last character.

Of course, chkdsk, being dumber than a rock, finds absolutely no
problems and thinks everything is just peachy. But it's quite apparent
that this is not the case.

Anyone have any suggestions beyond the usual Microsoft Fix: reformat,
reinstall and screw up master boot record / dual boot?

Thanks,

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

????????????????
??????????????

Have you tried HDtune?

http://www.hdtune.com/

It will tell you allot about the drive

Clark

 

[Bob Harris]

Try running CHKDSK with the /R option from within the XP recovery console.

Links about recovery console:

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm (near bottom)

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058


The recovery console can be run from most XP CDs, or from a set of floppy
disks that you can download free from Microsoft. (images are free; you
provide the floppies). Microsoft calles the floppy set "setup disks".

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

Note: If the recovery console asks for a password, it means the password of
the person/company that installed XP, not the password of a random person
with administrator priveleges. When in doubt, try blank, meaning just hit
the enter key once.

If the password gets to be an issue, and if you can still boot into XP as an
random administrator, try the following registry change, then reboot into
the recovery console via CD or floppies:

Start à Run à Regedit


Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Setup\RecoveryConsole


Set the DWORD SecurityLevel value to 1

 

[Stephan Rose]

Try running CHKDSK with the /R option from within the XP recovery
console.

I already ran it with that option at boot time, it reported no errors.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

å›ã®ã“ã¨æ€ã„出ã™æ—¥ãªã‚“ã¦ãªã„ã®ã¯
å›ã®ã“ã¨å¿˜ã‚ŒãŸã¨ããŒãªã„ã‹ã‚‰

 

[Stephan Rose]

Have you tried HDtune?

http://www.hdtune.com/

It will tell you allot about the drive

Ran it, everything is peachy hardware wise as I pretty much expected. The
drive is fairly new maxtor, less than a year old. I'd have really been
surprised if it had found hardware errors. My experience with Maxtor has
generally always been very good.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

å›ã®ã“ã¨æ€ã„出ã™æ—¥ãªã‚“ã¦ãªã„ã®ã¯
å›ã®ã“ã¨å¿˜ã‚ŒãŸã¨ããŒãªã„ã‹ã‚‰

 

[Ron Martell]

Ran it, everything is peachy hardware wise as I pretty much expected. The
drive is fairly new maxtor, less than a year old. I'd have really been
surprised if it had found hardware errors. My experience with Maxtor has
generally always been very good.

Have you ran the Maxtor diagnostics on the drive?

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Plato]

Have you ran the Maxtor diagnostics on the drive?

http://www.seagate.com/maxtor/
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/

 

[Stephan Rose]

Have you ran the Maxtor diagnostics on the drive?

Yea I just did earlier, everything came back just fine.

Most likely I am just going to have to reinstall XP which now presents me
with a new interesting problem.

XP CD won't boot! Tried more than one...I have enough of those things to
stack them like AOL disks.

The drive though is fine as I use it daily to watch DVDs, plus the maxtor
diagnostic CD booted fine, plus my ubuntu live CDs also boot fine.

XP However, no matter what, the install CD will not boot. It asks me if I
want to boot from CD, then followed by a short bit of CD activity, and
then nothing. Since multiple XP CDs do this...not a CD problem such as a
scratch either.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

å›ã®ã“ã¨æ€ã„出ã™æ—¥ãªã‚“ã¦ãªã„ã®ã¯
å›ã®ã“ã¨å¿˜ã‚ŒãŸã¨ããŒãªã„ã‹ã‚‰

 

[RalfG]

Interesting alright.

The harddrive functions, because you can access files and play videos...
Diagnostics and chkdsk show nothing wrong.

The CD drive and motherboard function, because you can boot an Ubuntu live
disc

XP cd's won't boot however, so something on the harddrive is interfering
with XP. Malware perhaps, or some low-level driver or virtual device.
Maxtor's harddrive overlay software maybe? Or something on the drive created
by Linux?

If you can substitute a different harddrive in place of the one that's
acting strangely I'd first try installing XP clean onto that, just to
eliminate the possiblity that the problem stems from any of the other
hardware in the computer.

If it comes to it, you might be able to avoid a complete harddrive wipe and
reformat by using some partitioning software to create a new D: partition to
put your user files in, then wipe and reformat the C: partition for a clean
XP install. The partitioning software might also show up existing
irregularities, if any.

 

[Stephan Rose]

Interesting alright.

The harddrive functions, because you can access files and play videos...
Diagnostics and chkdsk show nothing wrong.

The CD drive and motherboard function, because you can boot an Ubuntu live
disc

XP cd's won't boot however, so something on the harddrive is interfering
with XP. Malware perhaps, or some low-level driver or virtual device.
Maxtor's harddrive overlay software maybe? Or something on the drive created
by Linux?

If you can substitute a different harddrive in place of the one that's
acting strangely I'd first try installing XP clean onto that, just to
eliminate the possiblity that the problem stems from any of the other
hardware in the computer.

If it comes to it, you might be able to avoid a complete harddrive wipe and
reformat by using some partitioning software to create a new D: partition to
put your user files in, then wipe and reformat the C: partition for a clean
XP install. The partitioning software might also show up existing
irregularities, if any.

I discovered what the problem is on a forum thread somewhere via Google.
Apparently I am not the first person to have problems with the WinXP
Install CD.

The problem is that I have too complex of a disk & partition setup for
XP's setup to handle causing it to freeze at startup.

So what I'll probably have to do is remove all drives except the XP drive
and then try again. That should hopefully work.

Thanks everyone,

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

å›ã®ã“ã¨æ€ã„出ã™æ—¥ãªã‚“ã¦ãªã„ã®ã¯
å›ã®ã“ã¨å¿˜ã‚ŒãŸã¨ããŒãªã„ã‹ã‚‰

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 11:24:27 -0400, "RalfG"

This looks like an interesting thread; I'm late to the party, tho...

The harddrive functions, because you can access files and play videos...
Diagnostics and chkdsk show nothing wrong.

www.hdtune.com would be my choice for hardware testing; runs from Bart
CDR boot but not WinPE 2.0 boot (and MS won't fix that; I asked).

In SMART detail, the data values for Offline Uncorrectable,
Reallocated Sectors and Pending Sectors should all be zero,
irrespective of whether the conclusion drawn is "OK" or not.

And obviously, no red blocks on the "slow' surface scan!

The CD drive and motherboard function, because you can boot an Ubuntu live

XP cd's won't boot however, so something on the harddrive is interfering
with XP. Malware perhaps, or some low-level driver or virtual device.
Maxtor's harddrive overlay software maybe? Or something on the drive created
by Linux?

Basically, any "special" MBR code may lock you into access via that
code, especially if the partition table is moved or overridden by
something else. Boot managers, HD vendor's DDO (avoid that crap!).
boot viruses of bygone days can all do that.

So a generic boot CD won't work, it it cares about what it sees.

That implies the Linux CDR doesn't care about what the XP CD cares
about, i.e. the problem is within MS space, which should begin only
from the PBR (Partition Boot Record) onwards.

Material within the file system, such as leftovers from a previous
failed OS install, can kick in as well.

Ah, going back in time...

In what way does it fail?

My guess would be either this problem...

http://cquirke.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C7DAB1E724AB8C23!188.entry?_c=BlogPart

....if you see a BSoD STOP error (or the crappy automatic restart that
hides this), else leftovers from a previous OS install attempt, if it
just bogs down and hangs.

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

To one who only has a hammer,
everything looks like a nail