Questions about chkdsk.exe (check disk)

[Victek]

I ran check disk recently on a Windows XP HE system and it noted that "one
or more problems were fixed" however I continued to get disk write errors
when trying to do a Repair/Install with the XP CD. I then ran the more
extensive check disk (attempt to recover bad sectors), but the test seemed
unable to complete. At one point I noticed that the scan percentage dropped
from 75% to 50% - this was after almost an hour and at that point I gave up
waiting. For comparison I ran the same full check disk on a known good hard
drive about the same size and it completed in 40 minutes. I concluded that
the hard drive in the problem system was failing and essentially
irreparable, but I'd appreciate opinions.

Also, can you recommend a faster to way to assess the integrity of hard
drives in the field as waiting 40 minutes for a full Check Disk to complete
is impractical?

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

use / start the recovery console feature
with your windows setup cd.

when you reach the
file system prompt / command console
run this command:

chkdsk /f

then let us know what
the stats are provided
afterwards.

btw: the above may fix the problem
you have and you may not need
to do a repair installation.
--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[philo]

I ran check disk recently on a Windows XP HE system and it noted that "one
or more problems were fixed" however I continued to get disk write errors
when trying to do a Repair/Install with the XP CD. I then ran the more
extensive check disk (attempt to recover bad sectors), but the test seemed
unable to complete. At one point I noticed that the scan percentage dropped
from 75% to 50% - this was after almost an hour and at that point I gave up
waiting. For comparison I ran the same full check disk on a known good hard
drive about the same size and it completed in 40 minutes. I concluded that
the hard drive in the problem system was failing and essentially
irreparable, but I'd appreciate opinions.

Also, can you recommend a faster to way to assess the integrity of hard
drives in the field as waiting 40 minutes for a full Check Disk to complete
is impractical?

Sounds like the drive is just plain defective.

Go to the website of the HD's manufacturer and download their diagnostic
utility...then run it.

If it says the drive is bad...believe it. Then replace the drive at once

 

[Victek]

I ran check disk recently on a Windows XP HE system and it noted that

Sounds like the drive is just plain defective.

Go to the website of the HD's manufacturer and download their diagnostic
utility...then run it.

If it says the drive is bad...believe it. Then replace the drive at once

Downloading the manufacturer's diagnostic utility is a good idea that hadn't
occurred to me - thanks!

 

[Victek]

use / start the recovery console feature

with your windows setup cd.

when you reach the
file system prompt / command console
run this command:

chkdsk /f

then let us know what
the stats are provided
afterwards.

btw: the above may fix the problem
you have and you may not need
to do a repair installation.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the drive any longer - I was on a
service call at the time and can't revisit the site. Note that I did run
chkdsk /f the first time - it did complete successfully and said it fixed
"one or more errors". I'm curious as to what chkdsk /f actually looks at
and fixes? Obviously, there were still problems with the drive afterward -
attempting to do a repair/install failed, with errors like "Windows cannot
write file 'such&such' to the hard drive, press escape to skip this file".

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I ran check disk recently on a Windows XP HE system and it noted that "one
or more problems were fixed" however I continued to get disk write errors
when trying to do a Repair/Install with the XP CD. I then ran the more
extensive check disk (attempt to recover bad sectors), but the test seemed
unable to complete. At one point I noticed that the scan percentage
dropped from 75% to 50% - this was after almost an hour and at that point I
gave up waiting. For comparison I ran the same full check disk on a known
good hard drive about the same size and it completed in 40 minutes. I
concluded that the hard drive in the problem system was failing and
essentially irreparable, but I'd appreciate opinions.

Also, can you recommend a faster to way to assess the integrity of hard
drives in the field as waiting 40 minutes for a full Check Disk to
complete is impractical?

It sounds like you already have the answer. The drive is failing, and must
be replaced, immediately.

A failing drive has a limited life span, of some unknown number of hours or
seconds. Don't waste them running testing tools. Use them to back up and
protect your data.

Take the drive out. Install a new one and reinstall XP to that.
Re-attach your old drive and copy your data. 250 gig drives can be CDN$75.

You will probably have to Take Ownership when you get the "access denied"
messages.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

Often, the fastest way to back up the data is to image the drive with the
Acronis TrueImage trial version. 100 meg, www.acronis.com. Install and
reboot. Attach the old drive, perhaps using a USB2 drive case. Create an
image of the drive; this usually takes under an hour. Mount the image,
open a few files to check the contents, disconnect the old drive and set it
aside. Now, you have two weeks to copy the data from the mounted image.

Using something like xcopy, for comparison, can take many hours, and puts
far more stress on a failing drive. You must finish as quickly as you can.


HTH
-pk