XP corrupted it's oln harddisk. Delayed write failed. Cannot write to C:\$Mft ...

[George Valkov]

A brain new PC running Windows XP Pro.
I changed this configuration:
System Properties\Advanced\Performance.Settings\Advanced\
Processor scheduling: change to Background services
Memory usage: change to System cache

On the next logon it started to display errors like:
~ Windows delayed write failed
~ Cannot write to C:\$Mft
~ Cannot open FILENAME or FOLDER-NAME
When I try to run an application like chkdsk:
~ The system cannot start the program
~ The system is low on resources
Finally it stopped responding.

It failed on the next start with a blue screen.
In Recovery Console from XP CD:
dir C:
Error - it cannot enumerate the directories
(the same problem with D
chkdsk fixed both hard-disks and directories became back available.
It made come corrections to the MFT.
fixboot c: said that the boot record was corrupt and repaired it.

The system starts and works fine in Same Mode with Command Prompt.
If I restore those settings, it will work fine in Normal Startup. If I leave
it, I have the same errors and the system will destroy itself again.


About the hardware:
~ 512 MB of RAM
~ Intel Pentium 4, on 2.99 GHz
~ Intel based motherboard
~ Serial ATA, Seagate Barracuda: 200 GB as C: and D:

Drivers:
~ The default installation and after that chipset drivers from Manufacturer
CD that comes with the Main-board.
~ The chipset drivers allows XP to support the entire hard-disk (else it
will support about 128 GB).

Questions:
1. Please tell me more about this hard-disk limitation (128 GB). Which
hard-disk types/controllers are affected? Is Windows 2003 Server affected?

2. Tell me more about the problem I had and why Windows XP destroyed the
partitions?

3. Is Windows XP with service pack 2 affected? I am afraid to try this by my
self!

 

[OShah]

A brain new PC running Windows XP Pro.
I changed this configuration:
System Properties\Advanced\Performance.Settings\Advanced\
Processor scheduling: change to Background services
Memory usage: change to System cache

On the next logon it started to display errors like:
~ Windows delayed write failed
~ Cannot write to C:\$Mft
~ Cannot open FILENAME or FOLDER-NAME
When I try to run an application like chkdsk:
~ The system cannot start the program
~ The system is low on resources
Finally it stopped responding.

It failed on the next start with a blue screen.
In Recovery Console from XP CD:
dir C:
Error - it cannot enumerate the directories
(the same problem with D
chkdsk fixed both hard-disks and directories became back available.
It made come corrections to the MFT.
fixboot c: said that the boot record was corrupt and repaired it.

The system starts and works fine in Same Mode with Command Prompt.
If I restore those settings, it will work fine in Normal Startup. If I
leave it, I have the same errors and the system will destroy itself
again.


About the hardware:
~ 512 MB of RAM
~ Intel Pentium 4, on 2.99 GHz
~ Intel based motherboard
~ Serial ATA, Seagate Barracuda: 200 GB as C: and D:

Drivers:
~ The default installation and after that chipset drivers from
Manufacturer CD that comes with the Main-board.
~ The chipset drivers allows XP to support the entire hard-disk (else it
will support about 128 GB).

Questions:
1. Please tell me more about this hard-disk limitation (128 GB). Which
hard-disk types/controllers are affected? Is Windows 2003 Server
affected?

2. Tell me more about the problem I had and why Windows XP destroyed the
partitions?

3. Is Windows XP with service pack 2 affected? I am afraid to try this
by my self!

1.
BIOSs dating before 2001 utilised 28-bits to address hard disk sectors.
This gave BIOSs an upper limit of 128GB for hard disks. So when 128GB
disks came out, the hard disk manufacturers [Maxtor] needed to change to a
new addressing scheme. They invented 48bit LBA to get around this problem.

In order for computers to utilise the new addressing scheme, Both
Motherboards. And Operating Systems needed to be upgraded (unless it's
like DOS where it asks the BIOS to handle Hard Disk calls).

IDE controllers came out for those users who had older obsolete computers
almost immediately. Motherboard manufacturers updated their BIOSs starting
in 2002 (including Intel, who released the Intel Application Accelerator).

Microsoft added large disk support to their NT operating systems starting
with XP [2001] but disabled the code by default (I think it was because
they didn't have time to test the new drivers).
You can enable large disk support via a registry switch.

Starting with Service Pack 1, large disk support is enabled by default if
your computer supports it.


In Summary.
As long as you have Service Pack 1, those drives will be completely fine.
I suggest integrating the Service Pack with your XP cd if you're worried
about disk corruption. This will give you Large Hard Disk Support from the
1st second (see http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2
_slipstream.asp and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/spdeploy.mspx
to see how to integrate service packs).


2.
Which Video Card are you using? ATI Video cards aren't compatible with the
Large System Cache option (http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4217.html).
Some NVidia cards have also exhibited this behaviour. First, disable Large
System Cache.

The Intel Application Accelerator software is notorious for decreasing
system stability, whilst giving no performance gains at all (despite it's
name). Uninstalling it may help.

If that doesn't fix it, try lowering the DMA Mode for your hard disk.

3.
Service Pack 2 (which includes Service Pack 1) fixes two problems related
to "Delayed Write Failed", but they don't apply to you. The fixes are
mostly network related. See: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=811113 .



--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
oshah
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Error Reporting -> Choose Programs
-> Do not report errors for these programs:

Acrobat.exe
waol.exe

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