Afraid to run chkdsk /f

[Jackson]

Using XP(CME) on Dell Dimension C521

From Windows Help and Support:

"If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes)
or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of
files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over several days)
to complete. The computer is not available during this time because
chkdsk does not relinquish control until it is finished".

My C drive has 293 GBs but 277 GBs of that space are empty and may not
count, but Help/Spt warns that is the drive is as large as 70 GBs 'or'
has millions of files the chkdsk can run for several DAYS and will not
relinquish control until it has finished. Surely my machine would not
be tied up for days because I chkdsk'd 16 GBs of files (293 - 277).
Or would it? I would feel safer about using the program if they
warned that a disk with 70GBs 'AND' millions of files, but they say
'OR' and so I hesitate to run chkdsk /f.

Am I likely to lose the computer for days? Moreover, it is not
infrequent that we have power outages. What would happen if the power
was interrupted?

Thanks

 

[Maincat]

Using XP(CME) on Dell Dimension C521

From Windows Help and Support:

"If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes)
or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of
files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over several days)
to complete. The computer is not available during this time because
chkdsk does not relinquish control until it is finished".

My C drive has 293 GBs but 277 GBs of that space are empty and may not
count, but Help/Spt warns that is the drive is as large as 70 GBs 'or'
has millions of files the chkdsk can run for several DAYS and will not
relinquish control until it has finished. Surely my machine would not
be tied up for days because I chkdsk'd 16 GBs of files (293 - 277).
Or would it? I would feel safer about using the program if they
warned that a disk with 70GBs 'AND' millions of files, but they say
'OR' and so I hesitate to run chkdsk /f.

Am I likely to lose the computer for days? Moreover, it is not
infrequent that we have power outages. What would happen if the power
was interrupted?

Thanks

No problems - just do it. It should take about two minutes with your drive.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Using XP(CME) on Dell Dimension C521

From Windows Help and Support:

"If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes)
or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of
files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over several days)
to complete. The computer is not available during this time because
chkdsk does not relinquish control until it is finished".

My C drive has 293 GBs but 277 GBs of that space are empty and may not
count, but Help/Spt warns that is the drive is as large as 70 GBs 'or'
has millions of files the chkdsk can run for several DAYS and will not
relinquish control until it has finished. Surely my machine would not
be tied up for days because I chkdsk'd 16 GBs of files (293 - 277).
Or would it? I would feel safer about using the program if they
warned that a disk with 70GBs 'AND' millions of files, but they say
'OR' and so I hesitate to run chkdsk /f.

Am I likely to lose the computer for days? Moreover, it is not
infrequent that we have power outages. What would happen if the power
was interrupted?

Make sure you have backup. Run chkdsk. It will likely take less than ten
minutes. I doubt it would take more than an hour.

 

[Rock]

Using XP(CME) on Dell Dimension C521

From Windows Help and Support:

"If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes)
or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of
files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over several days)
to complete. The computer is not available during this time because
chkdsk does not relinquish control until it is finished".

My C drive has 293 GBs but 277 GBs of that space are empty and may not
count, but Help/Spt warns that is the drive is as large as 70 GBs 'or'
has millions of files the chkdsk can run for several DAYS and will not
relinquish control until it has finished. Surely my machine would not
be tied up for days because I chkdsk'd 16 GBs of files (293 - 277).
Or would it? I would feel safer about using the program if they
warned that a disk with 70GBs 'AND' millions of files, but they say
'OR' and so I hesitate to run chkdsk /f.

Am I likely to lose the computer for days? Moreover, it is not
infrequent that we have power outages. What would happen if the power
was interrupted?

Firstly never run chkdsk without having a full and complete backup of
important data. Second, there is no need to routinely run chkdsk. Third
that is a cautionary message. Assuming you don't do a chkdsk /r, which
checks that every sector is readable, it shouldn't take more than a few
minutes to run. Lastly if you want to check the health of the drive
download a drive diagnostic utility from the drive manufacturer's web site.
This will create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot from that and run the
diagnostics.

 

[MAP]

Using XP(CME) on Dell Dimension C521

From Windows Help and Support:

"If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes)
or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of
files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over several days)
to complete. The computer is not available during this time because
chkdsk does not relinquish control until it is finished".

My C drive has 293 GBs but 277 GBs of that space are empty and may not
count, but Help/Spt warns that is the drive is as large as 70 GBs 'or'
has millions of files the chkdsk can run for several DAYS and will not
relinquish control until it has finished. Surely my machine would not
be tied up for days because I chkdsk'd 16 GBs of files (293 - 277).
Or would it? I would feel safer about using the program if they
warned that a disk with 70GBs 'AND' millions of files, but they say
'OR' and so I hesitate to run chkdsk /f.

Am I likely to lose the computer for days? Moreover, it is not
infrequent that we have power outages. What would happen if the power
was interrupted?

Thanks

Their is no need to run chkdisc unless your volume is "dirty" under computer
management. As for the power outages several years ago I fried a computer
because of a power outage since then I've been using an UPS we'll worth the
money.

 

[Jackson]

Firstly never run chkdsk without having a full and complete backup of
important data.

I was going to run chkdsk /f because straight chkdsk found file errors
on drive C: and advised that action.

Now for the complete backup. I read a bit about ASR Backup (which I
believe is what XP(CME) uses and it scares me half to death, but I'll
try it. I have a question or two tho.

I read somewhere that you are not allowed to add new disks during
backup - that everrything must fit on one disk. I don't see how that
could be true. Is it true? That would mean I could only backup to an
external HD. I have one with 18 GBs free which is more than I have on
the C: drive that I'll be backing up.

Should I create a new folder on the external HD named "BackupDesktop"
or some such thing and point the ASR wizard to there?

I also have a laptop running XP(HE). I understand that it too comes
with ASR Backup but that it does NOT include ASR Restore. That info
is from "XP for Dummies" by Woody Leonhard. Some of this stuff reads
like a fairy tale. Is there some way to back up the laptop to CDs,
because short of another external HD that's the only medium available.

Thanks for all the good advice.

 

[Rock]

I was going to run chkdsk /f because straight chkdsk found file errors
on drive C: and advised that action.

Now for the complete backup. I read a bit about ASR Backup (which I
believe is what XP(CME) uses and it scares me half to death, but I'll
try it. I have a question or two tho.

I read somewhere that you are not allowed to add new disks during
backup - that everrything must fit on one disk. I don't see how that
could be true. Is it true? That would mean I could only backup to an
external HD. I have one with 18 GBs free which is more than I have on
the C: drive that I'll be backing up.

Should I create a new folder on the external HD named "BackupDesktop"
or some such thing and point the ASR wizard to there?

I also have a laptop running XP(HE). I understand that it too comes
with ASR Backup but that it does NOT include ASR Restore. That info
is from "XP for Dummies" by Woody Leonhard. Some of this stuff reads
like a fairy tale. Is there some way to back up the laptop to CDs,
because short of another external HD that's the only medium available.

Thanks for all the good advice.

I personally don't use the ASR wizard because I found the ASR restore
extremely cumbersome, and it didn't fully restore the system to it's working
condition. Also to use ASR the system must have a floppy drive. There is
no way around that. You can use ntbackup to backup data without using the
ASR function.

Years ago I moved to a drive imaging program to save a compressed image of
the drive to an external, USB connected hard drive. Currently I am using
Acronis True Image Home, version 10. It can do imaging on a drive or
partition basis, and also does file backup. Restores can be done on a file,
partition, or drive basis. It also does drive cloning.

Any backup should be made on external media. I don't believe ntbackup has
the option to use more than one hard drive during the backup. It cannot
backup to DVD or multiple CDs. It can backup to a single CD but only if 3rd
party packet writing software is installed. You can create the backup on an
internal drive then burn that to multiple DVDs or CDs by using a burning
program that can span CDs

I'm not saying that every time chkdsk is run there will be problems as a
result, but I have seen plenty of instances were running chkdsk did result
in data loss. And there is no way to undo what chkdsk does. Hence the
caution to always have a full backup before running it. You don't want to
be one of the minority who ran head into that problem.

 

[Jackson]

I personally don't use the ASR wizard because I found the ASR restore
extremely cumbersome, and it didn't fully restore the system to it's working
condition. Also to use ASR the system must have a floppy drive. There is
no way around that. You can use ntbackup to backup data without using the
ASR function.

Years ago I moved to a drive imaging program to save a compressed image of
the drive to an external, USB connected hard drive. Currently I am using
Acronis True Image Home, version 10. It can do imaging on a drive or
partition basis, and also does file backup. Restores can be done on a file,
partition, or drive basis. It also does drive cloning.

Any backup should be made on external media. I don't believe ntbackup has
the option to use more than one hard drive during the backup. It cannot
backup to DVD or multiple CDs. It can backup to a single CD but only if 3rd
party packet writing software is installed. You can create the backup on an
internal drive then burn that to multiple DVDs or CDs by using a burning
program that can span CDs

I'm not saying that every time chkdsk is run there will be problems as a
result, but I have seen plenty of instances were running chkdsk did result
in data loss. And there is no way to undo what chkdsk does. Hence the
caution to always have a full backup before running it. You don't want to
be one of the minority who ran head into that problem.

Just a line for closure. I call Dell tech spt about a diagnostic disk
from the HD manufacturer and they showed me where the onboard HD
diagnostic is. I ran it and it reported "Pass" on my HD which I guess
is as good as it gets. Chkdsk had reported file errors and bad space
allocation.

The tech agrees with your advice to stay away from chkdsk.

I was delighted (and surprised) to learn that I already had a
diagnostic program. I got practically no user instructions along with
my new machine; a newbie is just thrown to the wolves. I remember
the first mail order computer I bought, a Gateway with Win3.1. It
came with a really good manual and all sorts of tips and hints. I
guess those days are gone forever. :>(

I give high marks to Dell's tech spt tho. :>)

Thanks for your help (and patience) Rock.

 

[Rock]

Just a line for closure. I call Dell tech spt about a diagnostic disk
from the HD manufacturer and they showed me where the onboard HD
diagnostic is. I ran it and it reported "Pass" on my HD which I guess
is as good as it gets. Chkdsk had reported file errors and bad space
allocation.

The tech agrees with your advice to stay away from chkdsk.

I was delighted (and surprised) to learn that I already had a
diagnostic program. I got practically no user instructions along with
my new machine; a newbie is just thrown to the wolves. I remember
the first mail order computer I bought, a Gateway with Win3.1. It
came with a really good manual and all sorts of tips and hints. I
guess those days are gone forever. :>(

I give high marks to Dell's tech spt tho. :>)

Thanks for your help (and patience) Rock.

It's fine running the Dell diagnostic, but I wouldn't rely on that. There
utility is not the same quality and doesn't do the same in depth checks as
that from the drive manufacturer. Best is to go to the hard drive
manufacture's web site and get their diagnostic utility. Run msinfo from a
command line. It will tell you the make/model of the drive. Might also get
that basic info from within device manager.

 

[Jackson]

/.../

/.../

It's fine running the Dell diagnostic, but I wouldn't rely on that. There
utility is not the same quality and doesn't do the same in depth checks as
that from the drive manufacturer. Best is to go to the hard drive
manufacture's web site and get their diagnostic utility. Run msinfo from a
command line. It will tell you the make/model of the drive. Might also get
that basic info from within device manager.

I'm doing something wrong. I clicked Start>Run>typed in "msinfo" but
the machine couldn't find the program.

Next I clicked Start>Run>typed in "Command".

This brought up a DOS window. I typed in "msinfo" but the machine
couldn't find it. I changed directories to C:\ and tried again but
"msinfo" doesn't seem to be available.

Within the device manager I found this listed for drive:

WDC WD3200KS-75PFB0 (the 0 is zero, not oh)

I downloaded and ran the BelarcAdvisor and it also reported:

WDC WD3200KS-75PFB0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 0

Does that mean Western Digital, and is this number all I need to
identify the HD that is on my machine?

Thanks

 

[Rock]

/.../

/.../

It's fine running the Dell diagnostic, but I wouldn't rely on that. There
utility is not the same quality and doesn't do the same in depth checks as
that from the drive manufacturer. Best is to go to the hard drive
manufacture's web site and get their diagnostic utility. Run msinfo from
a
command line. It will tell you the make/model of the drive. Might also
get
that basic info from within device manager.

I'm doing something wrong. I clicked Start>Run>typed in "msinfo" but
the machine couldn't find the program.

Next I clicked Start>Run>typed in "Command".

This brought up a DOS window. I typed in "msinfo" but the machine
couldn't find it. I changed directories to C:\ and tried again but
"msinfo" doesn't seem to be available.

Within the device manager I found this listed for drive:

WDC WD3200KS-75PFB0 (the 0 is zero, not oh)

I downloaded and ran the BelarcAdvisor and it also reported:

WDC WD3200KS-75PFB0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 0

Does that mean Western Digital, and is this number all I need to
identify the HD that is on my machine?

Yes that's a western digital drive with the model number being a 3200KS.

Sorry that should have been msinfo32.exe. You can also get to it from Start
| Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Information.