Any way to run scandisk on external USB drive?

[Dave Rado]

Running Win XP SP1, I'm trying to run scandisk (via drive Properties + Tools
+ Error-checking) on an external USB disk which requires Windows to be
running before it can be seen by the system. Whenever I try to run Scandisk
it says "The disk check could not be performed because the disk check
utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These
files can be accessed only by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule
this disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?" If I
select "Yes", the disk check does not run when I restart the computer
because the system can't "see" the drive until Windows is running, by which
time it's too late for it to run! Is there any way to get around this catch
22? Or is there any third party scandisk utility that's more intelligent
about USB drives?

Dave

 

[Dave Rado]

If this is the wrong newsgroup to post this question to, please could
someone suggest a better one?

Thanks

Dave


| Running Win XP SP1, I'm trying to run scandisk (via drive Properties +
Tools
| + Error-checking) on an external USB disk which requires Windows to be
| running before it can be seen by the system. Whenever I try to run
Scandisk
| it says "The disk check could not be performed because the disk check
| utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These
| files can be accessed only by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule
| this disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?" If I
| select "Yes", the disk check does not run when I restart the computer
| because the system can't "see" the drive until Windows is running, by
which
| time it's too late for it to run! Is there any way to get around this
catch
| 22? Or is there any third party scandisk utility that's more intelligent
| about USB drives?
|
| Dave
|
|
|

 

[Tom Willett]

Upgrade to WinXP SP2?

Ask the MFR of your external drive?

Tom

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Tom

Does XP2 definitely solve this problem?

The drive manufacturer says they don't support Microsoft products.

Dave


| Upgrade to WinXP SP2?
|
| Ask the MFR of your external drive?
|
| Tom
|
| | > If this is the wrong newsgroup to post this question to, please could
| > someone suggest a better one?
| >
| > Thanks
| >
| > Dave
| >
| >
| > | > | Running Win XP SP1, I'm trying to run scandisk (via drive Properties +
| > Tools
| > | + Error-checking) on an external USB disk which requires Windows to be
| > | running before it can be seen by the system. Whenever I try to run
| > Scandisk
| > | it says "The disk check could not be performed because the disk check
| > | utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk.
These
| > | files can be accessed only by restarting Windows. Do you want to
| > schedule
| > | this disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?" If I
| > | select "Yes", the disk check does not run when I restart the computer
| > | because the system can't "see" the drive until Windows is running, by
| > which
| > | time it's too late for it to run! Is there any way to get around this
| > catch
| > | 22? Or is there any third party scandisk utility that's more
intelligent
| > | about USB drives?
| > |
| > | Dave
| > |
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|

 

[Tom Willett]

If the mfr doesn't support MS products, that should be your clue as to why
it doesn't work.

Tom

 

[Kerry Brown]

Hi Tom

Does XP2 definitely solve this problem?

The drive manufacturer says they don't support Microsoft products.

Who is the manufacturer? If they don't support Microsoft products then maybe
you should be looking at a different drive for use with Windows. I just
tried running chkdsk on a couple of different external USB drives on two
computers with XP SP2 and had no problems. I don't have any SP1 computers to
test it on.

 

[Dave Rado]

I know of *no* hardware manufacturer that supports third party software. For
that matter, Microsoft don't support any third party products either.

My question was not about my drive in particular (which works perfectly with
Windows) but about USB drives in general which by definition will all have
the problem I described because that is the way USB works.

Dave

| If the mfr doesn't support MS products, that should be your clue as to why
| it doesn't work.
|
| Tom
|
| | > Hi Tom
| >
| > Does XP2 definitely solve this problem?
| >
| > The drive manufacturer says they don't support Microsoft products.
| >
| > Dave
| >
| >
| > | > | Upgrade to WinXP SP2?
| > |
| > | Ask the MFR of your external drive?
| > |
| > | Tom
| > |
| > | | > | > If this is the wrong newsgroup to post this question to, please
could
| > | > someone suggest a better one?
| > | >
| > | > Thanks
| > | >
| > | > Dave
| > | >
| > | >
| > | > | > | > | Running Win XP SP1, I'm trying to run scandisk (via drive
Properties
| > +
| > | > Tools
| > | > | + Error-checking) on an external USB disk which requires Windows
to
| > be
| > | > | running before it can be seen by the system. Whenever I try to run
| > | > Scandisk
| > | > | it says "The disk check could not be performed because the disk
| > check
| > | > | utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk.
| > These
| > | > | files can be accessed only by restarting Windows. Do you want to
| > | > schedule
| > | > | this disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?"
If
| > I
| > | > | select "Yes", the disk check does not run when I restart the
| > computer
| > | > | because the system can't "see" the drive until Windows is running,
| > by
| > | > which
| > | > | time it's too late for it to run! Is there any way to get around
| > this
| > | > catch
| > | > | 22? Or is there any third party scandisk utility that's more
| > intelligent
| > | > | about USB drives?
| > | > |
| > | > | Dave
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | >
| > | >
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Kerry


| Who is the manufacturer? If they don't support Microsoft products then
maybe
| you should be looking at a different drive for use with Windows.

In my experience *no* hardware manufacturer supports any third party
software. My drive *is* supported by Windows, I only meant that it's
manufacturer doesn't provide free technical support on any third party
products - any more than Microsoft do.


| I just
| tried running chkdsk on a couple of different external USB drives on two
| computers with XP SP2 and had no problems. I don't have any SP1 computers
to
| test it on.

Please could you talk me through the exact procedure you followed? I though
chkdsk was a DOS program? Did you go to your drive's properties in Windows
Explorer, select the Tools tab, click "Check Now", and then select
"Automatically fix the system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of
bad sectors"? (If not, that's what I want to do). If so, are you saying that
it *didn't* ask you to restart your computer before it could continue?

Dave

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Hi Kerry


| Who is the manufacturer? If they don't support Microsoft products then
maybe
| you should be looking at a different drive for use with Windows.

In my experience *no* hardware manufacturer supports any third party
software. My drive *is* supported by Windows, I only meant that it's
manufacturer doesn't provide free technical support on any third party
products - any more than Microsoft do.


| I just
| tried running chkdsk on a couple of different external USB drives on two
| computers with XP SP2 and had no problems. I don't have any SP1
computers
to
| test it on.

Please could you talk me through the exact procedure you followed? I
though
chkdsk was a DOS program? Did you go to your drive's properties in Windows
Explorer, select the Tools tab, click "Check Now", and then select
"Automatically fix the system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery
of
bad sectors"? (If not, that's what I want to do). If so, are you saying
that
it *didn't* ask you to restart your computer before it could continue?

Dave

"Supports" has 2 separate definitions in the context that is being discussed
here.
Support can mean providing help if the third party software has problems
with your product (very rare) or it can mean that your product is compatible
with a particular third party product (supports the installation of that
third party product).

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Ronnie

| "Supports" has 2 separate definitions in the context that is being
discussed
| here.
| Support can mean providing help if the third party software has problems
| with your product (very rare) or it can mean that your product is
compatible
| with a particular third party product (supports the installation of that
| third party product).

Yes and my product is fully compatible with Windows, but I was asked in this
thread to obtain help on Windows from my hardware manufacturer, and I
replied that my hardware manufacturer does not provide such help. But back
to my original question, do you know whether upgrading to Win XP SP2 would
resolve the problem with external USB drives and Scandisk that I reported in
my original post?

Dave

 

[Kerry Brown]

Hi Kerry



In my experience *no* hardware manufacturer supports any third party
software. My drive *is* supported by Windows, I only meant that it's
manufacturer doesn't provide free technical support on any third party
products - any more than Microsoft do.



Please could you talk me through the exact procedure you followed? I
though chkdsk was a DOS program? Did you go to your drive's
properties in Windows Explorer, select the Tools tab, click "Check
Now", and then select "Automatically fix the system errors" and "Scan
for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"? (If not, that's what I want
to do). If so, are you saying that it *didn't* ask you to restart
your computer before it could continue?

Dave

There is no scandisk in XP or any NT based version of Windows. The disk
checking program is called chkdks.exe and it is a command line program. Your
method runs it from the GUI but it is the same program no matter how you run
it. I prefer running it from a cmd prompt but I tested again exactly by the
procedure you used above except I didn't pick scan for bad sectors. It takes
too long. I tried it with a FAT32 and a NTFS partition on a 200 GB external
drive. Both worked fine and didn't need a restart. I also tired it on a
coulple of USB flash drives. They also worked as expected. I have no idea if
this is related to SP2 or not.