can't schedule C: chkdsk run

[Tom Horsley]

I have the feeling that something is going bad with my hard
disk. The system hangs forever at "Saving Your Settings" when
I try to shutdown or reboot, It hangs when I try to run
Windows Update, and if I try to schedule a chkdsk run on C:
it claims to have scheduled it, but when I reboot, nothing
happens (other than booting, that is). It almost acts like
the registry has become read-only.

Is there some way I can boot that will allow me to manually run
chkdsk on C:?

Or am I better off just assuming the disk is on its way to
the junkpile, do one last backup while I can, and reinstall
windows from scratch? (Its been a few years since the last

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

Backup your necessary files.

When you ran chkdsk c: /f from a command prompt, after running did you type
in Y and then enter to enable chkdsk to run during the next boot?

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Tom Horsley]

Yep, but the command prompt version didn't work. I eventually got around
to trying the GUI version under safe mode, and that actually did make
chkdsk run on the next boot, and it found absolutely nothing wrong,
so I'm starting to suspect some kind of massive software foul-up
(making re-installing XP even more attractive - maybe I won't need
a new disk drive .

It seems as though nothing related to diddling software on the machine
will work. If I try to bring up the system restore window to try going
back to a prior restore point, it hangs. If I try to un-install
recently installed software, the installer hangs, and if I try to run
windows update, windows update hangs. It is like there is some central
point of failure in Windows Installer on this system - anything that
gets close to it hangs.

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

Whenever you have a problem that affects many areas of the operating system,
suspect that your computer has been compromised.

Install a good firewall - one that blocks unwanted outbound traffic as well
as unwanted inbound traffic. Then when something tries to connect, out of
the ordinary, you will be flagged. At that point you can disallow that
particular instance either once or permanently. A good FREE firewall is
available here:
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?lid=dbtopnav_za

Then check you system for infestations of viruses, spyware, dialers, key
loggers etc.

Download, install, update and run the following from ***safe*** mode:

If you don't have any antivirus installed, AVG Antivirus (free) from
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Ad-Aware (free) from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

SpyBot Search and Destroy (free) from
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Microsoft Anti Spyware (free) from
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Don't ever go clicking things just because a web site, e-mail, popup or
rogue desktop tells you to! If you are not 101% certain what an action will
do - don't perform that action. Control your clicking finger!


--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Tom Horsley]

Oh, I've been paranoid about that for years. I've got a hardware
and software firewall, anti-virus, etc. None of them see anything
wrong, and I never click on random stuff (especially in email).
Even if it is some sort of infestation that none of the security
apps detect, formatting C: and reinstalling should clean it up
as well as any other kind of broken software. Actually, I noticed
the first symptoms of this shortly after running windows update
(the last time it worked), maybe I shouldn't click on those
links either .

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Tom,

1) On CHKDSK:
Run CHKDSK from within Recovery Console. *Presuming you have a full retail CD version of Windows XP* or a slipstream CD of XP.
( If you don't have the XP CD, or have an OEM version of XP, it may be possible to run Recovery Console by booting up from XP setup diskettes.)

#1. Run CHKDSK in XP Recovery Console:
Set pc BIOS to boot from CDROM. Place XP CD in drive. Reboot from the CD.
Select the first option R Repair/Recovery Console.
Select your Windows partition by number. Usually it is 1 .
Login to XP with administrator password (if your setup had a password; otherwise press Enter).

Then run CHKDSK /P from the command line. (In Recovery Console /P replaces /F ).

Run it once (or repeat) until it shows no errors. This should clear the
"dirty" flag on the disk drive C. Run CHKDSK for each drive on your system.
CHKDSK /P :X where X is letter for disk drive

2) The shutdown problem at "Saving settings" :
See this article at Aumha.org
WINDOWS XP SHUTDOWN & RESTART TROUBLESHOOTING

http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Look it over carefully. iirc, it's even possible your CD burning software can cause a problem... if it is out-of-date. Check with the publisher for current updates.

Review & make a list of all your startup programs. One of those may be involved with this problem.

3) Look at your log file for Windows Update.

Use Notepad or Wordpad and open & look at the Windows Update log file
C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log or C:\WINNT\WindowsUpdate.log

Scroll down all the way for the set of lines for the last session.

See MS article "How to read the Windowsupdate.log file"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093

Read and review. Use at your own risk. "Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301


Get latest Windows Installer from MS Download Center. "Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2)" as of this writing.
This is the "English" edition !!
Short link to MS page http://tinyurl.com/6camd

 

[Tom Horsley]

Those sound like good things to check. I am starting to suspect it is
some specific thing that runs at startup. I've been binary searching the
set of processes in task manager, and if I kill off some things before
trying to reboot it doesn't hang forever. Just got to figure out
which thing (and hope it isn't system critical .

Tom,

1) On CHKDSK:
Run CHKDSK from within Recovery Console. *Presuming you have a full retail CD version of Windows XP* or a slipstream CD of XP.
( If you don't have the XP CD, or have an OEM version of XP, it may be possible to run Recovery Console by booting up from XP setup
diskettes.)

#1. Run CHKDSK in XP Recovery Console:
Set pc BIOS to boot from CDROM. Place XP CD in drive. Reboot from the CD.
Select the first option R Repair/Recovery Console.
Select your Windows partition by number. Usually it is 1 .
Login to XP with administrator password (if your setup had a password; otherwise press Enter).

Then run CHKDSK /P from the command line. (In Recovery Console /P replaces /F ).

Run it once (or repeat) until it shows no errors. This should clear the
"dirty" flag on the disk drive C. Run CHKDSK for each drive on your system.
CHKDSK /P :X where X is letter for disk drive

2) The shutdown problem at "Saving settings" :
See this article at Aumha.org
WINDOWS XP SHUTDOWN & RESTART TROUBLESHOOTING

http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Look it over carefully. iirc, it's even possible your CD burning software can cause a problem... if it is out-of-date. Check with
the publisher for current updates.

Review & make a list of all your startup programs. One of those may be involved with this problem.

3) Look at your log file for Windows Update.

Use Notepad or Wordpad and open & look at the Windows Update log file
C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log or C:\WINNT\WindowsUpdate.log

Scroll down all the way for the set of lines for the last session.

See MS article "How to read the Windowsupdate.log file"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093

Read and review. Use at your own risk. "Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301


Get latest Windows Installer from MS Download Center. "Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2)" as of this writing.
This is the "English" edition !!
Short link to MS page http://tinyurl.com/6camd

 

[Tom Horsley]

Hey! I found it. My binary search revealed that the APC "Power Chute"
software (which has been running fine for about two years) was somehow
(at least indirectly) responsible for all my problems. When I kill
off the power chute services from task manager, I am able to shutdown
and add/remove programs without hanging. Better yet, I am able to
remove the power chute software .

So, did the latest Windows Genuine Advantage software re-use some
port number or mailslot name that is the same as one used in the
power chute software or something like that? I can't explain it
any other way.

Anyway, my system appears to be completely normal now (other than
no longer having graceful shutdown on power failures .

 

[Tom Horsley]

Ah-HA! A visit to the APC web site discovered a big notice that
the software I was using would stop working due to java runtime
certificate expiration on July 27th (which is probably about when
I noticed the problems start). You'd think they would send mail
to registered users about something like this (but think of all the
fun I'd have missed out on discovering the problem myself .

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Tom, It is good that you posted back. "New wrinkles" are always something else. W.T.G.