Chkdisk wont run

[Guest]

I scheduled Chkdisk to run when I restarted the system, it never ran. Now
when I boot the system I get a message that says among other things "Cannot
open volume for direct access) Then says "disk scan complete" and continues
the start up normaly. This occurs on my system running Win 2K Professional
@Version 5.00.2195 SP 4. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Dave Patrick]

If you get an error something to the effect "cannot open volume for direct
access" There is some system/boot start device that is reading/writing to
the drive before chkdsk can get a lock on the drive. Some anti-virus
applications do this.

After backup you can also run;
chkdsk /r
from the recovery console command line. (/r implies /f and /p)

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks. At
the "Welcome to Setup" screen. Press F10 or R to repair a Windows 2000
installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The Recovery
Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do not have
the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer: drive
root, %windir% or %systemroot%


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I scheduled Chkdisk to run when I restarted the system, it never ran. Now
| when I boot the system I get a message that says among other things
"Cannot
| open volume for direct access) Then says "disk scan complete" and
continues
| the start up normaly. This occurs on my system running Win 2K
Professional
| @version 5.00.2195 SP 4. Any help will be appreciated.
| --
| Ed Allen

 

[Guest]

I now have three questions,
1. Will this remove the error message on startup and allow chkdisk to run
normaly from Win 2K ?
2. What do you mean by "after backup" ?
3. How can I find the administrative password on my system?

 

[Dan Seur]

It sounds as though you are trying to execute chkdsk against the system
partition, with the /f and/or the /r parameter present.

This cannot be done. The OS, once fully loaded and running, will never
give chkdsk exclusive read/write access to its own partition (usually
C. To do so would be suicidal.

You can probably schedule chkdsk with no parameters to be run right away
after the OS has fully booted.

There is a process called autochk.exe that is designed to be run during
the OS boot process. You'll find it in your \system32 directory. Try
that. It's the process that is scheduled by chkdsk.exe if, when you try
[chkdsk C: /f] and you get the message "Can't do that, you want to run
chkdsk at next boot?", you answer "Yes."

I believe you'd have to run autochk at system shutdown, for it to
execute where it needs to (very early) in the system load sequence. It
actually has to run before the OS is given control by the loader. If
this can be done, I guess you'd have to shut down with a batch program
involving both autochk.exe and shutdown.exe.

There are a couple of things I'm uncertain about; some other poster may
find things to correct. I'd check Google for more info, too.

Hope this helps, Ed.

I scheduled Chkdisk to run when I restarted the system, it never ran. Now
when I boot the system I get a message that says among other things "Cannot
open volume for direct access) Then says "disk scan complete" and continues
the start up normaly. This occurs on my system running Win 2K Professional
@Version 5.00.2195 SP 4. Any help will be appreciated.

---
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http://www.avast.com

 

[Dave Patrick]

:
|I now have three questions,
| 1. Will this remove the error message on startup and allow chkdisk to run
| normaly from Win 2K ?
* Normaly yes.

| 2. What do you mean by "after backup" ?
* Always best to have on hand backups for anything you cannot afford to
lose. When chkdsk runs any damage found will be repaired possibly at the
expense of any data on the drive. You must suspect something's wrong else
you wouldn't be asking about this.

| 3. How can I find the administrative password on my system?
* Ask the administrator or the person you got the machine from. (blank if
the installer didn't specify one)



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Guest]

Dave, I did as you suggested and ran chkdsk thru to completion. Upon
reboot, error message still comes up. It realy doesnt hurt anything but I
have a program that runs in MS DOS and defrags the boot programs. I would
like to clean this up would fixboot help? Thanks for all your responses
today and in the past.

 

[Dave Patrick]

No, it wouldn't. Does it always fix something? (check the application Event
Log) If so the drive and or controller may have failed. I'd download and run
a disk diagnostic utility from the drive manufacturer's web site. If not
then these articles may help you.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=218461
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=160963



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave, I did as you suggested and ran chkdsk thru to completion. Upon
| reboot, error message still comes up. It realy doesnt hurt anything but I
| have a program that runs in MS DOS and defrags the boot programs. I would
| like to clean this up would fixboot help? Thanks for all your responses
| today and in the past.
| --
| Ed Allen

 

[Guest]

David, I ran a complete chkdsk /r as you suggested with no errors detected.
I believe that the disk is OK. I am able to run a defrag on it without
problems. A few days ago I believe that a defrag utility PerfectDisk
scheduled a boot record defrag that runs opon boot. That same day I
scheduled a Check disk run via Disk Properties --Tools --- Check disk for
errors. When I booted the system the next day the error message appeared and
has since. I would like to correct the problem somehow. There must be a
switch in the boot program that signals that a check disk should run. ????
Do you have any further suggestions?

 

[Dave Patrick]

If a volume's dirty bit is set, this indicates that the file system may be
in an inconsistent state. The dirty bit can be set because the volume is
online and has outstanding changes, because changes were made to the volume
and the computer shutdown before the changes were committed to disk, or
because corruption was detected on the volume. If the dirty bit is set when
the computer restarts, chkdsk runs to verify the consistency of the volume.

When Autochk runs against a volume at boot time it records its output to a
file called Bootex.log in the root of the volume being checked. The Winlogon
service then moves the contents of each Bootex.log file to the Application
Event log. One event log message for each volume checked is recorded. So
check the application event log.

Also take a look at the Reg_Multi_Sz value of;
'BootExecute'
found at;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| David, I ran a complete chkdsk /r as you suggested with no errors
detected.
| I believe that the disk is OK. I am able to run a defrag on it without
| problems. A few days ago I believe that a defrag utility PerfectDisk
| scheduled a boot record defrag that runs opon boot. That same day I
| scheduled a Check disk run via Disk Properties --Tools --- Check disk for
| errors. When I booted the system the next day the error message appeared
and
| has since. I would like to correct the problem somehow. There must be a
| switch in the boot program that signals that a check disk should run.
????
| Do you have any further suggestions?
| --
| Ed Allen

 

[Guest]

I have found the value set in the above referenced registry entry it is
"autocheck autochk /r \??\C PDBoot.exe autocheck a..." What does that mean
and can this be reset? Is this what is causing the error message at boot
time?

 

[Dave Patrick]

Here's what I have. (note: you must use regedt32.exe to edit type
Reg_Multi_Sz) If you still have Perfect Disk then you should have both
lines. If not then only the second line.

PDBoot.exe
autocheck autochk *


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I have found the value set in the above referenced registry entry it is
| "autocheck autochk /r \??\C PDBoot.exe autocheck a..." What does that
mean
| and can this be reset? Is this what is causing the error message at boot
| time?
| --
| Ed Allen

 

[Colon Terminus]

Some versions of Zone Alarm could cause this symptom.
Do you use Zone Alarm? If so, disable it and see what happens.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much Dave, I edited the registry as you suggested and now it boots
normaly.

 

[Guest]

The problem was caused by PerfectDisk scheduling a defrag of the boot records
simeltaneously with my requesting a checkdsk run at boot time. Thanks for
the input.
--
Ed Allen

It sounds as though you are trying to execute chkdsk against the system
partition, with the /f and/or the /r parameter present.

This cannot be done. The OS, once fully loaded and running, will never
give chkdsk exclusive read/write access to its own partition (usually
C. To do so would be suicidal.

You can probably schedule chkdsk with no parameters to be run right away
after the OS has fully booted.

There is a process called autochk.exe that is designed to be run during
the OS boot process. You'll find it in your \system32 directory. Try
that. It's the process that is scheduled by chkdsk.exe if, when you try
[chkdsk C: /f] and you get the message "Can't do that, you want to run
chkdsk at next boot?", you answer "Yes."

I believe you'd have to run autochk at system shutdown, for it to
execute where it needs to (very early) in the system load sequence. It
actually has to run before the OS is given control by the loader. If
this can be done, I guess you'd have to shut down with a batch program
involving both autochk.exe and shutdown.exe.

There are a couple of things I'm uncertain about; some other poster may
find things to correct. I'd check Google for more info, too.

Hope this helps, Ed.

I scheduled Chkdisk to run when I restarted the system, it never ran. Now
when I boot the system I get a message that says among other things "Cannot
open volume for direct access) Then says "disk scan complete" and continues
the start up normaly. This occurs on my system running Win 2K Professional
@Version 5.00.2195 SP 4. Any help will be appreciated.

---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0617-3, 04/28/2006
Tested on: 4/29/2006 4:53:49 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

 

[Guest]

The problem was caused by PerfectDisk scheduling a defrag of the boot records
simeltaneously with my requesting a checkdsk run at boot time. Thanks for
the input. I do have ZoneAlarm but it didn't cause the problem. --
Ed Allen

 

[Dave Patrick]

Glad to hear it. You're welcome.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Thanks so much Dave, I edited the registry as you suggested and now it
boots
| normaly.
| --
| Ed Allen

 

[Dan Seur]

Ed - thanks for the feedback, glad you're set. I know the people at
PerfectDisk (Raxco) would be interested, if they aren't already
watching.

The problem was caused by PerfectDisk scheduling a defrag of the boot records
simeltaneously with my requesting a checkdsk run at boot time. Thanks for
the input.

---
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Tested on: 4/30/2006 6:31:15 PM
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http://www.avast.com

 

[Greg Hayes/Raxco Software]

Ed,

"The problem was caused by PerfectDisk scheduling a defrag of the boot
records simeltaneously with my requesting a checkdsk run at boot time.
Thanks for the input. I do have ZoneAlarm but it didn't cause the problem."

I'm finding this very puzzling - we've never heard of this happening before
and our boot defrag process hasn't essentially changed for 5 years.

If PDBoot detects that the volume dirty bit is set or that CHKDSK has been
told to run at boot, it doesn't do anything. PDBoot also doesn't prevent
CHKDSK from running on the drive. There are, however, other things that can
prevent both CHKDSK and PDBoot from running at boot time.

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows File System

Disclaimer: I work for Raxco Software, the maker of PerfectDisk - a
commercial defrag utility, as a systems engineer in the support department.

Want to email me? Delete ntloader.

 

[Dan Seur]

Come to think of it, Ed, I've scheduled simultaneous boot-time chkdsks
and perfectdisk defrags many times and never encountered your problem.

Your "problem was caused by" conclusion may be wrong.

The problem was caused by PerfectDisk scheduling a defrag of the boot records
simeltaneously with my requesting a checkdsk run at boot time. Thanks for
the input.

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Tested on: 5/2/2006 1:09:23 PM
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http://www.avast.com

 

[Guest]

I scheduled Chkdisk to run when I restarted the system, it never ran. Now
when I boot the system I get a message that says among other things "Cannot
open volume for direct access) Then says "disk scan complete" and continues
the start up normaly. This occurs on my system running Win 2K Professional
@Version 5.00.2195 SP 4. Any help will be appreciated.