ChkDsk anomaly (Dell Seagate)

[Don Phillipson]

On the hard drive (ST340014A = Seagate Barracuda 7200 7) of
a Dell Dimension DIM 2400 (WinXP Home Dell OED)
/ Manage / Storage / Disk Mgt. reports the HD healthy (C: drive NTFS
and hidden 32 Mb FAT32 drive as well, also healthy)
but ChkDsk will not run (craps out in Phase 1).

Problem is that my friend's system runs slowly and EXPLORER
frequently hangs. I suspect disk damage is the cause. But
what can I do next?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

On the hard drive (ST340014A = Seagate Barracuda 7200 7) of
a Dell Dimension DIM 2400 (WinXP Home Dell OED)
/ Manage / Storage / Disk Mgt. reports the HD healthy (C: drive NTFS
and hidden 32 Mb FAT32 drive as well, also healthy)
but ChkDsk will not run (craps out in Phase 1).

Problem is that my friend's system runs slowly and EXPLORER
frequently hangs. I suspect disk damage is the cause. But
what can I do next?

What size is the disk?

 

[Mark Adams]

On the hard drive (ST340014A = Seagate Barracuda 7200 7) of
a Dell Dimension DIM 2400 (WinXP Home Dell OED)
/ Manage / Storage / Disk Mgt. reports the HD healthy (C: drive NTFS
and hidden 32 Mb FAT32 drive as well, also healthy)
but ChkDsk will not run (craps out in Phase 1).

Problem is that my friend's system runs slowly and EXPLORER
frequently hangs. I suspect disk damage is the cause. But
what can I do next?

Download Seagate's drive checking tools and check the drive. If the drive
fails the test, replace it. Use Seagate's free cloning tool to clone to the
new drive while the old drive is still working.

 

[nass]

On the hard drive (ST340014A = Seagate Barracuda 7200 7) of
a Dell Dimension DIM 2400 (WinXP Home Dell OED)
/ Manage / Storage / Disk Mgt. reports the HD healthy (C: drive NTFS
and hidden 32 Mb FAT32 drive as well, also healthy)
but ChkDsk will not run (craps out in Phase 1).

Problem is that my friend's system runs slowly and EXPLORER
frequently hangs. I suspect disk damage is the cause. But
what can I do next?

Did you checked the HDD space?
If the disk space not a problem try to run the Diagnostic tools (Fitness
Test) to check the HDD health.
Drive Fitness Test
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
Windows XP chkdsk
http://www.updatexp.com/windows-xp-chkdsk.html

Try System Restore on this machine, my guess this machine laden with
malware/viruse which causing this issue, if the HDD was okay!

 

[HeyBub]

On the hard drive (ST340014A = Seagate Barracuda 7200 7) of
a Dell Dimension DIM 2400 (WinXP Home Dell OED)
/ Manage / Storage / Disk Mgt. reports the HD healthy (C: drive NTFS
and hidden 32 Mb FAT32 drive as well, also healthy)
but ChkDsk will not run (craps out in Phase 1).

Problem is that my friend's system runs slowly and EXPLORER
frequently hangs. I suspect disk damage is the cause. But
what can I do next?

The chances of disk damage being the cause of the symptoms you report are
vanishingly small. Much more likely is a malware infestation.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Try using chkdsk.exe 1). in a command prompt (chkdsk c: /f) and 2). in
recovery console (if not installed to hard-drive as startup-option then run
XP Installation disk and select "Repair with Recovery Console" option) and
type "chkdsk c: /p" (without quotes) at the recovery console prompt.
To install recovery console as a startup option in XP Boot Menu - insert XP
Installation cd and type "x:\i386\winnt.exe /cmdcons" in the Run box on the
Start Menu, where x: is your cd-rom/dvd drive.

 

[Alister]

What size is the disk?

ST340014A = 40GB

Alister

 

[Randem]

Remove the drive and attach to another system via USB or as a slave drive to
run chkdsk or any other utilities on it. Malware removal is really tough to
remove on the computer that it is bogging down in the first place...

--
Randem Systems
Your Installation Specialist
The Top Inno Setup Script Generator
http://www.randem.com/innoscript.html
Disk Read Error Press Ctl+Alt+Del to Restart
http://www.randem.com/discus/messages/9402/9406.html?1236319938

 

[Randem]

Remove the drive and attach to another system via USB or as a slave drive to
run chkdsk or any other utilities on it. Malware removal is really tough to
remove on the computer that it is bogging down in the first place...

--
Randem Systems
Your Installation Specialist
The Top Inno Setup Script Generator
http://www.randem.com/innoscript.html
Disk Read Error Press Ctl+Alt+Del to Restart
http://www.randem.com/discus/messages/9402/9406.html?1236319938

 

[Randem]

You can also test the disk for errors better using testdisk or another disk
testing utility.

--
Randem Systems
Your Installation Specialist
The Top Inno Setup Script Generator
http://www.randem.com/innoscript.html
Disk Read Error Press Ctl+Alt+Del to Restart
http://www.randem.com/discus/messages/9402/9406.html?1236319938

 

[Don Phillipson]

Try using chkdsk.exe 1). in a command prompt (chkdsk c: /f) and 2). in
recovery console (if not installed to hard-drive as startup-option then run
XP Installation disk and select "Repair with Recovery Console" option) and
type "chkdsk c: /p" (without quotes) at the recovery console prompt.
To install recovery console as a startup option in XP Boot Menu - insert XP
Installation cd and type "x:\i386\winnt.exe /cmdcons" in the Run box on the
Start Menu, where x: is your cd-rom/dvd drive.

I tried a short cut (from Microsoft WindowsXP Inside Out, Bott & Siechert)
viz. WINNT32.EXE (on CD: not on hard drive in standard installation)
but this would not run, apparently because it was SP1a (on CD) and
I had already installed SP2: so stopped at that point. I am reluctant
to boot SP1a from the CD in case I need to reinstal upgrades --
thus perforce SP3. (On my other XP PCs SP2 is fully functional
and runs perfectly, so I avoided SP3 when new, because of
multiple problem reports.)

I doubt the slowness problem is malware: the owner is an
elderly lady of conservative habits and I see nothing bad in the
Task Manager when I look. The CHKDSK error suggests a
hardware problem: I have the Seagate test app but have not yet
taken it to the user's house.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Hi Don,
Yes, but did you try running CHKDSK in a Command Prompt window?
What happened? If it runs and there are errors it will tell you to use
CHKDSK /F and when you do that it will ask if you want it to run on next
reboot. Answer Y and [ENTER] Chkdsk will run just after rebooting and
won't have the operating system to worry about. This should also work the
same if you were to check the box marked "Automatically fix file system
errors" in the drives property page. What happens in either case? Are you
saying CHKDSK "craps out in phase one" at reboot or is Windows still running
because you haven't checked the box "Automatically fix file system errors"?

 

[Tecknomage]

Hi Don,
Yes, but did you try running CHKDSK in a Command Prompt window?
What happened? If it runs and there are errors it will tell you to use
CHKDSK /F and when you do that it will ask if you want it to run on next
reboot. Answer Y and [ENTER] Chkdsk will run just after rebooting and
won't have the operating system to worry about. This should also work the
same if you were to check the box marked "Automatically fix file system
errors" in the drives property page. What happens in either case? Are you
saying CHKDSK "craps out in phase one" at reboot or is Windows still running
because you haven't checked the box "Automatically fix file system errors"?

I use WinXP SP3....

WHAT "box marked 'Automatically fix file system errors' in the drives
property page?" Just checked, there is no such box in a drive's
Property dialog.

 

[Don Phillipson]

On the hard drive (ST340014A = Seagate Barracuda 7200 7) of
a Dell Dimension DIM 2400 (WinXP Home Dell OED)
/ Manage / Storage / Disk Mgt. reports the HD healthy (C: drive NTFS
and hidden 32 Mb FAT32 drive as well, also healthy)
but ChkDsk will not run (craps out in Phase 1).

Possibly cured April 20 via DOS CHKDSK /F which fixed
two different sorts of error and completed through Phase 3.