Chkdsk /f not working on boot

[Tis I]

Hello,
I have WinXP sp2. I am unable to perform a CHKDSK /f on the C drive. On
setting it to 'chkdsk /f' ad the command prompt, the system just ignores
this request on start up and boots into Windows anyway.

Nothing appears in the event logs to indicate a problem at the time it
should run. It's almost as if the request has not been made.

I have come across this before, and I found a registry key to reset the
chkdsk boot command. I can't remember the actual issue, however this worked.
Now I can't find the source of that information, or which key it was. Doh!

All I can remember it's something to do with resetting the dirty bit setting
to the chkdsk request would have to be resubmitted. The volume is dirty.

Any comments welcome. Thanks.

 

[Taurarian]

Information might be useful from this site:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_c.htm#cd

 

[Guest]

At times like these it is best to check the MS knowledgebase

this is about check dis
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmb_tol_pwfd.asp

this is about troubleshooting disk prob
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_gwoj.asp

anyway this is not my area of expertise but the KB is a great place to look

Anyway i hope i helped

Cheers

Quintin
MVP wannabe

 

[Tis I]

Thanks for the link. I have had a play with the autochk settings, but to no
avail.

Forcing chkdsk to run on startup is not the probem as I know how to schedule
a chkdsk. But actually getting it to run when the PC boots is where the
problem lies.

 

[Tis I]

Thanks for the links Quintin.

I have looked through the knowledgebase information already before posting
on here, but not found anything of any help. It's not that I don't know how
to schedule a boot time check disk, it's when the chkdsk doesn't actually do
as it's told.

 

[Steve N.]

Thanks for the links Quintin.

I have looked through the knowledgebase information already before posting
on here, but not found anything of any help. It's not that I don't know how
to schedule a boot time check disk, it's when the chkdsk doesn't actually do
as it's told.

I suggest you boot to Recovery Console and run CHKDSK /P.

Steve

 

[Tis I]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have just tried it, and it seem to work as it
did take a while.But still leaves the system in need of a boot time chkdsk
fix.

The issue still remains of CHKDSK refusing to run on startup.

 

[Steve N.]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have just tried it, and it seem to work as it
did take a while.But still leaves the system in need of a boot time chkdsk
fix.

The issue still remains of CHKDSK refusing to run on startup.

I understand and agree. Have you tried an SFC /Scannow at the cmd or Run
line?

As a possible near last resort you might also try a repair install.

Steve

 

[Tis I]

Have just tried the SFC /Scannow option, it asked for the CD a lot. But no
change.

I don't really want to do a repair install as the PC is working without too
much bother. Was considering upgrading the disk at some point... maybe a
good time to start planning it.

 

[Steve N.]

Have just tried the SFC /Scannow option, it asked for the CD a lot. But no
change.

More thoughts...

Perhaps chkntfs /x was used at one time to prevent autochk from running
against that drive, if that is the case chkntfs /d should restore
autochk defaults (except countdown time), just found details here:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_rgwn.asp

Another thought is if you have some sort of a keyboard problem, any
keypress at the time autochk starts the countdown would cancel the disk
check, so you may try to set the countdown to 0 seconds and see if that
helps, too.

I don't really want to do a repair install as the PC is working without too
much bother. Was considering upgrading the disk at some point... maybe a
good time to start planning it.

It is never to early to plan anyway

Steve

 

[Tis I]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the comments and the URL. The volume is already set as dirty,
which is why I am trying to run check disk.

Check disk cannot fix a system drive while Windows is running, therefore it
has to reboot and perform the fix. This is done before Windows and any of
the servcies load which locks the drive. My problem is not that I don't know
how to run chkdsk, the problem is that check disk will not run when told to,
and there is no error in the event logs to indicate why.



Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 12:08:00 +0100

Hello,
I have WinXP sp2. I am unable to perform a CHKDSK /f on the C
drive. On setting it to 'chkdsk /f' ad the command prompt, the
system just ignores this request on start up and boots into
Windows anyway.

Nothing appears in the event logs to indicate a problem at the
time it should run. It's almost as if the request has not been
made.

I have come across this before, and I found a registry key to
reset the chkdsk boot command. I can't remember the actual
issue, however this worked. Now I can't find the source of that
information, or which key it was. Doh!

All I can remember it's something to do with resetting the
dirty bit setting to the chkdsk request would have to be
resubmitted. The volume is dirty.

Any comments welcome. Thanks.

I assume you know about the fsutil command right?

"fsutil dirty query" (checks volume for dirty)

"fsutil dirty set" (set the volume for dirty)

You may also want to read the following in the middle of the page:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/14614/14614.html




Cheers!


__________________________________________________
Bill (using a Toshiba 2595XDVD under Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within WordStar 5.0

 

[Tis I]

Hi,

Basically what is happening is I try to run 'chkdsk /f' or 'chkdsk r' to
fix the system partition on reboot. But nothing happens on reboot. The
chkdsk entry in the registry is cleared after the reboot. The Autochk entry
has been reset to default. The 'dirty bit' is set all by itself, and manual
reset to be sure it's set.

Going into the Recovery Console and using chkdsk does not give my the option
to fix the problems on the disk. Unless there is a command or utility that I
have yet to find?

My thoughts in the original post was resetting the dirty bit to not dirty,
then running a chkdsk might solve the problem....but this is just another
thing to try out.

Nothing that I can see in the registry which might be causing the chkdsk to
either fail or not run at all. At the moment I have a system drive with
errors on but no way of fixing it. :-(

Thanks for your suggestions....

 

[BillW50]

Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 15:00:55 +0100

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the comments and the URL. The volume is already set
as dirty, which is why I am trying to run check disk.

Check disk cannot fix a system drive while Windows is running,
therefore it has to reboot and perform the fix. This is done
before Windows and any of the servcies load which locks the
drive. My problem is not that I don't know how to run chkdsk,
the problem is that check disk will not run when told to, and
there is no error in the event logs to indicate why.

Hi Tis... Yes I know as I followed the whole thread last night and I
was perplexed by it. And I never heard of someone having this
problem before. And so I got really interested in it. So here I am.

And one thing I wanted to ask you is what happens when Windows is up
and running, and run chkdsk without the /f switch? As Windows should
immediately run chkdsk. It supposedly won't fix anything, but it
goes through the motions anyway, And I am extremely interested in
what it reports.

Now I believe you missed the whole point of this URL I listed:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/14614/14614.html

As there is a batch file that you add to your computer which forces
Windows to run chkdsk /f at boot whether it wants to or not. Isn't
that exactly what you wanted to do?




Cheers!


__________________________________________________
Bill (using a Toshiba 2595XDVD under Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within WordStar 5.0

 

[Tis I]

Hi Bill,

You mean this script? (I've created a new line on every REM)
********************
@echo off
rem File: Chk_Disk.bat
rem Use: WinXP
rem Synopsis: rem Chkdsk.exe will not run from the command-line becuase it
thinks the
rem volume is mounted and there are file conflicts. So best to restart in
order
rem for it to run. This also forces all running applications to be unloaded.

rem chkdsk
rem /f = Fix Issues Found
rem /v = Display Cleanup Info for NTFS Volumes
rem /r = Find bad sectors echo y | chkdsk /f /v /r

rem shutdown
rem -r = Restart after shutdown
rem -f = Force shutdown of any running programs
rem -t = Forces shutdown in # of seconds shown (5 here) shutdown -r -f -t 5
***********************

This doesn't do any more than I have already tried :-(
Thank you for taking an interest, I do appreciate it.

When I run 'chkdsk c:', it tells me I need to run a chkdsk /f to fix errors.

When running a chkdsk /v, I get this output... nothing amazing, but I'd
rather get it fixed.

**************************
C:\>chkdsk /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Local Disk.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
Detected minor inconsistencies on the drive. This is not a corruption.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 5 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

30716248 KB total disk space.
17916768 KB in 133197 files.
45244 KB in 7143 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
215428 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
12538808 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
7679062 total allocation units on disk.
3134702 allocation units available on disk.
*************************

 

[Tis I]

Hi Steve...

I have just tried the chkntfs, no change.

The keyboard suggestion, I hadn't thought about that. I set the countdown to
0 using chkntfs, and tried a 'chkntfs /c c:' and afterwards a 'chkdsk /f' ,
again no change.

 

[Tis I]

Are there any tools which will do a chkdsk fix in recovery console? I'm
surprised chkdsk /f isn't an option, considering what it does and the
purpose of the console.

 

[BillW50]

Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 21:14:06 +0100

Hi Bill,

You mean this script? (I've created a new line on every REM)

********************
@echo off
rem File: Chk_Disk.bat
rem Use: WinXP
rem Synopsis: rem Chkdsk.exe will not run from the command-line becuase it thinks the
rem volume is mounted and there are file conflicts. So best to restart in order
rem for it to run. This also forces all running applications to be unloaded.

rem chkdsk
rem /f = Fix Issues Found
rem /v = Display Cleanup Info for NTFS Volumes
rem /r = Find bad sectors echo y | chkdsk /f /v /r

rem shutdown
rem -r = Restart after shutdown
rem -f = Force shutdown of any running programs
rem -t = Forces shutdown in # of seconds shown (5 here) shutdown -r -f -t 5
***********************

This doesn't do any more than I have already tried :-(
Thank you for taking an interest, I do appreciate it.

Whoa! I automatically assumed that you knew something about batch
files. Sorry my mistake. As I have been doing this for over 30 years
now and I forget sometimes that others don't know. So I should have
translated it for you.

Well anyway, if you followed it to the letter (and it looks like you
did), you have nothing more than a batch file with all REM
statements. Such a batch file will take no action when ran. As REM
statements are totally ignored and only useful for comments for us
humans. If I recall correctly, REM means remarks.

So that batch file meant for you to add some non-REM lines as well.
Thus let's ignore all of the those remarks and try this batch file:

***********************

echo on
chkdsk /f /v
shutdown -r -f -t 5

***********************

Now it should work on your system and force Windows to run chkdsk
whether or not it wants to.


When I run 'chkdsk c:', it tells me I need to run a chkdsk /f
to fix errors.

When running a chkdsk /v, I get this output... nothing amazing,
but I'd rather get it fixed.

**************************
C:\>chkdsk /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Local Disk.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
Detected minor inconsistencies on the drive. This is not a corruption.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 5 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

30716248 KB total disk space.
17916768 KB in 133197 files.
45244 KB in 7143 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
215428 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
12538808 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
7679062 total allocation units on disk.
3134702 allocation units available on disk.
*************************

Well it's not as serious as I had thought. And since I haven't seen
this problem ever personally, I was hoping that chkdsk would reveal
some sort of more information about this problem. But unless someone
sees something that I am not, I just don't see anything noteworthy.

Although I do feel the same as you do. chkdsk /f has to be ran for
sure. As that should take care of the immediate problem. Your long
term problem is the fact how to permanently fix this. Well I'm
working on that one. So stay tuned!




Cheers!


__________________________________________________
Bill (using a Toshiba 2595XDVD under Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within WordStar 5.0

 

[Steve N.]

Hi Steve...

I have just tried the chkntfs, no change.

The keyboard suggestion, I hadn't thought about that. I set the countdown to
0 using chkntfs, and tried a 'chkntfs /c c:' and afterwards a 'chkdsk /f' ,
again no change.

I wish I could think of something more.

Steve

 

[Tis I]

Sorry Bill, my mistake. I do know about batch files, I just copied, pasted
and editied it to make it more readable.



Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 21:14:06 +0100

Hi Bill,

You mean this script? (I've created a new line on every REM)

********************
@echo off
rem File: Chk_Disk.bat
rem Use: WinXP
rem Synopsis: rem Chkdsk.exe will not run from the command-line becuase it
thinks the
rem volume is mounted and there are file conflicts. So best to restart in
order
rem for it to run. This also forces all running applications to be unloaded.

rem chkdsk
rem /f = Fix Issues Found
rem /v = Display Cleanup Info for NTFS Volumes
rem /r = Find bad sectors echo y | chkdsk /f /v /r

rem shutdown
rem -r = Restart after shutdown
rem -f = Force shutdown of any running programs
rem -t = Forces shutdown in # of seconds shown (5 here) shutdown -r -f -t 5
***********************

This doesn't do any more than I have already tried :-(
Thank you for taking an interest, I do appreciate it.

Whoa! I automatically assumed that you knew something about batch
files. Sorry my mistake. As I have been doing this for over 30 years
now and I forget sometimes that others don't know. So I should have
translated it for you.

Well anyway, if you followed it to the letter (and it looks like you
did), you have nothing more than a batch file with all REM
statements. Such a batch file will take no action when ran. As REM
statements are totally ignored and only useful for comments for us
humans. If I recall correctly, REM means remarks.

So that batch file meant for you to add some non-REM lines as well.
Thus let's ignore all of the those remarks and try this batch file:

***********************

echo on
chkdsk /f /v
shutdown -r -f -t 5

***********************

Now it should work on your system and force Windows to run chkdsk
whether or not it wants to.


When I run 'chkdsk c:', it tells me I need to run a chkdsk /f
to fix errors.

When running a chkdsk /v, I get this output... nothing amazing,
but I'd rather get it fixed.

**************************
C:\>chkdsk /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Local Disk.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
Detected minor inconsistencies on the drive. This is not a corruption.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 5 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

30716248 KB total disk space.
17916768 KB in 133197 files.
45244 KB in 7143 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
215428 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
12538808 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
7679062 total allocation units on disk.
3134702 allocation units available on disk.
*************************

Well it's not as serious as I had thought. And since I haven't seen
this problem ever personally, I was hoping that chkdsk would reveal
some sort of more information about this problem. But unless someone
sees something that I am not, I just don't see anything noteworthy.

Although I do feel the same as you do. chkdsk /f has to be ran for
sure. As that should take care of the immediate problem. Your long
term problem is the fact how to permanently fix this. Well I'm
working on that one. So stay tuned!




Cheers!


__________________________________________________
Bill (using a Toshiba 2595XDVD under Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within WordStar 5.0

 

[Steve N.]

Are there any tools which will do a chkdsk fix in recovery console? I'm
surprised chkdsk /f isn't an option, considering what it does and the
purpose of the console.

Yes, it is CHKDSK /P (why /P instead of /F in RC is beyond me, but it
does the same things).

I thought you said you'd already done that?

Steve