chkdsk problem

[jake]

ok the other day chkdsk ran and destroyed my security settings.It said
something on the lines of "security settings invalid restoring settings to
default"for every file on my computer.Which left my computer without a task
bar,run extremly slow,no access to user accounts,ie not working,and a ton
more problems.I then tried restoring numerous times but nothing helped. I
then found something online about manually reset security policies to default
(exactly what chkdsk said it did)and tried it (secedit /configure /cfg
%windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose)
which fixed most of the problems but not all.I cant access disk
management,cant log in with account that has user rights.And still a ton
more.Im just wondering if anyone here has had the same problem and how they
fixed it.im running windows xp pro locally. I've also tried to create new
admin accounts but they have exactly the same problems as the existing
accounts.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

ok the other day chkdsk ran and destroyed my security settings.It said
something on the lines of "security settings invalid restoring
settings to default"for every file on my computer.Which left my
computer without a task bar,run extremly slow,no access to user
accounts,ie not working,and a ton more problems.I then tried
restoring numerous times but nothing helped. I then found something
online about manually reset security policies to default (exactly
what chkdsk said it did)and tried it (secedit /configure /cfg
%windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose)
which fixed most of the problems but not all.I cant access disk
management,cant log in with account that has user rights.And still a
ton more.Im just wondering if anyone here has had the same problem
and how they fixed it.im running windows xp pro locally. I've also
tried to create new admin accounts but they have exactly the same
problems as the existing accounts.

I think you're confusing Windows security policies with your security
descriptors - they aren't the same thing. If your hard drive had that many
errors on it, you may be best off with a new install of XP (if not also a
new hard drive). Chkdsk didn't "destroy" your settings - it ran because
there were errors already, and it was trying to fix them.

Regular image/clone backups using Acronis or Ghost or similar are a very
good thing on a standalone systems, note - get an external hard drive & run
regular backups, and replacing hardware will be very easy. I'm a big fan of
Acronis - their Home version is inexpensive.

 

[jake]

I may be confusing security policies with descripters but when I set policies
to default it fixed 90% of my problems.Now the only problems I have are a
bunch of access denied errors.A fresh install of windows is not a option as I
have to many important programs ,I do not have setup programs for.My computer
ran 100% before chkdsk FIXED IT for me.Is there anyway to break what chkdsk
fixed.Does chkdsk store a restore for what it changed and if so WHERE and
whats it called.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I may be confusing security policies with descripters but when I set
policies to default it fixed 90% of my problems.Now the only problems
I have are a bunch of access denied errors.A fresh install of windows
is not a option as I have to many important programs ,I do not have
setup programs for.My computer ran 100% before chkdsk FIXED IT for
me.

Sorry, but it wouldn't have run at all if it didn't detect errors on your
disk. Not sure what else to tell you.

Is there anyway to break what chkdsk fixed.Does chkdsk store a
restore for what it changed and if so WHERE and whats it called.

No, not that I know of. If you do regular backups you can do a restore.

 

[jake]

I ran the chkdsk manually myself.Lesson learned "Will never do that again"
thanks for the help

 

[Bob Harris]

First, realize that CHKDSK is not the real problem, and is in fact usually
part of the solution to file system corruption. Running CHKDSK weekly or so
can prevent little file and disk errors from becoming big errors. If CHKDSK
continually finds serious errors, that could be a sign of a failing disk.
But, even a good disk can had file system errors, if the PC is shut down
improperly (e.g., power failure, system lock-up/crash). Further, even
without a power failure, crash, etc good files sometimes go bad, or files
get mixed up, at least they seem to on all Microsoft operating systems.

As for fixing XP, there are several options, besides the "clean install":

1. Run system file checker SFC /SCANNOW, which can replace corrupt/missing
XP files with clean copies stored in a cache on disk, or from the XP CD.

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html


2. Run a repair installation of XP. Unlike a clean installation, a repair
does NOT erase personal programs nor installed programs. But, a limitation
of the repair is that it can not repair/replace the registry, at least not
most of it, since if it did that it would be like uninstalling programs. A
repair is supported by retail XP CDs. It is often not supported by OEM CDs,
or PCs that came with XP pre-installed. However, you can always buy a
full-retail version of XP to get the CD. Do not try to use someone else's
XP CD for the repair, lest you then run into problems of product activation.
Links about repairing:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341



http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm



http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=23979,00.asp



http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Repair-Windows-XP-t138.html



CAUTION: Before running either SFC, and especially before attempting a
repair install, save all personal files off of the PC. If you can not
currently boot into XP far enough to copy to CD, DVD, ZIP, USB drive, etc,
then try one of the following:



1. LINUX "live" CD with NTFS and USB support. "live" means it does NOT
install on the hard drive, but rather runs directly from the CD (or DVD).
KNOPPIX is my favorite and it is free.



2. Boot with a Windows PE disk, if you can find one, or an image of one
that can be burned to CD. This is effectively a "live" version of XP, but
is usually limited in its distribution to PC professionals.



3. Make a Bart's bootable CD on another PC running XP. Bart's is similar
to Windows PE, but more flexible, and almost anyone with XP can make one.



4. Temporarily mount the hard drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure and read into
another PC, then out to CD, DVD, USB, etc.

 

[jake]

system repair fixed it right up
thanks aton

First, realize that CHKDSK is not the real problem, and is in fact usually
part of the solution to file system corruption. Running CHKDSK weekly or so
can prevent little file and disk errors from becoming big errors. If CHKDSK
continually finds serious errors, that could be a sign of a failing disk.
But, even a good disk can had file system errors, if the PC is shut down
improperly (e.g., power failure, system lock-up/crash). Further, even
without a power failure, crash, etc good files sometimes go bad, or files
get mixed up, at least they seem to on all Microsoft operating systems.

As for fixing XP, there are several options, besides the "clean install":

1. Run system file checker SFC /SCANNOW, which can replace corrupt/missing
XP files with clean copies stored in a cache on disk, or from the XP CD.

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html


2. Run a repair installation of XP. Unlike a clean installation, a repair
does NOT erase personal programs nor installed programs. But, a limitation
of the repair is that it can not repair/replace the registry, at least not
most of it, since if it did that it would be like uninstalling programs. A
repair is supported by retail XP CDs. It is often not supported by OEM CDs,
or PCs that came with XP pre-installed. However, you can always buy a
full-retail version of XP to get the CD. Do not try to use someone else's
XP CD for the repair, lest you then run into problems of product activation.
Links about repairing:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341



http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm



http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=23979,00.asp



http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Repair-Windows-XP-t138.html



CAUTION: Before running either SFC, and especially before attempting a
repair install, save all personal files off of the PC. If you can not
currently boot into XP far enough to copy to CD, DVD, ZIP, USB drive, etc,
then try one of the following:



1. LINUX "live" CD with NTFS and USB support. "live" means it does NOT
install on the hard drive, but rather runs directly from the CD (or DVD).
KNOPPIX is my favorite and it is free.



2. Boot with a Windows PE disk, if you can find one, or an image of one
that can be burned to CD. This is effectively a "live" version of XP, but
is usually limited in its distribution to PC professionals.



3. Make a Bart's bootable CD on another PC running XP. Bart's is similar
to Windows PE, but more flexible, and almost anyone with XP can make one.



4. Temporarily mount the hard drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure and read into
another PC, then out to CD, DVD, USB, etc.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I ran the chkdsk manually myself.Lesson learned "Will never do that
again" thanks for the help

OK. But again, chkdsk is not the problem. You had disk errors. Never do
anything like that without running full backups first - do check out Acronis
or similar.

 

[Warren]

Bob, generally, I would agree with you that CHKDSK should be part of the
solution not the problem. However, I had a similar problem that Jake
experienced where CHKDSK reported problems with the security descriptors. MS
has reported that this is a known issue in Win2K, Win2K3, & Win XP (KB’s
831874 & 831875). MS suggests the cause as “This problem occurs because the
CHKDSK utility may not find references to all the security IDs if the master
file table is larger than 4 gigabytes (GB) or if there are more than
4,194,303 files on the volume. Therefore, the undiscovered security
descriptors are reset.†They suggest a hotfix for Win2K & Win2K3 and SP2 for
Win XP (it is purported to be fixed in the “fix listâ€) in the SP. I have SP2
on Win XP (and the problem is still there) so that solution doesn’t work.
Furthermore, the MFT of my volume is only 151 MB with 106,104 records, so not
only is one of the proposed solutions suspect, but the alleged reason for the
cause as well. I certainly would be interested in a working solution to this
problem, because running CHKDSK (as Jake found out) completely hosed my
system. Fortunately, I was able to restore from backups but that just leaves
me back with my original problem, albeit, a working system waiting for a
heart attack (if you can believe what CHKDSK is saying).

Jake, you said system repair resolved this?

Regards


Warren