CHKDSK Problem

[jw]

I have a 1TB external hard drive (USB) and it has been working sans
problems. Now suddenly this morning, when I booted up cold, Chkdsk
wants to do its thing on it. That's okay, but Chkdsk hung at stage 4
(checking file data) at 0%. I re-booted, and XP came up properly.
Windows Explorer shows the folders and files to appear intact.

What would you do?

Duke

 

[Paul]

I have a 1TB external hard drive (USB) and it has been working sans
problems. Now suddenly this morning, when I booted up cold, Chkdsk
wants to do its thing on it. That's okay, but Chkdsk hung at stage 4
(checking file data) at 0%. I re-booted, and XP came up properly.
Windows Explorer shows the folders and files to appear intact.

What would you do?

Duke

I've already "been there and done that".

I had a file system on a partition fail CHKDSK, and I immediately
copied all the data off, tested and cleaned up the disk, then
copied the data back.

You should not allow latent (sleeping) faults to accumulate. Say
you have "one tiny problem" today with the file system. Tomorrow,
another tiny thing happens, but combined with the first problem,
a whole directory goes missing. You'd be pissed. If you see
known faults developing in a system, don't let them fester.
Fix it, as time allows. Now, moving 1TB of data, over a 30MB/sec
USB2 interface, is going to be slow, so it could take a while
to clean up.

To copy the whole partition, you could use Robocopy, as it keeps a log
of what was done, what failed and so on. I use that for doing whole
partitions. Robocopy will do a number of retries, as specified by
the command line parameters. This is a form of synchronizing utility,
but I usually copy to an empty partition, so there are no files
already on the target disk.

robocopy Y:\ F:\ /mir /copy:datso /dcopy:t /r:3 /w:2 /zb /np /tee /v /log:y_to_f.log

(Command line version XP026 of robocopy, should be included in this...)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx

Also, always read the reviews on Newegg, for any of these
pre-built drive and enclosure solutions, to see what their
failure rate and characteristics are like. Certain products
in the past, "dropped like flies", in some cases losing
all user files in a matter of two days after purchase. In
other words, a user transfers all their backups to the new
drive, erases the old, only to find two days later, the new
drive is dead and all the files are gone. Always review what
is known about a unit, to decide what your handling policy
should be.

Say, for example, you buy two 1TB units, and they're the
"drop like flies" kind. You would duplicate files on the
two units. That way, you have some opportunity to save
the files, if one unit fails. If you operate the new purchase,
as a 2TB storage facility, and one drive drops dead in two
days, you've lost 1TB worth of files. If a product doesn't
give the appearance of reliability, you can use redundancy
to help ease the situation if there is a failure.

Paul

 

[jw]

I've already "been there and done that".

I had a file system on a partition fail CHKDSK, and I immediately
copied all the data off, tested and cleaned up the disk, then
copied the data back.

You should not allow latent (sleeping) faults to accumulate. Say
you have "one tiny problem" today with the file system. Tomorrow,
another tiny thing happens, but combined with the first problem,
a whole directory goes missing. You'd be pissed. If you see
known faults developing in a system, don't let them fester.
Fix it, as time allows. Now, moving 1TB of data, over a 30MB/sec
USB2 interface, is going to be slow, so it could take a while
to clean up.

To copy the whole partition, you could use Robocopy, as it keeps a log
of what was done, what failed and so on. I use that for doing whole
partitions. Robocopy will do a number of retries, as specified by
the command line parameters. This is a form of synchronizing utility,
but I usually copy to an empty partition, so there are no files
already on the target disk.

robocopy Y:\ F:\ /mir /copy:datso /dcopy:t /r:3 /w:2 /zb /np /tee /v /log:y_to_f.log

(Command line version XP026 of robocopy, should be included in this...)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx

Also, always read the reviews on Newegg, for any of these
pre-built drive and enclosure solutions, to see what their
failure rate and characteristics are like. Certain products
in the past, "dropped like flies", in some cases losing
all user files in a matter of two days after purchase. In
other words, a user transfers all their backups to the new
drive, erases the old, only to find two days later, the new
drive is dead and all the files are gone. Always review what
is known about a unit, to decide what your handling policy
should be.

Say, for example, you buy two 1TB units, and they're the
"drop like flies" kind. You would duplicate files on the
two units. That way, you have some opportunity to save
the files, if one unit fails. If you operate the new purchase,
as a 2TB storage facility, and one drive drops dead in two
days, you've lost 1TB worth of files. If a product doesn't
give the appearance of reliability, you can use redundancy
to help ease the situation if there is a failure.

Paul

Thanks Paul

Gotta find a good buy on a second 1TB ext hd I guess.

Duke

 

[Trimble Bracegirdle]

It might (might as in only maybe) just be 'one-of-those-things'
.......temporally loose cable connection ? .etc..

Have you run CHKDSK a 2nd or more times ??? what happened ?

You can get, for free, simple Disc Check & info utility programs from
most of the Disc Manufacturers web sites...e.g. Seagate Tools ...
You need to look at that discs SMART info report.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse (whirrrr ! click!...click!...whirr!)

 

[jw]

It might (might as in only maybe) just be 'one-of-those-things'
......temporally loose cable connection ? .etc..

Have you run CHKDSK a 2nd or more times ??? what happened ?

You can get, for free, simple Disc Check & info utility programs from
most of the Disc Manufacturers web sites...e.g. Seagate Tools ...
You need to look at that discs SMART info report.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse (whirrrr ! click!...click!...whirr!)

I checked FANTOM support, but failed to find a utility program to
check the drive. Just driver updates, which I fear to apply since I
can't link their drive identification to my drive.
Oh well.
Duke

 

[Trimble Bracegirdle]

You can run CHKDSK from within Windows at any time you might choose ...
Any of the Disc Manufactures Utilities will work with any disc.
(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny into your
(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination.

 

[Don Phillipson]

My other (XP) machine will not run chkdsk on the C: drive because it
shows the message "Can't open volume for direct access".

This can usually avoided by starting CHKDSK via
/Control Panel / Admin Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management
Select C: in the upper right panel and right click for menu
Select / Tools / Error Checking
This runs CHKDSK

All attempts to reload XP, or the repair disk gives the message
"The software you have is younger than this".

This is normal if your Repair CD finds you have installed
a Service Pack later than that buillt into the CD.

 

[Paul]

Thanks, I found the Computer Management and right-clicked on the C: in
the right-hand top panel. I found 'Properties', then 'Tools' and
then 'Check Now'.
I rebooted, but the same problem occurred. Incidentally, the
computer seems stuck on chkdsk because it tries after every reboot.

If you have a WinXP installer CD, you can boot to the recovery
console. It gives an MSDOS prompt. CHKDSK will run from there,
but you'd need to check a Microsoft web page to see how the
parameters may differ. (CHKDSK command differs, depending
on where it is run from.)

The recovery console can also be installed on a PC, such that
when WinXP starts, you see two entries, one for the regular
boot system, the other for the recovery console. If an installation
is so equipped, you can enter recovery console that way.

The advantage of the recovery console, is the C: drive isn't
busy, and so CHKDSK can run without being scheduled.

If you Google, you'll find there are plenty of reports
of CHKDSK looping, where you can't escape. CHKDSK runs
at startup, because of a particular registry entry, which
has scheduled it. CHKDSK can also be enabled, by keeping
the registry entry in a more "normal" state, but having
the "dirty" bit set on the partition, and then CHKDSK
runs because it sees the dirty bit. The dirty bit can
be set, but cannot be cleared, which appears to be
its design intent. (At least, I haven't seen a recipe
for turning it back off again.)

(Using FSUTIL to force CHKDSK... Only an option if you
really need it, as normally CHKDSK is only too willing to run.)

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...all/proddocs/en-us/fsutil_dirty.mspx?mfr=true

I have this page bookmarked, for various trivial on CHKDSK
and CHKNTFS.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457122.aspx

A way of disabling chkdsk at startup, but you still need
some kind of environment to do it.

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/02/23/disable-or-stop-auto-chkdsk-during-windows-startup/

Paul