CHKDSK /r/p unrecoverable errors

[Nigel Andrews]

This may have an obvious answer.

Having had WinXP (Media Center) give booting problems, I have run chkdsk /r
/p.
It reported 3 times "CHKDSK is performing additional checking or
recovery...."

Then after 33% it said "The volume appears to contain one or more
unrecoverable problems"

Is this indicating a problem which reformatting and reinstalling will clear,
or is this more likely a hardware error (e.g., disk fault)?

Thanks

Nigel

 

[Kerry Brown]

This may have an obvious answer.

Having had WinXP (Media Center) give booting problems, I have run
chkdsk /r /p.
It reported 3 times "CHKDSK is performing additional checking or
recovery...."

Then after 33% it said "The volume appears to contain one or more
unrecoverable problems"

Is this indicating a problem which reformatting and reinstalling will
clear, or is this more likely a hardware error (e.g., disk fault)?

Thanks

Nigel

Most hard drive manufacturers have free diagnostic software you can
download. Backup your data and run the diagnostics from the manufacturer of
your drive. This will give you a good indication of whether or not it's a
hardware problem.

Kerry

 

[Nigel Andrews]

Kerry,

Thanks for that. I have progressed further after running, at your
suggestion, the Western Digital diagnostic which said No problems!
I now have it booting in Safe Mode, at least part way. It has scrolled a
number of lines up the screen and paused at
c:\windows\system32\drivers\agp440.sys where it has been for 15 mins now.
The disk is chattering away as if it is doing something - is it possibly
self repairing?

Thanks
Nigel

 

[Jim]

Kerry,

Thanks for that. I have progressed further after running, at your
suggestion, the Western Digital diagnostic which said No problems!
I now have it booting in Safe Mode, at least part way. It has scrolled a
number of lines up the screen and paused at
c:\windows\system32\drivers\agp440.sys where it has been for 15 mins now.
The disk is chattering away as if it is doing something - is it possibly
self repairing?

No, it is much more likely that Windows has found a bad area that WD
dianostics didn't.
Jim

 

[Richard Urban]

I have run across this condition when trying to run chkdsk on drives that
are connected to an Adaptec ASH-1233 add-in ATA-133 card (using Silicon
Image chip). There is nothing wrong with the drives, as checking the drives
while they are connected to standard IDE ports confirm.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Kerry Brown]

Kerry,

Thanks for that. I have progressed further after running, at your
suggestion, the Western Digital diagnostic which said No problems!
I now have it booting in Safe Mode, at least part way. It has
scrolled a number of lines up the screen and paused at
c:\windows\system32\drivers\agp440.sys where it has been for 15 mins
now. The disk is chattering away as if it is doing something - is it
possibly self repairing?

Thanks
Nigel

Windows is not self repairing. The manufacturer's diagnostics will often
pass a drive that is marginal so they don't have to warranty it. Try another
test you can download here:

http://www.hdtune.com/

In any case backup your data before proceeding further. Every step you take
makes it more likely a marginal drive will fail completely.

Kerry

 

[Nigel Andrews]

Thanks all for the good replies.

I was unable to get into normal Windows or even Safe mode, so I am unable to
back-up files. I have some copied off elsewhere.
Now I am finding it fails to find the System on the drive and is asking for
a boot disk.

I can get the Recovery option and a DOS prompt from the WinXP install CD.

I have tried a couple of suggestions
"copy K:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
attrib -h-r-s C:\boot.ini del C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild"

But unless I used them wrong it hasn't restored the system.
I used to know how to copy the System across in DOS but I don't know what is
needed now.

Any advice gratefully received as always.
Thanks anyway.

Nigel