CHKDSK/Scandisk stops working on Vista - How to fix?

[Stephan G.]

Hello.

On my several-month-old Vista system, I wanted to scan the disk for
errors, just as part of routine maintenance.

It turns out that the way VISTA needs to do this is to run CHKDSK but
run it at startup so that no other program is accessing the drive.

Fair enough.

The interface asks if you want to schedule the disk scan at the next
reboot, which I have done.

Then I reboot.

It starts to run CHKDSK, presumably with the /F option.

However, very shortly after the start of CHKDSK, it just stops. Disk
light stops blinking. The following is where the display stops:

CHKDSK is verifying files (Stage 1 of 5)
3 Percent complete. (41108 of 137024 File Records Processed)

and the only way to deal with the situation is to do a hard (power-down)
reset. On the next boot cycle, you can "Press Any Key" to bypass the
disk scan.

But all this means that I am completely unable to execute a disk scan.

Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance.

-stephan g.

 

[Mhzjunkie]

Stephan G. spewed out this bit, and i'll scatter a few bits myself:

Hello.

On my several-month-old Vista system, I wanted to scan the disk for
errors, just as part of routine maintenance.

It turns out that the way VISTA needs to do this is to run CHKDSK but
run it at startup so that no other program is accessing the drive.

Fair enough.

The interface asks if you want to schedule the disk scan at the next
reboot, which I have done.

Then I reboot.

It starts to run CHKDSK, presumably with the /F option.

However, very shortly after the start of CHKDSK, it just stops. Disk
light stops blinking. The following is where the display stops:

CHKDSK is verifying files (Stage 1 of 5)
3 Percent complete. (41108 of 137024 File Records Processed)

and the only way to deal with the situation is to do a hard
(power-down) reset. On the next boot cycle, you can "Press Any Key"
to bypass the disk scan.

But all this means that I am completely unable to execute a disk scan.

Any ideas?

Patience grasshopper !

--
Mhzjunkie

1 PRINT "Windows Vista ERROR"
GOTO 1
END

 

[Stephan G.]

Patience grasshopper !

Well, I left it running for over two hours with no change at all. No
blinking light indicating disk activity, no sound indicating disk
activity, but the cooling fan for the CPU was running furiously, and the
system was getting hotter and hotter.

So I did the hard reset again.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

-stephan g.

 

[Spirit]

Try this link, Step 3 under WorkARound

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931699/en-us

 

[Mhzjunkie]

Stephan G. spewed out this bit, and i'll scatter a few bits myself:

Well, I left it running for over two hours with no change at all. No
blinking light indicating disk activity, no sound indicating disk
activity, but the cooling fan for the CPU was running furiously, and
the system was getting hotter and hotter.

So I did the hard reset again.

Any other ideas?

I'm at a loss now, grasshopper ! I mentioned it because I've noticed it do
that same thing on my system. When it stops there, I usually got make me a
bourbon, and when I return it's stated back up again. There was however an
earlier version of Kaspersky that would cause something similar to this. It
wouldn't unlock the drive to allow the disk check to proceed. This has been
fixed with the newer versions though.

--
Mhzjunkie

1 PRINT "Windows Vista ERROR"
GOTO 1
END

 

[Spirit]

How to run Chkdsk from Command Prompt.... try without /f first
as it is less likely to hang. In fact try /I and /C at first to make it
a fast less vigorous check.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67612-checkdisk.html?ltr=C

 

[Andrew McLaren]

However, very shortly after the start of CHKDSK, it just stops. Disk
light stops blinking. The following is where the display stops:

CHKDSK is verifying files (Stage 1 of 5)
3 Percent complete. (41108 of 137024 File Records Processed)

and the only way to deal with the situation is to do a hard (power-down)
reset. On the next boot cycle, you can "Press Any Key" to bypass the

Hi Stephan

If CHKDSK finds a problem on the disk, it can take a *very* long time trying
to correct it. Runs of 8 hours or more are not uncommon (I once had a server
off-line for 3 days, while CHKDSK ran!).

Stage 1 of 5 is where Chkdsk verifies each file record segment in the master
file table (MFT). I'd guess that it has found a record segment which is
damaged in the MFT. Eventually, it should print out a message like the
following:

File record segment 41109 is unreadable.
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...

or else eventually blue-screen, with STOP 0x24 or similar. It shouldn't hang
indefinitely (it might - but it shouldn't).

Sometimes you can use the "/i" and "/c" parameters to reduce the amount of
time which CHKDSK takes to run. But I don't think they will help in this
case - the delay is not in checking the indexes (Stage 2), but before that.

You can also run the command:

C:\>chkntfs c:

to see if the dirty bit is set on C:/ If the dirty bit is set, the system
thinks that there is a problem on the file system, and wants to run CHKDSK.
The disk is unstable and needs to be verified ASAP. If the dirty bit is
clear, the system thinks the file system is clean; even though CHKDSK has a
problem verifying the MFT when it runs. Doesn't solve your problem; but
handy to know.

If CHKDSK gets stuck at "3 Percent complete. (41108 of 137024 File Records
Processed)" and *never* gets any further, even aftwer 12 or 24 hours, the
Master File Table may be corruted. The best way to repair the MFT is to ...
well, run CHKDSK but obviously that isn't an option. In theory, there
are ways to repair the MFT manually, for example by using a hex editor. This
is possible; it is also extremely fiddly, complex, time-consuming and
error-prone. In practice, if you reach this stage your best bet would be to
back up your data; reformat the whole hard disk, and then reinstall from
scratch. It might lack finesse but it will probably be quicker, and more
reliable, than other methods.

Other folks may have additional ideas for you; hope this helps a bit.

 

[Spirit]

Andrew has a good point,,,,, run it FAST as I first suggested and if you
think its a Master Boot Record (File Record) issue try these.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to
troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

What to do when Vista Crashes : Little known strategy - bootrec.exe

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200000329&pgno=5

http://www.informationweek.com/galleries/showGallery.jhtml?galleryID=44

 

[Andrew McLaren]

think its a Master Boot Record (File Record) issue try these.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to
troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

What to do when Vista Crashes : Little known strategy - bootrec.exe

< .. snip .. >

Well, with respect ... those would be good steps to repair a Master Boot
Record (MBR) problem.

However, Master Boot Record != Master File Table (MFT). They are different
structures. MBR is the segment on the hard disk which jumps to the boot
loader, when the machine is first IPL'ed. MFT is a structure which is part
of the NTFS file system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS

During Stage 1, CHKDSK walks through the Master File Table, verifying the
record segments for every single file and directory in the file system. This
is a linear operation (more files, longer it takes). If CHKDSK is hanging
during Stage 1, it is very likely because it has found corrupt data in the
MFT and is unable to repair it. See
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457122.aspx (refers to XP but
mostly applies to Vista, as well).

But, Bootrec etc would be correct and appropriate, for a Master Boot Record
problem.

 

[Spirit]

Right you are,,, however I would first repair the MBR and then
continue if that did not solve the problem,,,, often it will.

 

[John Barnes]

Technically jumps to the boot sector of the active partition, which loads
the bootloader.

 

[John Barnes]

Not a chance.

Right you are,,, however I would first repair the MBR and then
continue if that did not solve the problem,,,, often it will.

 

[Stephan G.]

OK, many thanks to all responders to this cry for help. Also I loved
the pointers to the various articles, all were informative although I
suspect some were more germane to my issue than others.

I do think I have a problem with my MFT, as I will detail below.

So, a couple of questions and then some data.

Spirit - what is triggering your suspicion that I am having a boot
problem? I want to be efficient with my time, so I don't want to be
fishing in an area where it won't be productive. I'm not saying you are
not correct, you seem to be very much more informed than I, but can you
share a bit more about what is causing this instinct?

Andrew - I understand that CHKDSK might take a very long time. In one
of your posts, I think you said 12-24 hours. So far, I have only let it
run for as long as two hours. But in that two hours, it has NOT moved
from the place where it stopped (originally 3 percent complete at 41108
of 137024 file records, now 2 percent complete at 37405 of 137024 file
records). Disk light is not blinking, no disk sounds of any nature, I
can't even hear the disk motor, but the cooling fan starts to really
really fly, and the system still seems to get very warm. It would be
tough to suddenly go 24 hours with no system... I would need to really
schedule that, so do you think that no movement or change at all in two
hours might still mean that CHKDSK is working correctly?

So... now for some data.

First off, something that may bolster Spirit's claim that something is
wonky on the boot front, before I had all the wonderful responses to my
post, I thought I would see if Safe Mode would help me with any of this.
So I tried to boot into safe mode. First time I have tried this under
Vista. I hit the F8 key at boot time, and got the boot menu, and
selected "Safe Mode". Then I saw a very fast scroll of information of
the loading of a number of drivers. That fast scroll abruptly stopped
after it said "Loaded <path>crcdisk.sys". Then the system just stopped
responding for several minutes, before the boot process restarted, and I
booted up into normal, not safe mode.

OK, as for the CHKDSK. In normal mode, I opened a command prompt window
as administrator. I created a batch file named "checker.bat" so I could
roughly time how long things took. The contents of the batch file were:

time /T
chkdsk c:
time /T
chkntfs c:
time /T

I ran checker.

I then ran CHKDSK with the /F/I/C options so that I would have the
"faster" version running when I rebooted.

Output of that command session are attached as a text file to this posting.

Data of note, summary:

1. Seemingly unable to boot into safe mode. Not sure how
relevant this is.

2. Read-only version of Chkdsk in command prompt seems to
run in about 4 minutes.

3. Read-only version of Chkdsk reports that
"5 unindexed files were processed".
I am not sure what this means or how important it is to
this discussion.

4. Read-only version of Chkdsk reports that
The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute
is incorrect.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.
I am unclear what the BITMAP attribute is.

5. chkntfs reports that the dirty bit is not set.

6. As suggested, I ran CHKSK with the /F option, which requires
that it be scheduled at reboot. I ran it with the /I/C
options as well. As before, it started chugging along
but seemingly completely stopped working at 2% of stage
1 with 37405 of 137024 file records processed.

I am most appreciative for the feedback thus far, and would be most
grateful for any additional insight....

Yours Truly,

-stephan g.

C:\Windows\system32>edit checker.bat

C:\Windows\system32>checker

C:\Windows\system32>time /T
09:58 AM

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk c:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

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

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
137024 file records processed.
File verification completed.
198 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
44 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
492882 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
5 unindexed files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
137024 security descriptors processed.
Security descriptor verification completed.
14426 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
37710320 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute is incorrect.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

110655688 KB total disk space.
43934204 KB in 105906 files.
63988 KB in 14427 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
283996 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
66373500 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
27663922 total allocation units on disk.
16593375 allocation units available on disk.

C:\Windows\system32>time /T
10:02 AM

C:\Windows\system32>chkntfs c:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
C: is not dirty.

C:\Windows\system32>time /T
10:02 AM

C:\Windows\system32>del checker.bat

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /F/I/C
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) y

This volume will be checked the next time the system restarts.

C:\Windows\system32>

 

[John Barnes]

If other suggestions fail, look here. I haven't used it.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_NTFS_Boot_and_MFT_Repair

 

[Stephan G.]

Thanks for the suggestion - I tried the MFT repair strategy in the
utility and received a write error. I suspect that is because we are
dealing with my boot partition, which means it must be locked.

Still looking...

 

[Mhzjunkie]

Stephan G. spewed out this bit, and i'll scatter a few bits myself:

Thanks for the suggestion - I tried the MFT repair strategy in the
utility and received a write error. I suspect that is because we are
dealing with my boot partition, which means it must be locked.

Maybe it's the same old deal like it was in XP, when it wouldn't run. You'd
have to boot to the recovery console, where it would complete. After that it
run from within XP, after a restart of course.

Boot with your Vista DVD and pick the repair option.. There's an option
there to start command prompt, try and run CHKDSK from within that.

--
Mhzjunkie

1 PRINT "Windows Vista ERROR"
GOTO 1
END

 

[John Barnes]

I am beginning to suspect you have physical damage. Have you run a disk
integrity checker, preferably one from your hd manufacturer? Now, those do
run a long time, especially if you have a very large drive. Also chkdsk has
the 'scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors' the /r option from the
command line. Sorry if you have already answered this question.

 

[Spirit]

I don't suspect you have a boot problem, often when you repair
the MBR it resets everything from the Zero sector and allows
CHKDSK to then work with the backup copy of the MFT.
Probably the reason you are hanging is that the backup copy
of the MFT is inaccessible and the main copy is corrupt.

 

[Stephan G.]

Thanks to all the feedback on this thread, and the fascinating reading
that was pointed my way.

The final solution was fairly easy, although getting to understand it
required some interpolation.

I have an HP laptop, which came shipped with the OS and a RECOVERY
partition, as well as a System Recovery DVD. I do not have actual VISTA
disks. HP only gave the tools to re-image the disks to factory settings
in the case of a disaster, which would then leave VISTA installed.

I tried to put in the SYSTEM RECOVERY DVD, which brought up the app to
re-image the hard drive. No good, or at least too destructive for now.

So, following some verbiage that came with the DVD, I booted the
computer and hit F-11 on the boot screen, which started the "Recovery
Manager", which appears to be an HP-specific piece of software, so I
don't know how general this solution might be for other folks. The
Recovery Manager gave me a few options, but under the "Advanced Options"
button, it allowed me to run a command prompt.

NOTE: In this environment, for some reason, the windows partition that
usually is my C drive was assigned the drive letter D.

I was running on a virtual disk with the drive letter X:.

In any event, I was able to do a CHKDSK D: /F/R/B, and it did take over
an hour, but it solved the problem with the MFT.

Thanks again, all, for your help.

-stephan

 

[Andrew McLaren]

The final solution was fairly easy, although getting to understand it
required some interpolation.

Outstanding! Thanks for letting us know you got it resolved; that's always
useful information for future cases.

Cheers,