Error check, defrag hang

[Jeremy Winston]

Folks,
I tried defragging my HD for the 1st time in a while,
after installing v2.0 of HP's Photo & Imaging app (though this
may be coincidence). The (built-in) defragger hangs part way
through, in such a way that I can't get control of the OS.
The only way to recover is to warm boot via the reset button, or
cold boot.
Same thing happens when I try to check disk on the (NTFS)
system partition: after it reboots & enters the checker, I get

Verifying files...
Verifying indexes [sic]...
Verifying security descriptors...
Verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
88 percent complete


It starts verifying file data OK, and counts off up to 88 percent,
but then it hangs. The only way to recover is a reboot.

Any idea what's wrong?

TIA,
-Jeremy(To reply directly, remove NOSPAM.)

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

Folks,
I tried defragging my HD for the 1st time in a while,
after installing v2.0 of HP's Photo & Imaging app (though this
may be coincidence). The (built-in) defragger hangs part way
through, in such a way that I can't get control of the OS.
The only way to recover is to warm boot via the reset button, or
cold boot.
Same thing happens when I try to check disk on the (NTFS)
system partition: after it reboots & enters the checker, I get

Verifying files...
Verifying indexes [sic]...
Verifying security descriptors...
Verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
88 percent complete


It starts verifying file data OK, and counts off up to 88 percent,
but then it hangs. The only way to recover is a reboot.

Any idea what's wrong?

TIA,
-Jeremy(To reply directly, remove NOSPAM.)

No known cause for this but I would boot to recovery console and run
chkdsk /r there. If it also fails then I would worry about a drive
error. Until Chkdsk completes don't even try Defrag.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team

 

[Jeremy Winston]

No known cause for this but I would boot to recovery console and run
chkdsk /r there.

Will do.

Thx,
-Jeremy

 

[Jeremy Winston]

I tried defragging my HD for the 1st time in a while,
after installing v2.0 of HP's Photo & Imaging app (though this
may be coincidence). The (built-in) defragger hangs part way
through, in such a way that I can't get control of the OS.
The only way to recover is to warm boot via the reset button, or
cold boot. Same thing happens when I try to check disk on the (NTFS)
system partition: after it reboots & enters the checker, I get
Verifying files...
Verifying indexes [sic]...
Verifying security descriptors...
Verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
88 percent complete
It starts verifying file data OK, and counts off up to 88 percent,
but then it hangs. The only way to recover is a reboot.
Any idea what's wrong?

No known cause for this but I would boot to recovery console and run
chkdsk /r there. If it also fails then I would worry about a drive
error. Until Chkdsk completes don't even try Defrag.

Leonard (et al),
I did as you suggested, but I get the same behavior. I ran
chkdsk /r
at the Recovery Console prompt, and got this feedback:

Volume RAID1 created [...]
The volume Serial Number is [...]
CHKDSK is checking the volume...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
72% completed.

It starts counting from 0% completed, and eventually reaches 72%, at
which point the HD activity light goes out, stays our for 10 secs or so,
briefly flickers a few times, then goes out for good. The only way to
recover is via reboot. I did this 3 times in a row, and it always hangs
at exactly 72% completed.

Strangely, the system otherwise seems to be running fine. I fear though
that this is a sign of impending doom. However, I don't know which
components I should be looking to replace.

I have a Soyo Dragon+ w/onboard Promise FastTrak Lite RAID controller
w/a pair of WD800BB drives in a mirror config. If a drive were bad,
I would expect a message from the FastCheck RAID monitoring util, but
no such message has been given.

Any suggestions as to what flakey hardware could cause this behavior?

Since the Recovery Console code comes off the OS CD (right?), it's not
likely to be a S/W problem. Since the RAID monitoring util doesn't
report problems (when running the OS, not Recov. Cons.), it seems
unlikely to be an HD problem.

My hunch is it's some component on the mobo, but IHNI which one.

Feedback? Suggestions?

TIA,
-Jeremy

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

I tried defragging my HD for the 1st time in a while,
after installing v2.0 of HP's Photo & Imaging app (though this
may be coincidence). The (built-in) defragger hangs part way
through, in such a way that I can't get control of the OS.
The only way to recover is to warm boot via the reset button, or
cold boot. Same thing happens when I try to check disk on the (NTFS)
system partition: after it reboots & enters the checker, I get
Verifying files...
Verifying indexes [sic]...
Verifying security descriptors...
Verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
88 percent complete
It starts verifying file data OK, and counts off up to 88 percent,
but then it hangs. The only way to recover is a reboot.
Any idea what's wrong?

No known cause for this but I would boot to recovery console and run
chkdsk /r there. If it also fails then I would worry about a drive
error. Until Chkdsk completes don't even try Defrag.

Leonard (et al),
I did as you suggested, but I get the same behavior. I ran
chkdsk /r
at the Recovery Console prompt, and got this feedback:

Volume RAID1 created [...]
The volume Serial Number is [...]
CHKDSK is checking the volume...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
72% completed.

It starts counting from 0% completed, and eventually reaches 72%, at
which point the HD activity light goes out, stays our for 10 secs or so,
briefly flickers a few times, then goes out for good. The only way to
recover is via reboot. I did this 3 times in a row, and it always hangs
at exactly 72% completed.

Strangely, the system otherwise seems to be running fine. I fear though
that this is a sign of impending doom. However, I don't know which
components I should be looking to replace.

I have a Soyo Dragon+ w/onboard Promise FastTrak Lite RAID controller
w/a pair of WD800BB drives in a mirror config. If a drive were bad,
I would expect a message from the FastCheck RAID monitoring util, but
no such message has been given.

Any suggestions as to what flakey hardware could cause this behavior?

Since the Recovery Console code comes off the OS CD (right?), it's not
likely to be a S/W problem. Since the RAID monitoring util doesn't
report problems (when running the OS, not Recov. Cons.), it seems
unlikely to be an HD problem.

My hunch is it's some component on the mobo, but IHNI which one.

Feedback? Suggestions?

TIA,
-Jeremy

You are correct that the Recovery Console components come off the CD.
However I doubt this is a mb problem. I suspect that it is a hard drive
problem and is occuring when reading, or trying to read specific
clusters. I would break the mirror and then try to run chkdsk on each
drive individually. If it runs on one but not the other then that drive
has the problem. The system could appear to be fine because nothing is
using these clusters. Even on high end SCSI controllers the hardware
does not always report a problem when there is one.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team

 

[Jeremy Winston]

Well, I was right about *one* thing anyway...

[...] Since the RAID monitoring util doesn't report problems (when
running the OS, not Recov. Cons.), it seems unlikely to be an HD problem.

You are correct that the Recovery Console components come off the CD.
However I doubt this is a mb problem. I suspect that it is a hard drive
problem and is occuring when reading, or trying to read specific
clusters.

Wow, Leonard, you're two for two! The bad HD finally bit the dust, and the
RAID mirror broke. (I'm running on the surviving disk for the time being.)
I ordered a replacement disk a few minutes ago.

Thanks!

-Jeremy

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

Well, I was right about *one* thing anyway...

[...] Since the RAID monitoring util doesn't report problems (when
running the OS, not Recov. Cons.), it seems unlikely to be an HD
problem.

You are correct that the Recovery Console components come off the CD.
However I doubt this is a mb problem. I suspect that it is a hard
drive problem and is occuring when reading, or trying to read
specific clusters.

Wow, Leonard, you're two for two! The bad HD finally bit the dust,
and the RAID mirror broke. (I'm running on the surviving disk for the
time being.) I ordered a replacement disk a few minutes ago.

Thanks!

-Jeremy

Sorry about the hard drive but glad the mystery is solved. Hard drives
still fail too often. I had 2 totally die in the last couple of months.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team