Error-Checking and Disk Defragmenter

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Guest

Hi Everyone. Hope someone can help me with this problem.

I wanted to defragment my hard drive (C) as it is running slow. I went into
my C drive properties and clicked on Tools, then clicked Defragment Now... I
got the following message:

"Degragmentation of (C:) has been aborted due to inconsistencies that were
detected in the fulesystem. Please run CHKDSK or SCANDISK on (C:) to repair
these inconsistencies, then run Disk Defragmenter again."

I went back into my C drive properties/tools, then clicked "Check Now" to
begin a check of my C drive. An error message came up telling me that:

"The Disk Check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs
exclusive access to wome Windows files on the disk. These files can only be
accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule this disk check to
occur the next time you restart the computer?"

I clicked "Yes" and restarted my computer. It restarted normally. No check
disk was performed.

I contacted support for my laptop (I have a Toshiba Satellite A75-2150
running Windows XP Pro) and got nowhere with them.

They had me try and reboot into Safe mode and run the Check Disk that way
(didn't work), then they had go through the command prompt (cmd) and type in
"chkdsk c:/r" (didn't work). (They were basically just reading off Window's
website). They then suggested I try reinstalling the operating system, not
something I want to do at this juncture (even though I DO have all files
backed up).

I once read, or was told my someone, that there is a way to "force" a check
disk through the Staret/Run command line. I just can't remember what the
command is. I believe it's similar to "chkdsk c:/ . . .", but has a
different command at the end of the string. Anyone have suggestions about
that, or about why my computer isn't allowing a "normal" check disk upon
restart?

I am NOT running any Norton products (my Toshiba Techie suggested it might
cause a conflict). However, I do use McAfee, which I got free through my
cable provider. I need help....

Thanks.

Russell
 
You can try this: run Command Prompt, type chkdsk C: /X /R /F then you will
get a prompt saying that it cannot run. Press Y and hit enter to run it at
next startup. If you get any errors during Check Disk at startup or it
doesn't run then you can try to disable your virus scanner and run the check
disk command from cmd again. I've never dealt with McAfee but maybe there's a
chance that it performs a check at boot which will cause Check Disk to fail
(not sure if anything other than windows software would load at this boot
stage).

If you're still left with Check Disk disk access problems then you can try
creating a boot CD where you can run Check Disk from there.

BartPE: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
This program allows you to create a live bootable XP cd that contains the
Check Disk utility (it's in BartPE's plugins). There are also a lot of other
useful plugins that you have access to such as McAfee VirusScan or Nero
Burning Rom.

You can use the instructions at BartPE's website or there is also Help2Go's
instructions that deal with an earlier version -
http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Windows/Create_a_Windows_Boot_CD__Rescue_CD.html.

After you create your boot CD then you can boot off of the CD and run Check
Disk from there and you should have exclusive access to the C: drive.

Note: you can find options of any command line tool in windows by typing
'help chkdsk' or whatever program you are trying to find out what the options
are.

-Dan
 
LittleMoo said:
You can try this: run Command Prompt, type chkdsk C: /X /R /F then you will
get a prompt saying that it cannot run. Press Y and hit enter to run it at
next startup. If you get any errors during Check Disk at startup or it
doesn't run then you can try to disable your virus scanner and run the check
disk command from cmd again. I've never dealt with McAfee but maybe there's a
chance that it performs a check at boot which will cause Check Disk to fail
(not sure if anything other than windows software would load at this boot
stage).

If you're still left with Check Disk disk access problems then you can try
creating a boot CD where you can run Check Disk from there.

BartPE: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
This program allows you to create a live bootable XP cd that contains the
Check Disk utility (it's in BartPE's plugins). There are also a lot of other
useful plugins that you have access to such as McAfee VirusScan or Nero
Burning Rom.

You can use the instructions at BartPE's website or there is also Help2Go's
instructions that deal with an earlier version -
http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Windows/Create_a_Windows_Boot_CD__Rescue_CD.html.

After you create your boot CD then you can boot off of the CD and run Check
Disk from there and you should have exclusive access to the C: drive.

Note: you can find options of any command line tool in windows by typing
'help chkdsk' or whatever program you are trying to find out what the options
are.

-Dan
Click to expand...
 
Hi LittleMoo...

Thank you. Using your suggestions, and doing a little further searching on
the web, I was came across a program that allowed me to run various disk
utilities frm the CD it had me download. It's called UBCD4Win (Ultimate Boot
CD for Win). it was a free download. If you are interested, their website
is UBCD4Win.com. Again, thanks for your assistance.

Russell
 
Yes, I know of UBCD. It actually uses the program that I suggested - PE
Builder (Bart PE) - as it's core component. UBCD just contains more plugins,
which means that you can use more utilities without having to set them up.
The only reason that I didn't suggest this for you was because PE Builder
contains Check Disk without having to set up a plugin for it, and because it
is only something like a 3MB download compared to around 130MB. But once you
get your boot CD up and running from UBCD then it will undoubtedly be a very
useful tool now and in the future if you ever have any problems where you
can't access your system. But, thank you for the suggestion anyway.

-Dan
 
Oh, I see. However, the original place you sent me to charges for their
utlity, whereas UBCD4Win is a freeware application. But, hey, thanks again.
I need to begin using this discussion forum more often. Would probably save
me many headaches trying to figure out things on my own, or waiting through
endless version of "Muskrat Love" while on hold with tech support.....
 
Where did you see that you have to buy PE Builder? If you go to the downloads
section of the site you can download it at the bottom of the page. The only
thing that might have to possibly be bought before use within PE Builder is
3rd party applications that aren't free, like Nero, Norton Ghost, etc. UBCD
is the same way, just that it contains a lot more pre-loaded freeware
programs. But, it's probably better in the long run anyway to be using UBCD,
as it's more robust than PE Builder without having to manually install
plugins to it.

Sorry if it got a little confusing dealing with the PE Builder site - it is
a little more strange to navigate through it than most other sites.
Maybe I'll just recommend UBCD from now on seeing as it's easier to find,
more robust, and the instructions on their site are a bit better than for PE
Builder.

-Dan
 
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