How To Run chkdsk On A Schedule?

G

Guest

There's actually quite a valid reason why I want to do this on an external
USB hard disk. I hope this response from David Candy won't put off others who
genuinely want to help.
 
K

Kerry Brown

Dell said:
Can anyone tell me how to run chkdsk /r automatically (weekly)?
Click to expand...

As David suggested this is not a recommended thing to do. Running chkdsk can
sometimes cause more problems than it solves. It is not normally run unless
a problem is indicated in the event logs or by a Windows error message.
Perhaps if you tell us what you want to accomplish by running chkdsk so
often someone could suggest an alternative procedure.

Have you tried Scheduled Tasks in the Control Panel?

Kerry
 
G

Guest

Kerry, thanks for your reply.

I have an external USB hard drive to which a backup utility outputs large
compressed images of various hard disk partitions on a daily basis. Every so
often Win XP Pro logs an error for this drive in the System Event log and
says that chkdsk should be run on it. I then run chkdsk /r on the drive but
the status report is always healthy, no bad sectors are reported and no file
repair is carried out. Once I've run chkdsk the OS is happy again.

I would like to automate the running of chkdsk, hence my request in this post.

With regard to task scheduler, I don't know how to use it to schedule
command line utilties with paramaters.
 
K

Kerry Brown

Dell said:
Kerry, thanks for your reply.

I have an external USB hard drive to which a backup utility outputs
large compressed images of various hard disk partitions on a daily
basis. Every so often Win XP Pro logs an error for this drive in the
System Event log and says that chkdsk should be run on it. I then run
chkdsk /r on the drive but the status report is always healthy, no
bad sectors are reported and no file repair is carried out. Once I've
run chkdsk the OS is happy again.

I would like to automate the running of chkdsk, hence my request in
this post.

With regard to task scheduler, I don't know how to use it to schedule
command line utilties with paramaters.
Click to expand...

Rather than treating a symptom you should look for the cause. Here is a link
that will help you with chkdsk.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_defrag.htm

Here is a link to help you with task scheduler

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308569&sd=tech

I've never tried to schedule chkdsk and don't recommend it. I don't know if
it will work. Make sure you use an account with administrator permissions
(in itself a reason not to do this) and that the account has a password.
Accounts without passwords will work with scheduled tasks.

Again, you would be much better off to find out why you are getting these
errors in the logs. It may be you are treating a symptom of a much deeper
problem that bite you some day. It may be a communications issue with the
external drive, a drive going bad, etc.. At the very least make sure you
verify your backups.

Kerry
 
K

Kerry Brown

Hit send too fast :)

Make that

Accounts without passwords will NOT work with the Task Scheduler.

Kerry
 
D

David Candy

Yep. It's my favourite word. I use it far more frequently than idiot or cretin.
 
G

Guest

I take your point about the sceduling and on reflection it may be a bad idea.

With regard to a deeper problem, I appreciate what you say. This has been
happening for around 15 months or so on three different manufacturer's hard
drives attached to three different computers all backing up using Norton
Ghost 9.0 (I use this method myself and at two client's premises). None of
these drives have failed or had any problems to date. I think the sheer size
of the backups may affect the indexing in some way.

De-fragging would probably help a lot but because of the sheer size of the
backup files on the disk it isn't practical, even with Diskeeper. (I realise
it would be better to backup to tape.)

I switched on automatic verification when I set up the backups.

Thank you for your advice.
 
K

Kerry Brown

Dell said:
I take your point about the sceduling and on reflection it may be a
bad idea.

With regard to a deeper problem, I appreciate what you say. This has
been happening for around 15 months or so on three different
manufacturer's hard drives attached to three different computers all
backing up using Norton Ghost 9.0 (I use this method myself and at
two client's premises). None of these drives have failed or had any
problems to date. I think the sheer size of the backups may affect
the indexing in some way.

De-fragging would probably help a lot but because of the sheer size
of the backup files on the disk it isn't practical, even with
Diskeeper. (I realise it would be better to backup to tape.)

I switched on automatic verification when I set up the backups.

Thank you for your advice.
Click to expand...

Your welcome.

Is write caching turned on for the drives? Sometimes this can cause
intermittant problems with external drives. As long as the verify works it
may just be a cosmetic issue What is the actual error?

Kerry
 
G

Guest

Write caching wasn't turned on for the drive, it is now.

The actual error is an NTFS error (Event ID 55):
"The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run
the chkdsk utility on the volume H:"

Malcolm
 
G

Guest

Sorry, read your last post in a hurry and thought you meant to turn write
caching on. However, might it be worth trying it with the write caching on?
 
K

Kerry Brown

Dell said:
Sorry, read your last post in a hurry and thought you meant to turn
write caching on. However, might it be worth trying it with the write
caching on?
Click to expand...

It is not recommended for external drives.

Kerry
 
K

Kerry Brown

I have seen that error once when using external USB drives. Switching to USB
2.0 cable fixed the problem in my case. I did some research at the time and
found out that it can be caused by many things or a combination of things.
It is so intermittant that it is hard to pin it down. What fixes one system
may not fix another. It can be caused by the USB chipset on the motherboard
or USB card, the cable, or the USB to IDE chipset in the external enclosure.
I switched to a different brand of cable (much more expensive) and haven't
seen the problem since on any external drives I've set up. I use a fairly
inexpensive Taiwanese made enclosure. I always use the same make as I've had
good luck with them. They are marketed by a company called Mediasonic. I
have no idea what chipset is inside.

Kerry
 
G

Guest

My external HD is a Freecom with (what looks like) a high quality USB 2.0
cable. However, my Dell Dimension 8300 has problems with the Epson All In One
I have which I think is related to the motherboard USB chipset, so my problem
with the external HD may have the same cause. I know other people have
overcome similar USB problems on Dell machines by wiping the hard drive and
then re-installing Windows but it's my main box and I don't have time at the
moment.

Thanks for your tip about the Mediasonic kit. I've just checked and they
don't appear to be sold in the UK, at least for the moment, but I intend to
print and file your advice.

Many thanks once again.

Do you have a web site?
Malcolm
 

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