$MFT is Corrupt and DSKCHK Runs on Startup Automatically

[Sid Joyner]

Hi All:

I'm having a problem and I still can't figure it out. Hopefully someone here
can help and it's not serious.

Computer:
HP Pavilion Athlon 64, 512 MB RAM
Windows XP Pro SP2 with all updates
Norton Systemworks 2005

About two months ago, when I'd start up the computer, about 30 minutes into
a computer session, I'd get an ominous balloon-style Windows pop-up in the
lower right hand corner stating :

"C:\$MFT is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the chkdsk utility."

I don't have to be doing anything interactively on the computer. This
message can sometimes appears with on the Welcome screen.

If I run chkdsk with no option in read-only mode from within an XP session,
I receive the following message:

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table
(MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

However, if I run chkdsk /F from DOS or from Norton, the computer runs
chkdsk on startup, but nothing seems to be fixed; the same thing keeps
happening. In addition, chkdsk now runs (with no effect) on startup 2 out of
every 3 times without me requesting it. I can't stop it from running on
startup.

The only good news I can say is that this bothersome message seems not to be
affecting computer performance or operation. Everything seems to working
fine except for these pop-up messages that are concerning me.

Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Try chkdsk /r

To stop the disk checker from running on every boot, run chkntfs /d

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Sharon F]

Hi All:

I'm having a problem and I still can't figure it out. Hopefully someone here
can help and it's not serious.

Computer:
HP Pavilion Athlon 64, 512 MB RAM
Windows XP Pro SP2 with all updates
Norton Systemworks 2005

About two months ago, when I'd start up the computer, about 30 minutes into
a computer session, I'd get an ominous balloon-style Windows pop-up in the
lower right hand corner stating :

"C:\$MFT is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the chkdsk utility."

I don't have to be doing anything interactively on the computer. This
message can sometimes appears with on the Welcome screen.

If I run chkdsk with no option in read-only mode from within an XP session,
I receive the following message:

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table
(MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

However, if I run chkdsk /F from DOS or from Norton, the computer runs
chkdsk on startup, but nothing seems to be fixed; the same thing keeps
happening. In addition, chkdsk now runs (with no effect) on startup 2 out of
every 3 times without me requesting it. I can't stop it from running on
startup.

The only good news I can say is that this bothersome message seems not to be
affecting computer performance or operation. Everything seems to working
fine except for these pop-up messages that are concerning me.

Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.

You can get a report on what chdsk /f is doing at startup by looking at
Winlogon events in Event Viewer. Because the situation keeps repeating, it
almost sounds like there is a problem with the drive - a loose connection
or early warning signs of a failure.

 

[Rock]

Hi All:

I'm having a problem and I still can't figure it out. Hopefully someone here
can help and it's not serious.

Computer:
HP Pavilion Athlon 64, 512 MB RAM
Windows XP Pro SP2 with all updates
Norton Systemworks 2005

About two months ago, when I'd start up the computer, about 30 minutes into
a computer session, I'd get an ominous balloon-style Windows pop-up in the
lower right hand corner stating :

"C:\$MFT is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the chkdsk utility."

I don't have to be doing anything interactively on the computer. This
message can sometimes appears with on the Welcome screen.

If I run chkdsk with no option in read-only mode from within an XP session,
I receive the following message:

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table
(MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

However, if I run chkdsk /F from DOS or from Norton, the computer runs
chkdsk on startup, but nothing seems to be fixed; the same thing keeps
happening. In addition, chkdsk now runs (with no effect) on startup 2 out of
every 3 times without me requesting it. I can't stop it from running on
startup.

The only good news I can say is that this bothersome message seems not to be
affecting computer performance or operation. Everything seems to working
fine except for these pop-up messages that are concerning me.

Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.

You might want to download a diagnostic utility for your drive from the
drive manufacturer's web site. This generally creates a boot floppy;
run the diagnostics from there.

 

[Kelly]

Do some reading here, Sid and good luck!
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...+run+the+chkdsk+utility+XP&qt_s=Search+Groups

--
Happy Holidays,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Sid Joyner]

Hi Rick:

Thanks for your response. I've tried chkdsk /r and it went through a lengthy
chkdsk type of repair on reboot. However, the disk came up clean with no
problems reported. However, I still start up XP and if I do a chkdsk is will
still give me the same report:

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table
(MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

Eventually, I will get the popup about $MFT being corrupt. This will set the
volume's "dity bot" and that's why it will start automatically with a chkdsk
upon reboot. Vicious circle.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Sid Joyner]

Hi Sharon:

Thanks for the response. Yes, I did look at the Event Viewer and I see where
it logs the event stating the corrupt $MFT file. After that, it will log a
popup notification reminding me that it's corrupt.

One other interesting error appears in the Event Viewer upon each bootup;
not sure if it's related or not. But every time the computer boots up, I get
an error stating the boot-up or start-up driver viaagp1 failed to load. I've
gone to HP's web site and downloaded all the updated drivers and installed
them, but this will not go away. I wouldn't even know it was failing if it
wasn't for being in the Event Viewer. Not sure if this has anything to do
with the corrupt file problem.

I have more info in responses to others on the thread. Thanks.

 

[Sid Joyner]

Hi Rock:

I did run the diagnostic utility that came with the computer. Everything
checked out fine. There wer various tests: SMART Status test, HD Random Seek
Test, HD Funnel Seek test, HD Surface Scan test. All PASSED.

In addition, running the chkdsk /r revealed no errors.

Thanks. There's more information in other reponses on the thread.

 

[Sid Joyner]

Hi Kelly:

Thanks. The first thing I did was do a Google on the problem like you
presented. I did go through all the posts. However, there was no new leads
there.

I did post more info in the other reponses on the thread. Thanks for your
help; it's making me crazy.

 

[Rock]

Hi Rock:

I did run the diagnostic utility that came with the computer. Everything
checked out fine. There wer various tests: SMART Status test, HD Random Seek
Test, HD Funnel Seek test, HD Surface Scan test. All PASSED.

In addition, running the chkdsk /r revealed no errors.

Thanks. There's more information in other reponses on the thread.

Sid, I'm not saying it will make any difference but it's best to run a
diagnostic utility obtained from the drive manufacturer's site. These
are specifically tailored to the drive and are more in depth than the
general diagnostic programs bundled with PCs.

 

[Sid Joyner]

Whenever I boot-up and log on to the computer, the first thing I can do is
run a chkdsk in read-only mode. It always issues the following:

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table
(MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

At this point, the volume is not marked as "dirty" by the system. However,
after working with the computer for a few minutes, a Windows popup will
appear lower right-hand corner repeatedly:

"C:\$MFT is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the chkdsk utility."

At this point, the volume is marked as "dirty" and a chkdsk is automatically
scheduled on boot-up. (This is why it runs "chkdsk /f" on boot-up without me
specifically asking for it.) This popup will continue to appear and annoy.
However, I do not notice any other negative operational issues, except maybe
a slight performance hit.

Upon reboot, the computer will automatically do the chkdsk /f. After logging
in, I check with chkntfs and discover that the volume is now marked as
clean. However, I follow this with a chkdsk and get the same message about
free space marked as allocated in the MFT. A few minutes later the dreaded
pop-ups start and the volume is marked as dirty. Thus the vicious cycle
continues.

Other points:

1. There is an error on boot-up in the Event Viewer about the driver viaag1
not being loaded. I have downloaded all HP updates and latest BIOS and it
doesn not resolve the problem. Not sure if this is related to the
aggravating corrupt MFT problem.

2. I have done a chkdsk /r and HP HD diagnostics and they all pass with no
problems detected.

Obviously, I'm frustrated. Any additional advice would be appreciated.

 

[R. McCarty]

Your Event viewer message relates to a Via chipset driver. You should
check under System devices in Device Manager and see which chipset
your motherboard uses.
The Via chipset driver is now called "Hyperion 4-in-1". I would suggest
you download the latest version, if indeed your motherboard users Via
chipset and install. It will update your onboard IDE controller driver.
Other standard things to check are BIOS settings for the drive and the
IDE controller (LBA mode, Enable UDMA, etc).
There must be some inconsistency on the disk structure that is causing
the MFT free space to trigger a "Dirty Flag".
Via Chipset Driver menu here:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

 

[WinGuy]

Hi, Sid. I can't find anything about a "viaag1" driver. Perhaps you mean
"viaagl" (it's the letter "l" instead of the numeral "1"), as I can google
"viaagl.sys" but then all I could find was this:
http://www.mcse.ms/archive64-2004-3-503770.html

Can you set a restore point, restore to some other point, and then come back
to the current restore point? If restore is not working correct then maybe
it's doing something that is causing your messages, and something can be
done about that if you find out restore is not working. How big is your hard
drive, and what model of Pavilion do you have? Is your CD writer working in
case you need to backup personal data files? Do you have the very latest
updates for Norton? Norton puts its silly hooks into the Recycle bin, and
you mentioned in the below quoted that there's a discrepancy between it and
system utility checks of the HD so might want to uninstall Norton & see if
that fixes things, reinstall (and update) it and see if the problem comes
back. Norton's *must* be up to date or it can have problems of its own. Do
not be physically connected to the internet if you have no antivirus and/or
firewall in place and active.

If other fixes don't fix (is that an oxymoron?) then it might end up being
necessary to restore your system to factory condition (so you'd then need to
have backed up your data, do all updates again, reinstall programs, and so
on). On the other hand, HP might can sell you an XP Pro upgrade *CD* a lot
cheaper than buying the full retail version (you can not use the retail
version to upgrade an OEM installation unless you buy the full retail
version of XP-Pro, not a retail upgrade and not a full version of XP-Home --
they *won't* work with OEM XP). That would restore system files that might
not otherwise be restorable and let you keep everything the way it currently
is. But I'm getting way ahead of things, so (much) more on that later if it
proves necessary. Maybe we can fix this another way, but first please answer
the my questions of the above paragraph.

Winguy

 

[Sid Joyner]

Hi -

Thanks for your response. A very interesting thing about the viaagp1 driver
not being loaded on boot-up and Event Viewer logging it is that it's a
NVIDIA nForce3 150 SPP (single chipset), not a Via chipset. So I don't know
how these got into the registry to be loaded. I just did a search on Viaagp1
in the registry and found 3-4 entries under HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet
(Enum/root/Services).

Should I reload the original chipset drivers I found on the HP site? (The
nVidia ones seem to be loaded in System devices.) Do you have
a suggestion how I can get rid of these Via entries (or why they're there in
the first place)? And do you suspect this has anything to do with the MFT
problem?

As for the BIOS settings, I did check on the settings for the Seagate UDMA
hard drive. The DMA Setting was on Auto. However, I did set it to UDMA5 -
which is the settings in the System Control Panel. No improvement. There was
one other BIOS setting that I did change and changed back - 32-bit transfer.
It was set to Disabled. I set it to Enabled, but no improvement. In fact -
discouragingly - the situation is worse now. I'm starting to get the "$MFT
is corrupt" popup repeatedly on the Welcome Screen - even before I log on.
That's not happened before.

Thanks for your help. Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

[Sid Joyner]

Sorry about the typo. I meant the "viaagp1" drivers. (Terrible time for a
typo.) Strangge thing as I posted earlier is that the computer uses an
nVidia nForce3 150 SPP chipset.

The hard drive is a Seagate ST3200822A 7200rpm UDMA drive. I downlaoded the
Seagate utility and it passes all SMART and extended drive self-tests. The
computer is a HP Pavilion a530n. (Athlon 64) The DVD and CD writer drives
are working but I'm still hoping (maybe fruitlessly) that I can prevent
reloading everything.

I just loaded Norton last night, so that's not the problem. I do have all
updates for Norton through Live Update though.

I do have system restore on and there is one restore point loaded. Not sure
about the test you'd like for me to do.

Thanks for your help.

 

[R. McCarty]

Sounds like Driver issues - I'll think over your description and see if
I can cobble together some suggestions.

 

[WinGuy]

Sorry about the typo. I meant the "viaagp1" drivers. (Terrible time for a
typo.) Strangge thing as I posted earlier is that the computer uses an
nVidia nForce3 150 SPP chipset.

The hard drive is a Seagate ST3200822A 7200rpm UDMA drive. I downlaoded
the
Seagate utility and it passes all SMART and extended drive self-tests. The
computer is a HP Pavilion a530n. (Athlon 64) The DVD and CD writer drives
are working but I'm still hoping (maybe fruitlessly) that I can prevent
reloading everything.

I just loaded Norton last night, so that's not the problem. I do have all
updates for Norton through Live Update though.

I do have system restore on and there is one restore point loaded. Not
sure
about the test you'd like for me to do.

Thanks for your help.

Ok, and I now see that R. McCarty is helping you. It's not good to be doing
multiple things at one time, the situation could get much worse that way.
Diagnostics must be done in an orderly fashion. I just wanted to assure that
you could set a restore point manually, and that you could then go back to a
different and earlier restore point, that you could then return to the one
you had just created. If so, then the driver using the restoration feature
is not what is munging your HDD format. If not, then it needs to be fixed.
Best I could tell, it uses (as I pointed out) a file named "viaagpl.sys",
which seemed at the very least to be coincidental and suspicious and worthy
of follow-up.

I'll bow out and let R. McCarty help you, without me adding to what is
rapidly becoming confusing! I'm sure he'll ask you to do things. You should
give him the chance to help as he can before you possibly make things more
difficult to diagnose or cause system performance to degrade even further.

Winguy

 

[Guest]

Hi Sid!
Did you ever solve this problem?
I'm in the same mess right now.
As far as I have understood this problem it looks as if Microsoft allows the
whole system to go unrecoverably currupt, with fragmented $MFT-file, if you
put to many small files on the disk. Amazing!!!

/Anders M

"Sid Joyner" skrev: