Power Failure While Defragging

[jimbo]

I was defragging the boot drive of my WinXP Home installation using
the defrag utility supplied with XP. And there was a hard power
failure that lasted about 40 minutes. Of course I don't have UPS.

After power was restored WinXP boots and looks OK, BUT what is the
worst case scenario? Is there a corrupted file lurking somewhere? Is
there a corrupted registry entry waiting to bite?

Any advice will be appreciated, jimbo

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Jimbo,

If there's any doubt, restore the system to a point just prier to the
defrag.

 

[DP]

I'll admit I'm not an expert on this, but I doubt that System Restore would
refragment a drive, which is essentially what it would have to do if it were
to do what you're suggesting, which is to fix any files that got corrupted,
crosslinked etc.
I don't even think System Restore can bring back a user-deleted file. And if
it can't do that I wouldn't expect it to do something like repair corrupted
files.
It seems to me being able to fix corrupted files would take a heck of a lot
of disk space and resources.

I stand to be corrected, however.
Hopefully, Jimbo, you haven't run into any problems yet since your power
failure.

 

[GTS]

Just run chkdsk to see if there if there is any file corruption.
--

 

[Bert Kinney]

I'll admit I'm not an expert on this, but I doubt that System Restore
would refragment a drive, which is essentially what it would have to
do if it were to do what you're suggesting, which is to fix any files
that got corrupted, crosslinked etc.

System Restore simply replaces monitored files, folders and most of the
registry as they existed at the point when the restore point was
created. Weather the file is fragmented or not makes no difference.

I don't even think System Restore can bring back a user-deleted file.

System Restore will bring back user deleted files as long as it is a
monitored file type, and it existed at the time the restore point going
back to was created.

And if it can't do that I wouldn't expect it to do something like
repair corrupted files.

System Restore does not repair files, it replaces them.

It seems to me being able to fix corrupted files would take a heck of
a lot of disk space and resources.

I stand to be corrected, however.
Hopefully, Jimbo, you haven't run into any problems yet since your
power failure.

Here is a description of System Restore:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html

 

[Filthy McNasty]

Using at least one appendage, the entity known in this space-time continuum

Just run chkdsk to see if there if there is any file corruption.

And DON'T write anything to the drive if you have decided to run some
recovery/repair utility - That includes System Restore

Not rubbing salt into the wound, but DO back up regularly

 

[DP]

System Restore simply replaces monitored files, folders and most of the
registry as they existed at the point when the restore point was
created. Weather the file is fragmented or not makes no difference.

First, as another poster pointed out, running CHKDSK will find any files
that may have been corrupted when power failed during defrag. That's
probably a good idea if the OP is concerned that that may have happened.
Yes, if a "monitored file" was corrupted, then System Restore should take
care of it.
But I think the OP was concerned that ANY of his files may have been damaged
not just those monitored by System Restore. Simply running System Restore
will not fix that. As I read your proposed solution ("If there's any doubt,
restore the system to a point just prior to the defrag.") it seemed like you
were saying that System Restore would fix anything his failed defrag would
have screwed up. Perhaps I misread your advice. At any rate, Windows help
indicates that System Restore is not the tool to take care of corrupted
files. From Help (Win XP Pro x64):

"Your personal data files are missing or have been corrupted, or you want to
revert to a previous version of a file.
If you have saved a copy of the data file in another location, you can copy
it from that location back to your hard disk. You can make a back-up copy at
any time by copying the file to another location on your computer, to
external storage such as a removable disk, or to a different computer.

Feature: Backup
When to use it: When you need to restore a version of a data file that you
saved using Backup.
What it does: Restores files from backups.
Available on: All versions of Windows XP. By default, this utility is not
installed on Windows XP Home Edition. You can install it from the Windows XP
Home Edition compact disc, however.
For more information, see Backing up files and folders."

 

[jimbo]

I was defragging the boot drive of my WinXP Home installation using the
defrag utility supplied with XP. And there was a hard power failure that
lasted about 40 minutes. Of course I don't have UPS.

After power was restored WinXP boots and looks OK, BUT what is the worst
case scenario? Is there a corrupted file lurking somewhere? Is there a
corrupted registry entry waiting to bite?

Any advice will be appreciated, jimbo

Thanks for the replies. I thought about doing a restore but what if
that file was corrupted during the power failure? I do have a clone of
my "C" drive made with Norton Ghost, so everything could be replaced
if that is necessary. I will run chkdsk, good idea.

Thanks, jimbo

 

[jimbo]

I was defragging the boot drive of my WinXP Home installation using the
defrag utility supplied with XP. And there was a hard power failure that
lasted about 40 minutes. Of course I don't have UPS.

After power was restored WinXP boots and looks OK, BUT what is the worst
case scenario? Is there a corrupted file lurking somewhere? Is there a
corrupted registry entry waiting to bite?

Any advice will be appreciated, jimbo

OK, chkdsk reports no problems. And everythnig still seems OK, so I
guess I dodged a bullet.

Thanks, jimbo

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi DP,

No, I was referring to system files. I had the same power outage while
defragging problem on a friends WinME system. The system wouldn't even
boot into Windows. System Restore fixed it. As for non monitored files,
I hope he has a backup. <g>

 

[frodo]

because of ntfs' journalling it's likely that there was no harm done. you
got lucky tho. a $75 UPS is a good investment, put JUST your box and
monitor on it, and maybe your router/modem. NEVER put a printer (esp a
laser) on a UPS.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, I did not following a power outage while running defrag. My
system will not boot. Te.lls me it can't find a Config file. And after
years of telling people to do backups, I didn't do so recently. Hope the
community can find some kind, helpful words.

Thanks,
Jay