Problems running chkdsk on laptop with external drives

[Dave Rado]

I have Win XP Pro SP2.

If I try to run chkdsk on my external USB drive plugged into my Toshiba
T1800-314 laptop, I get the following message: "The disk check could
not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access
to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed only by
restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule this disk check to occur
the next time you restart the computer?" If I select "Yes", the disk
check does not run when I restart the computer because the system can't
"see" the drive until Windows is running, by which time it's too late
for it to run without that message being displayed again.

However, if I attach the same USB drive to a friend's desktop computer,
I can run chkdsk on the same drive without any warning messages being
displayed and without any problems.

Toshiba claim they can't reproduce the problem and said I should try
formatting my USB drive. I have now done so, and it has made no
difference - even when the drive is freshly formatted (with a full
format) and contains no data at all, the warning message is still
displayed and chkdsk still won't run. I can't find any references to
the drive in my registry either.

Weird! Any ideas?

Dave

 

[philo]

I have Win XP Pro SP2.

If I try to run chkdsk on my external USB drive plugged into my Toshiba
T1800-314 laptop, I get the following message: "The disk check could
not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access
to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed only by
restarting Windows.

<snip>

try from safe mode
(assuming you can see the drive there)

 

[Don Phillipson]

I have Win XP Pro SP2.

If I try to run chkdsk on my external USB drive plugged into my Toshiba
T1800-314 laptop, I get the following message: "The disk check could
not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access
to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed only by
restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule this disk check to occur
the next time you restart the computer?" If I select "Yes", the disk
check does not run when I restart the computer because the system can't
"see" the drive until Windows is running, by which time it's too late
for it to run without that message being displayed again.

However, if I attach the same USB drive to a friend's desktop computer,
I can run chkdsk on the same drive without any warning messages being
displayed and without any problems.

CHKDSK is a DOS tool from the 1980s.
The usual Windows tool is SCANDISK which can
verify files currently loaded.

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Philo

try from safe mode
(assuming you can see the drive there)

I get the same problem in safe mode. Any more ideas?

Dave

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Don

CHKDSK is a DOS tool from the 1980s.
The usual Windows tool is SCANDISK which can
verify files currently loaded.

I'm talking about the utility that runs if you right-click on a drive
letter in Windows XP, select Properties, go to the Tools tab, and under
"Error-checking", click the "Check Now" button, then select
"Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt
recovery of bad sectors" and click "Start". In Win 98 it was called
Scandisk, but in XP I have only ever seen it referred to as
chkdsk,.including by Microsoft MVPs.

Dave

 

[philo]

CHKDSK is a DOS tool from the 1980s.
The usual Windows tool is SCANDISK which can
verify files currently loaded.

Guess you do not use win2k or XP


CHKDSK has been brought back and scandisk no longer exists!!!!

 

[Dave Rado]

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[kony]

Does anyone have any ideas?

Did you install any software that came with this drive,
perhaps some kind of backup program? If so, remove it.

You might also try running the following (or similar) to see
if there are any references to this volume.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html

 

[Moonsurfer]

Are you and your friend running the same version of Windows? Also, do
you have the latest updates from Microsoft (Including driver updates)?

 

[Moonsurfer]

I'm also curious as to why you are trying to run chkdsk... are you
having some sort of problem with the USB drive? or are you trying to
check it just because?

 

[spodosaurus]

I have Win XP Pro SP2.

If I try to run chkdsk on my external USB drive plugged into my Toshiba
T1800-314 laptop, I get the following message: "The disk check could
not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access
to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed only by
restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule this disk check to occur
the next time you restart the computer?" If I select "Yes", the disk
check does not run when I restart the computer because the system can't
"see" the drive until Windows is running, by which time it's too late
for it to run without that message being displayed again.

However, if I attach the same USB drive to a friend's desktop computer,
I can run chkdsk on the same drive without any warning messages being
displayed and without any problems.

Toshiba claim they can't reproduce the problem and said I should try
formatting my USB drive. I have now done so, and it has made no
difference - even when the drive is freshly formatted (with a full
format) and contains no data at all, the warning message is still
displayed and chkdsk still won't run. I can't find any references to
the drive in my registry either.

Weird! Any ideas?

Dave

Do you have the appropriate USB options enabled in the BIOS?

Regards,

Ari

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply
Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor and literally save someone's life:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Moonsurfer

Are you and your friend running the same version of Windows? Also, do
you have the latest updates from Microsoft (Including driver updates)?

Yes to all.

Dave

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Ari

Do you have the appropriate USB options enabled in the BIOS?

Regards,

Ari

Not sure how to check but all USB devices work perfectly on my machine
with the one exception that chkdsk won't run on USB drives. The USB
drive works perfectly in all other respects and my USB CD/DVD Writer,
printers, scanners and ADSL modem all work fine. So I don't see how it
can be a port problem?

Dave

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Moonsurfer

I'm also curious as to why you are trying to run chkdsk... are you
having some sort of problem with the USB drive? or are you trying to
check it just because?

Good housekeeping. I've always been told that one should never run
defrag without running chkdsk first, and that one should run both every
3 months or so. And also one wants to catch any bad sectors or file
allocation errors soon after they first arise,, rather than wait for
them to do real damage.

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Kony

Did you install any software that came with this drive,
perhaps some kind of backup program? If so, remove it.

No and in any case as I said I've recently fully reformatted so it
contains no files whatsoever.

You might also try running the following (or similar) to see
if there are any references to this volume.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html

Will try it later and post back ... although given that there are no
files on the disk I don't see how there can be any open ones on it ...

Dave

 

[kony]

Hi Kony


No and in any case as I said I've recently fully reformatted so it
contains no files whatsoever.



Will try it later and post back ... although given that there are no
files on the disk I don't see how there can be any open ones on it ...

Dave

The catch here is that if we "saw" what and why, the problem
would be solved or abandoned as unfixable already, yes?

Thus, a few things are tried, looking for clues. Formatting
a volume does not change what other software or OS still has
reference to it, necessarily. You might also check on
whether anything looks unusual in Drive Management.

Do you have any other external drives you could try and/or
that exhibit this same behavior on same system?

 

[spodosaurus]

Hi Ari


Not sure how to check but all USB devices work perfectly on my machine
with the one exception that chkdsk won't run on USB drives. The USB
drive works perfectly in all other respects and my USB CD/DVD Writer,
printers, scanners and ADSL modem all work fine. So I don't see how it
can be a port problem?

Dave

I didn't say it was a port problem. I was guessing that if the
motherboard doesn't detect it properly before chkdsk tries to run, then
chkdsk won't run! CHKDSK tries to run before windows boots, so you do
not have access to the normal windows USB drivers to properly 'see' the
device. See what options you have under BIOS for USB devices.

Ari

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply
Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor and literally save someone's life:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Kony

You might also try running the following (or similar) to see
if there are any references to this volume.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html

I've now run OpenedFilesView and there are no references to my USB
drive volume in it.

Dave

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Ari

I didn't say it was a port problem. I was guessing that if the
motherboard doesn't detect it properly before chkdsk tries to run, then
chkdsk won't run! CHKDSK tries to run before windows boots, so you do
not have access to the normal windows USB drivers to properly 'see' the
device. See what options you have under BIOS for USB devices.

Ari

I've now found out how to check the BIOS settings and there are no
settings that mention USB. Any more ideas?

Dave

 

[Dave Rado]

Hi Kony

Do you have any other external drives you could try and/or
that exhibit this same behavior on same system?

Unfortunately not.

Dave