QWINSTA.EXE and long scan disk time...

[MF]

Dual issues I suppose.

Running WinXP Pro with a 40 GB hard drive.

My brother was doing work this afternoon, when the system froze and he had
to do a manual reset. The system froze because of the CDROM not reading a CD
properly apparently.

On the reset, the scan disk took approximately 45 minutes + to complete.
Very very slow. Usually takes no more than 2-3 minutes. I'm of the
understanding this is the usual for XP after a freeze up, but I've never had
it happen before.

In addition to this, I noticed something unusual after I finally got back
into XP. I did a full virus scan and an Ad-Aware scan, thinking that it may
have been something nefarious causing the slowdown. No viruses, no adware.
Oh, and I didn't mention, but scan disk found no disk errors either.

On the virus scan and on the Ad Aware scan however, I did notice a clicking
noise from the hard drive and a pause when the programs encountered a file
named qwinsta.exe in the System32 folder. I did a newsgroup search and a web
search, and haven't found anything of note in terms of documented problems
that others may have had with it.

So my questions are, to sum up-

1)What's with the long Scan Disk?
2)What's with quinsta.exe?
3)Any ideas on why the hard drive is clicking when it gets to quinsta.exe?

Thanks in advance.

MF

 

[MF]

A clicking sound from a hard drive, indicates a head reset.
The data on that sector cannot be read by the heads. You
should probably open a Dos Prompt and type Chkdsk C: \R
This will do a more comprehensive disk check at the next
boot. In normal operation a drive has spare clusters that it
will use to replace those deemed "Bad". This is a transparent
operation. But, when drives start to develop bad clusters it
can indicate a pending failure.Make sure your data is backed
up. Visit the drive Mfg web-site. All of them provide a tool
that you can run to verify the integrity of the drive. In some
cases if a defective drive is diagnosed by the software, it will
help you create a request for replacement.

Thanks,

I guess a followup would be, 'why does it only do it on THAT file though'

MF

 

[R. McCarty]

A clicking sound from a hard drive, indicates a head reset.
The data on that sector cannot be read by the heads. You
should probably open a Dos Prompt and type Chkdsk C: \R
This will do a more comprehensive disk check at the next
boot. In normal operation a drive has spare clusters that it
will use to replace those deemed "Bad". This is a transparent
operation. But, when drives start to develop bad clusters it
can indicate a pending failure.Make sure your data is backed
up. Visit the drive Mfg web-site. All of them provide a tool
that you can run to verify the integrity of the drive. In some
cases if a defective drive is diagnosed by the software, it will
help you create a request for replacement.

 

[cimex]

I think there is only one issue: "quinsta."
That file needs to go away, or at least be temporarily disabled by altering
its name.
A Google search turned up nothing in English, and a possible lead in
Russian. It may be a malicious takeoff on winsta.dll. You don't need it to
run Windows, that's the bottom line.

 

[S.Sengupta]

Hi!
QWINSTA.EXE command displays information about Terminal Sessions.
start > Run > type cmd > ok
now in the command window type QWINSTA.EXEcommand > press enter
it will show lists of all the current users on the local server.

regards/
ssg MS-MVP
pronetworks.org

 

[cimex]

Thanks, SSG. I thought it was bad or useless!

Hi!
QWINSTA.EXE command displays information about Terminal Sessions.
start > Run > type cmd > ok
now in the command window type QWINSTA.EXEcommand > press enter
it will show lists of all the current users on the local server.

regards/
ssg MS-MVP
pronetworks.org

 

[Wesley VogelX]

cimex;
I do not know if it is bad. But to me it is useless, I am not on a network. )
QWINSTA.EXEcommand did not work for me.
But QWINSTA.EXE /? did.
-------------------------------------------
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\WESLEY P. VOGEL>QWINSTA.EXE /?
Display information about Terminal Sessions.

QUERY SESSION [sessionname | username | sessionid]
[/SERVER:servername] [/MODE] [/FLOW] [/CONNECT] [/COUNTER]

sessionname Identifies the session named sessionname.
username Identifies the session with user username.
sessionid Identifies the session with ID sessionid.
/SERVER:servername The server to be queried (default is current).
/MODE Display current line settings.
/FLOW Display current flow control settings.
/CONNECT Display current connect settings.
/COUNTER Display current Terminal Services counters information.
--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Not all advice may be correct. Use common sense.
Wes

In

 

[MildBill]

I guess the answer might be that it is the portion of the disk where that
program is currently stored that is going bad??

While performing brain surgery on (him/her)self,

 

[MF]

I guess the answer might be that it is the portion of the disk where that
program is currently stored that is going bad??

While performing brain surgery on (him/her)self,

And now, after doing a full Scan Disk, I get no clicking noise anymore.

I hate computers sometimes.

MF

 

[Wesley VogelX]

Try this instead: Start/Run/cmd/OK
QWINSTA.EXE /command [ENTER]