Return of the Bride of Chkdsk

D

-DG-

I had posted about a chkdsk problem a couple weeks ago.
It's back, but slightly different. This time there are no message
popups from the task bar. Occasional lockups though.

Again, Chkdsk /V C: from within windows always reports errors:

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of f
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of f
Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

But I've run Chkdsk /F C: (and rebooted) about 10 times.
No reports of problems. Yet immediately after, Chkdsk
within windows reports errors again.

Is it necessary to keep running Chkdsk /F over and over
until the problem clears? Any other way to deal with this?
 
R

Richard Urban

Files that are open and in use will initiate errors when running chkdsk from
within Windows. These errors may not be an actuality. Run chkdsk from the
repair console, when Windows is inactive.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
W

Will Denny

Hi

Is this on an NTFS or FAT32 partition?

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups
 
D

-DG-

Is this on an NTFS or FAT32 partition?

NTFS, Will. Maybe I should convert to FAT32 <g>
Is this seen often with NTFS?

In searching, I have turned up mention of people who just kept running
Chkdsk/F on their C: drive, claiming that eventually it stopped. I
tend to think this has to be a deeper systemic problem. Maybe a
glitch in the file system. Maybe it's coincidental, but this machine
(laptop) was running fine for a year before I installed XP SP2. Can't
revert--I need SP2 to run Microsoft development tools.
 
D

-DG-

Files that are open and in use will initiate errors when running chkdsk from
within Windows. These errors may not be an actuality. Run chkdsk from the
repair console, when Windows is inactive.

Thanks for your reply, Richard.

I understand that the two files flagged often by "Chkdsk /V C:" are
normal. ("Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file
9." etc)

However, the recommendation to run Chkdsk/F doesn't seem to be
normal, does it? I see neither on other machines. (Well, I just
installed SP2 on one of them, so we'll see).

Re repair console: I presume you mean to boot from the XP install CD.
Is there a difference between doing this vs issuing the 'Chkdsk/F'
from within windows and letting it check the C: drive on next reboot?
I suppose it does have a minimal set of files open at reboot time, but
I always thought MS had accounted for those in Chkdsk's design.

There's got to be a systemic cause for this, as I've heard of others
with similar symptoms.
 
W

Will Denny

Hi

You can't convert from NTFS to FAT32'. Try running ChkDsk from the Recovery
Console.

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups
 
R

R. McCarty

Partition Magic 8+ can convert, but you have to remove all the
compressed files and "Sparse Data" can interfere with the drive
conversion back to FAT32.

I've done it several times - but never without an image being taken
1st.
 
D

-DG-

You can't convert from NTFS to FAT32'.

I wasn't serious about that. This same system had NTFS on C: for
about a year before the problem developed. This has coincided with
(net-based) installation of SP2, though I'm told by some knowledgable
people that it's not likely to be directly related.

Now that I think about it, all other systems have FAT32 C: partitions
with similar software. They do not exhibit any of the chkdsk
problems. Only one has been 'upgraded' to SP2 recently so the jury is
still out.
Try running ChkDsk from the Recovery Console.

I've done that about 10 times now, with both /P and /R options.

First, ran both options twice. On first reboot to XP, chkdsk hung the
machine. No ctl-alt-del. Hit the big switch, rebooted to recovery
console and started over.

Subsequent runs of chkdsk via Recovery Console report no problems.
On reboot to XP, chkdsk does not hang but reports problems again (the
'Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option' message).

I'd accept the latter as an artifact of having open files, but I've
never seen it happen before. And of course the machine is hanging
often.
 
S

Steve N.

-DG- said:
I had posted about a chkdsk problem a couple weeks ago.
It's back, but slightly different. This time there are no message
popups from the task bar. Occasional lockups though.

Again, Chkdsk /V C: from within windows always reports errors:

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of f
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of f
Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

But I've run Chkdsk /F C: (and rebooted) about 10 times.
No reports of problems. Yet immediately after, Chkdsk
within windows reports errors again.

Is it necessary to keep running Chkdsk /F over and over
until the problem clears? Any other way to deal with this?

You got it! Run chkdsk /f repeatedly until no more errors occur, but I'd
do it from the Recovery Console, where it's chkdsk /p instead of /f,
that way you don't necessarily have to reboot between runs, although in
some cases it is recommended to reboot.

Steve
 

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