Running CHKDSK--Issue

[Joe McGuire]

I ran (or thought I ran) CHKDSK. when I staarted to do so it told me files
were open and I checked to have it run on reboot. Then I rebooted the
computer and left for dinner and some errands. When I returned to the
computer maybe 2 hours later It was very nicely booted up and my screensaver
was at work. So my question is: How can I tell if CHKDSK actually ran,
whether it found anything (I had run a diagnostic on a startup earlier in
the day and it reported 3 errors: (1) 1000-0146 Hard drive; (2) 3600:0649
Invalid AC Adapter; and (3) 0f00:136c IDE device failed) and what it did, if
anything? I know it is supposed to provide a report. If it did so, where
can I find it? If it did not run, is there a reason? I ran it from My
Computer, not the command line. Does that make a difference?

The AC adapter seems wierd. I was running on the battery. I have no idea
what IDE means

 

[Volunteer J]

I ran (or thought I ran) CHKDSK. when I staarted to do so it told me
files were open and I checked to have it run on reboot. Then I
rebooted the computer and left for dinner and some errands. When I
returned to the computer maybe 2 hours later It was very nicely
booted up and my screensaver was at work. So my question is: How can
I tell if CHKDSK actually ran, whether it found anything (I had run a
diagnostic on a startup earlier in the day and it reported 3 errors:
(1) 1000-0146 Hard drive; (2) 3600:0649 Invalid AC Adapter; and (3)
0f00:136c IDE device failed) and what it did, if anything? I know it
is supposed to provide a report. If it did so, where can I find it? If it
did not run, is there a reason? I ran it from My Computer, not
the command line. Does that make a difference?
The AC adapter seems wierd. I was running on the battery. I have no
idea what IDE means

==============================================
Try the following:

In Windows XP to find the Error-checking log file...
go to...Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Application / [Source] Wininit or Winlogon

Double left the entry to see the log...you may find several
entries...look for the appropriate time and date.

--

Volunteer J - MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Volunteer J]

Also...the following article may be worth a look:

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking (chkdsk)
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=315265

--

Volunteer J - MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

=====================

I ran (or thought I ran) CHKDSK. when I staarted to do so it told me
files were open and I checked to have it run on reboot. Then I
rebooted the computer and left for dinner and some errands. When I
returned to the computer maybe 2 hours later It was very nicely
booted up and my screensaver was at work. So my question is: How can
I tell if CHKDSK actually ran, whether it found anything (I had run a
diagnostic on a startup earlier in the day and it reported 3 errors:
(1) 1000-0146 Hard drive; (2) 3600:0649 Invalid AC Adapter; and (3)
0f00:136c IDE device failed) and what it did, if anything? I know it
is supposed to provide a report. If it did so, where can I find it?
If it did not run, is there a reason? I ran it from My Computer, not
the command line. Does that make a difference?
The AC adapter seems wierd. I was running on the battery. I have no
idea what IDE means

==============================================
Try the following:

In Windows XP to find the Error-checking log file...
go to...Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Application / [Source] Wininit or Winlogon

Double left the entry to see the log...you may find several
entries...look for the appropriate time and date.

 

[Joe McGuire]

Thanks! I found the event viewer but nothing looks like the sort of report
generated by CHKDSK. I'll try again.

Also...the following article may be worth a look:

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking (chkdsk)
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=315265

--

Volunteer J - MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

=====================

I ran (or thought I ran) CHKDSK. when I staarted to do so it told me
files were open and I checked to have it run on reboot. Then I
rebooted the computer and left for dinner and some errands. When I
returned to the computer maybe 2 hours later It was very nicely
booted up and my screensaver was at work. So my question is: How can
I tell if CHKDSK actually ran, whether it found anything (I had run a
diagnostic on a startup earlier in the day and it reported 3 errors:
(1) 1000-0146 Hard drive; (2) 3600:0649 Invalid AC Adapter; and (3)
0f00:136c IDE device failed) and what it did, if anything? I know it
is supposed to provide a report. If it did so, where can I find it?
If it did not run, is there a reason? I ran it from My Computer, not
the command line. Does that make a difference?
The AC adapter seems wierd. I was running on the battery. I have no
idea what IDE means

==============================================
Try the following:

In Windows XP to find the Error-checking log file...
go to...Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Application / [Source] Wininit or Winlogon

Double left the entry to see the log...you may find several
entries...look for the appropriate time and date.

 

[Volunteer J]

Thanks! I found the event viewer but nothing looks like the sort of
report generated by CHKDSK. I'll try again.

======================================================
The following screenshot will give you an idea of what you are looking for:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4644059256_e7f1b8cd85_o.jpg

--

Volunteer J - MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Joe McGuire]

Ah, now I understand. I was looking in the wrong stuff (in System instead
of Applications). I see the results of CHKDSK. It shows 0 KB in bad
sectors. Is this consistent with a bad hard drive?

 

[Joe McGuire]

That's a relief! Thanks! But I am scratching my head. If there are no bad
sectors in the HD, why did the initial computer diagnostic I ran report a
bad HD? Are these different tests? Is one more reliable than the other?
Did CHKDSK "fix" whatever might have been wrong and then report 0 kb in bad
sectors? This laptop is 5 years old so I have had already been thinking it
might be time for a new one--before this problem hit..

 

[Db]

the check disk is also used
to reconcile the files in the
file system with the master
file table.

it is likely that your system
appropriately advised you
of an impending crash with
the master file table and
recommended a check disk.

you might consider running
a check disk and a defrag
on a semi regular basis
to keep both the file and
disk system tuned up.

the microsoft free one
care online scanner is
convenient to use.

--
--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

DatabaseBen, Retired Professional

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

 

[Paul]

That's a relief! Thanks! But I am scratching my head. If there are no bad
sectors in the HD, why did the initial computer diagnostic I ran report a
bad HD? Are these different tests? Is one more reliable than the other?
Did CHKDSK "fix" whatever might have been wrong and then report 0 kb in bad
sectors? This laptop is 5 years old so I have had already been thinking it
might be time for a new one--before this problem hit..

Hard drives have something called SMART.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

If you enable SMART at the BIOS level, it is possible for the
BIOS to "predict hard drive failure". It is based on some of the
SMART parameter values being exceeded. A message might pop up when
you turn on the computer, and the BIOS is sending the message to
you.

SMART can also be observed at the OS level. It can be observed
as long as the necessary SMART query commands can be sent over
the interface.

If you have a SMART equipped drive, connected to some RAID controllers,
it is possible for the SMART functions to be blocked, and then you lose
the ability to predict hard drive failure. For example, Silicon Image
makes some RAID controllers that emulate normal drives, where the SMART
would be blocked due to the emulation (the controller cannot effectively
combine the test results from two drives, to control the error stats for
the emulated drive).

You can use HDTune from hdtune.com, to view the current SMART statistics.
Use the "Health" tab to view the data for your drive. And no, it isn't
easy to understand the info in that table...

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

Even if there are no bad sectors, a drive still may not be healthy.
Some other parameter may have been exceeded. Some of the SMART parameters
are more important than others. For example "Current Pending Sector"
is the number of sectors that need to be tested on the next write to them,
as they've been flagged during attempts to read them. If they fail
to be written on the next try, they need to be spared out. The drive
has spare sectors, which can be used to substitute for defective ones.
A large pending count could spell trouble, as it means there is
degradation in process.

If what you've seen is a SMART warning of impending failure, you'd
*immediately* want to make a backup to an external drive. And perhaps
start investigating the make, model number, capacity and so on, of
the drive in the laptop, so you can buy a spare and have it on hand.
A SMART based warning is precisely that, a warning. SMART doesn't know
if the failure will be tomorrow or a year from now, but the writing
is on the wall.

Drives can fail, without any SMART parameter being exceeded in advance.
For example, a firmware data structure in the drive controller, can
overflow, and prevent the drive from starting up. That would be an
example, where there isn't a mechanical failure mechanism at work,
so no degradation can be observed in that case.

Paul

 

[Joe McGuire]

Thanks! I read about the SMART stuff and I will see if I can put it to
work. Fortunately, I regulalry back everything up to an external drive.
Learned that lesson some years ago. The hard way, of course.

 

[Jose]

Ah, now I understand.  I was looking in the wrong stuff (in System instead
of Applications).  I see the results of CHKDSK.  It shows 0 KB in bad
sectors.  Is this consistent with a bad hard drive?

If you got an answer like this, you would have not had to go back and
forth with messages and scratching your head saving a few useless
message cycles:

When chkdsk runs automatically on a reboot, the results are shown in
the Event Viewer Application log.

To see the Event Viewer logs, click Start, Settings, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.

A shortcut to Event Viewer is to click Start, Run and in the box
enter:

%SystemRoot%\system32\eventvwr.msc

Click OK to launch the Event Viewer.

Look in the Application log for an event sourced by Winlogon,
something like:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Description:
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.

39070048 KB total disk space.
25151976 KB in 78653 files.
48256 KB in 10264 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
237080 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
13632736 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
9767512 total allocation units on disk.
3408184 allocation units available on disk.

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[Jose]

the check disk is also used
to reconcile the files in the
file system with the master
file table.

it is likely that your system
appropriately advised you
of an impending crash with
the master file table and
recommended a check disk.

you might consider running
a check disk and a defrag
on a semi regular basis
to keep both the file and
disk system tuned up.

the microsoft free one
care online scanner is
convenient to use.

--
--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

DatabaseBen, Retired Professional

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

Tell me what system or software will notify me of an impending crash
of the master file table and recommend a chkdsk.

I would like to run that on my system here to see if I am up for an
impending crash of my master file table.

 

[Db]

no need to split hairs

scheduled tasks can
circumvent impending
disasters:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/maintenance.aspx

--
--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

DatabaseBen, Retired Professional

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx