Unnamed MFT Table Entry

[Jisha]

I have noticed numerous instances of "{file#} Unnamed MFT Table Entry".
Is this normal for NTFS partition, or indicative of a problem?
If the latter, can it be repaired... and how?


Some probably relevant history follows:
----------------------------------------------
This morning, I heard that unmistakable "CLICK" of an eminent HDD failure.
When rebooted, win2Kpro failed to start (as I suspected)... in varying
degrees depending on which F8 options I tried.
I put the Drive into another win2Kpro computer, and ran chkdisk on it there.
Replaced it into it's proper computer, and then booted up fine.

However, I decided to clone it to a new back-up drive, just in case.
The clone was successful, and I am now using that drive.

It was during the cloning process that I noticed the overabundance of
"Unnamed" entries.


PS:
I AM planning on doing a total... clean reinstall... but don't have time to
work on that right now, so I'm nursing my current installation along as best
as possible.

 

[Jisha]

Is this not the correct forum for this question?
If so... would someone kindly redirect me appropriately?

Thanks very much

Christopher

(....donating my corpse to Burger King.

 

[Gary Smith]

Is this not the correct forum for this question?
If so... would someone kindly redirect me appropriately?

You might get some helpful replies in microsoft.public.win2000.file_system.

I have noticed numerous instances of "{file#} Unnamed MFT Table Entry".
Is this normal for NTFS partition, or indicative of a problem?
If the latter, can it be repaired... and how?

I'm no expert in this area, but this sounds like hardware going bad to me.

 

[Greg Hayes/Raxco Software]

Christopher,

This is not "normal". I would suspect some file system corruption. Does
running CHKDSK /F /R on the drive result in these things being fixed?

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows Storage Management/File System

 

[Jisha]

No... I've run it several times... but can run it again... one never knows,
right?

But, actually, I noticed the entries while cloning a drive I knew WAS
dying... so... the new drive, which I am using now... may or may not have
inherited the problem.

I'll try cloning the NEW drive and watch to see if the "Unnamed" entries has
been reduced.

Thanks.

 

[Jisha]

Thanks for the pointer to the "file-system" group. I'll look there.

 

[Jisha]

OK... here's what I did.

To save myself hours of re-booting...

1) I cloned the system drive (Call it D1) to another
brand-new-fresh-out-of-the-anti-static-bag-drive (Call this one D2).

I compared my notes on the {filenumber} from when I first noticed this
problem (scroll down to the end to review my comments at the beginning of
this thread...) Several filenumbers matched.

I know this is hit-or-miss... because I really can only confirm files which
are displayed long enough to catch the filenumbers... but it seemed to be
about the same as the first time.

2) Forced a dismount on the newly cloned drive (D2) and ran Chkdsk /f/r/v
repeatedly.
It took 4 passes for Chkdsk too complete w/o any clean-up messages.
All clean-up messages pertained to phase-3: security descriptors.

3) Swapped the drives, booting from the newly cloned drive and cleaned up
system drive (D2).
BTW, system booted a wee-bit more efficiently.

4) Cloned the "cleaned-up" copy (D2) back over the original copy (D1).
Again... numerous "unnamed MFT table entry" messages were displayed.

5) Ran Chkdsk /f/r/v again on (D1)... and no clean-up messages were
displayed.

This tells me 2 things...
a) the file system problem is NOT a result of the cloning process, and
b) there is corruption in my MFT which Chkdsk is NOT detecting.

I vaguely recall a reference to some utility which will clean-up, fix/repair
MFT, re-compact it, etc...
I'll have to track that down...

And, I suppose I will move this post over to
"microsoft.public.win2000.file_system" as Gary suggested in

Thanks...