Very strange error!

[Guest]

Ok, this is what happens.

I start my computer, and it tells me my hard drive needs checking and begins
to run Chkdsk. It finds some file errors and apparently corrects them, but
when Win XP starts it cannot find most of my hard drive folders or files at
all (and as a consequence fails to work since some files needed by
taskmgr.exe are not found).

So I restart the computer, and now skip the chkdsk at startup (it tries to
start at every startup). Win XP loads normally and tells me my
C:/windows/system32/config/system.log file is somehow invalid. This is the
file that I suspect chkdsk tries to fix but fails to. I also cannot rename or
delete this file as it tells me something else is already using it.
Everything else seems to work normally though.

Ok, so I can get Win XP to start by skipping chkdsk at startup, but it's
annoying to do it every time. Is there any way to fix this file problem? I'm
not even sure what caused it.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Back up (save) whatever is important to you as soon as possible to a CD,,

If you have a Windows XP CD, do a repair install

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/repaxp.htm

If you have only recovery CDs, or worse still, nothing at all, contact the
vendor and find out how to refresh your system..

If after this, the problem still persists, there is a good chance that your
hard drive is failing..

 

[GTS]

I concur with Mike except, after backing up you should run chkdsk /r before
attempting the repair install. It doesn't make sense to just reinstall
Windows on a possibly failing hard drive. (I've seen some users do this
repeatedly.) The chkdsk /r is a bad sector check. It will mark those
sectors out. You could then do the repair reinstall, but monitor the drive
closely rerunning the chkdsk /r. If any more bad sectors are found (all too
likely) the drive is certainly failing. You might also look for the
manufacturers drive test utility.
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