What do these chkdsk errors mean?

[squarenesswafer]

Hello,

i had some weird chkdsk errors when running from within Windows (in
read-only mode), about finding errors and trying to recover lost data.
So I ran chkdsk with /r, and restarted and it went through the long
process. This is what it came up with:

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.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 5 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

276478618 KB total disk space.
134358216 KB in 66686 files.
24272 KB in 5356 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
154558 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
141941572 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
69119654 total allocation units on disk.
35485393 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
90 30 01 00 75 19 01 00 0f a1 01 00 00 00 00 00 .0..u...........
c1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 57 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........W.......
e8 d3 66 05 00 00 00 00 8e 8a f6 27 00 00 00 00 ..f........'....
14 da 36 08 00 00 00 00 14 23 6a dc 04 00 00 00 ..6......#j.....
e2 5d 7a 22 05 00 00 00 08 e0 36 3b 0a 00 00 00 .]z"......6;....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 88 38 07 00 7e 04 01 00 ..6......8..~...
00 00 00 00 00 20 93 08 20 00 00 00 ec 14 00 00 ..... .. .......

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


I then checked an earlier chkdsk /f report that I did an hour before
the /r report posted above. it stated the following:
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 832 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 832 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 832 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

So it apparently found some errors, and after running chkdsk in
windows
again, I went back and did an /r and it found more errors. The only
error unique to the first check is the one about free space marked as
allocated in the MFT bitmap.

Is there any reason to worry about the errors? This is a brand new
hard drive, so i was surprised to see errors so soon.

Thank you very much for any insight you can offer!

 

[Robert Moir]

So it apparently found some errors, and after running chkdsk in
windows
again, I went back and did an /r and it found more errors. The only
error unique to the first check is the one about free space marked as
allocated in the MFT bitmap.

Is there any reason to worry about the errors? This is a brand new
hard drive, so i was surprised to see errors so soon.

Thank you very much for any insight you can offer!

Ok - are you saying that EVERY TIME you run chkdsk it finds errors? That
would certainly be a problem.

If these things appear as a one-off kinda thing it isn't anything to worry
about in terms of drive health in and of itself. Files get messed up on a
disk sometimes, it's just how it is and it doesn't mean too much unless it
happens a lot (typically it means a program crashed while trying to write a
file).

In your event log, (control panel, performance and maintenance,
administrative tools I think...) under system, does it have any messages
about a hard drive having a bad block or anything like that? That plus the
'soft' errors found by chkdsk could indicate an issue.

New drives are more likely to fail than you think... you plug in a newly
ordered drive and you don't know if it shipped from the manufacturer with a
problem or if the delivery guy or warehouse people dropped it or whatever. I
don't mean to unduly alarm you or anyone else with that statement, I'm just
saying that there is nothing magical about a new hard drive that means it
can't possibly be a dud.

 

[squarenesswafer]

Ok - are you saying that EVERY TIME you run chkdsk it finds errors? That
would certainly be a problem.

If these things appear as a one-off kinda thing it isn't anything to worry
about in terms of drive health in and of itself. Files get messed up on a
disk sometimes, it's just how it is and it doesn't mean too much unless it
happens a lot (typically it means a program crashed while trying to write a
file).

In your event log, (control panel, performance and maintenance,
administrative tools I think...) under system, does it have any messages
about a hard drive having a bad block or anything like that? That plus the
'soft' errors found by chkdsk could indicate an issue.

New drives are more likely to fail than you think... you plug in a newly
ordered drive and you don't know if it shipped from the manufacturer with a
problem or if the delivery guy or warehouse people dropped it or whatever. I
don't mean to unduly alarm you or anyone else with that statement, I'm just
saying that there is nothing magical about a new hard drive that means it
can't possibly be a dud.

Hello,
Chkdsk appears to have found these problems twice in a row. I am going
to do a third time later, but just finished Western Digital's
diagnostics and found no errors.

I have also checked the event viewer and found no errors in there
signalling any drive failure. Also, the PC is running in very good
shape... very stable, no crashes. So other than the chkdsk errors
(which i am manually checking for), I have not had any other problems.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[C A Upsdell]

Ok - are you saying that EVERY TIME you run chkdsk it finds errors? That
would certainly be a problem.

This could happen if the OP shuts off the PC without going through the
proper shutdown sequence, or if the PC is configured to automatically
reboot if an error is found. Otherwise an HD diagnostic should be run.

 

[Gerry]

We looked at another similar problem in this newsgroup at the end of
July but I do not think the discussion reached a conclusion. I found
this Knowledge Base Article but the example under query did not seem to
fit the criteria.

The CHKDSK utility incorrectly identifies and deletes in-use security
descriptors
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/831374/en-us

Your example clearly does not meet the number of files criteria? You do
not mention the size of the Master File Table.

It's speculation on my part but I wonder whether the problem is simply
the result of corruption of the Master File Table.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello,

i had some weird chkdsk errors when running from within Windows (in
read-only mode), about finding errors and trying to recover lost data.
So I ran chkdsk with /r, and restarted and it went through the long
process. This is what it came up with:

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.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 5 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 5 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

276478618 KB total disk space.
134358216 KB in 66686 files.
24272 KB in 5356 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
154558 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
141941572 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
69119654 total allocation units on disk.
35485393 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
90 30 01 00 75 19 01 00 0f a1 01 00 00 00 00 00 .0..u...........
c1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 57 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........W.......
e8 d3 66 05 00 00 00 00 8e 8a f6 27 00 00 00 00 ..f........'....
14 da 36 08 00 00 00 00 14 23 6a dc 04 00 00 00 ..6......#j.....
e2 5d 7a 22 05 00 00 00 08 e0 36 3b 0a 00 00 00 .]z"......6;....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 88 38 07 00 7e 04 01 00 ..6......8..~...
00 00 00 00 00 20 93 08 20 00 00 00 ec 14 00 00 ..... .. .......

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


I then checked an earlier chkdsk /f report that I did an hour before
the /r report posted above. it stated the following:
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 832 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 832 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 832 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

So it apparently found some errors, and after running chkdsk in
windows
again, I went back and did an /r and it found more errors. The only
error unique to the first check is the one about free space marked as
allocated in the MFT bitmap.

Is there any reason to worry about the errors? This is a brand new
hard drive, so i was surprised to see errors so soon.

Thank you very much for any insight you can offer!

 

[squarenesswafer]

Thank you for the response. I definitely do not meet the number of
files criteria. How can I find out what the size of the Master File
Table is?

Everything seems to indicate a healthy system (no crashes, no weird
stuff happening, no errors in the event viewer, HD diagnostics and
memtest coming out clean). I just ran chkdsk on a whim yesterday to
discover these weird messages! I'm hoping it's not a big deal.

 

[Gerry]

You can get the MFT file size from the Disk Defragmenter Report.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[squarenesswafer]

Ah, thanks. My MFT file size is not even close to the 4 gig limit.
It's at around 80megs.

 

[squarenesswafer]

Hmm, for those following this thread, I found that this chkdsk problem
with NTFS file systems is pretty common. This thread has good
information: http://steinbaugh.com/journal/ntfs-file-system-glitch/

 

[squarenesswafer]

feniks,

Thanks very much for your feedback. That puts me at ease. And in fact,
I had just logged in with the purpose of posting the same thing:

I just tested 2 different XP machines at work, and they also came up
with the same error message.

And in fact, I also discovered that this happened after a very recent
update, since both of these machines passed chkdsk without a hitch a
few weeks ago (I may have been slower in getting updates than you,
since you appear to have started receiving the errors as early as 2
months ago).

I guess I'll just ignore these messages. Thanks again for your
feedback. It was very helpful and reassuring!

 

[Guest]

You should re-think running chkdsk/F if you are having this problem.
Yesterday, on 8/14/07, Chkdsk/F overwrote security descriptors on a large
number of files on a laptop running XP Home (fully up to date, the hard drive
less than a year old, 71 thousand files, no viruses). It seems to have
modified the security descriptor of some of the operating system files. Now,
I cannot run applications, install or uninstall programs, paste files (except
using DOS "copy" in a CMD window), run System Restore (except manually, tried
that, didn't help), start the RPC service, operate wirelessly... The laptop
could do all of these things just fine before running CHKDSK, which has
crippled the computer. I tried running the hotfix that Microsoft sent for
kb/831374, but it terminated with the error, "The version of Windows you have
installed does not match the update you are trying to install."

I don't know which OS files were affected, and I have not been able to find
out how to get that information or how to change them back. Frustrated by
the failure of their "hotfix," and unable to locate any other, I cannot
afford to wait for Microsoft to wake up and notice this problem. Therefore,
I am going to copy the data files to a DVD and restore the laptop to an
earlier (and sadly, somewhat dated) Ghost image. I have always considered
running CHKDSK a good, sensible thing, but it has turned evil.

My recommendation -- make a regular ghost image of your computer when it is
working well, and consider whether running Chkdsk/F or /R is worth the risk.
Could a computer virus do worse than CHKDSK has done for this PC?

JohnB2