Richard said:
if you say you disk is almost full
then it sounds like to me that you
have not tuned up your computer
for a while.
perhaps you no longer have any
room for your virtual memory or
the file system is unindexed because
it seems you are having problems
loading the registry in both normal
and safe modes.
what you might try to do is to
boot up with a xp cd and select
repair.
then when you logged into the
recovery console run the following
commands at the disk prompt>:
chkdsk /r
fixboot
then exit, remove cd and try to
boot again.
Hi Ben,
Sorry if this seems like a rant, but I sometimes have a problem with the
suggestion to use the /R option. The OP (Original Poster) indicated that
the disk was nearly full, which, as you rightly guessed, probably means
that it is highly fragmented, since you need at least 15 percent free
space to properly de-fragment a drive. Under such conditions, it is very
difficult to run CHKDSK, since it takes very much longer to check a disk
that is fragmented. However, unless a drive has been dropped or severely
bumped, it is not likely that there is physical damage to sectors, and
therefore usually there is no need to use the /R option to Repair bad
sectors with Chkdsk. Especially with NTFS formatting, it is rarely
necessary to run a full surface scan with Chkdsk. Keep in mind also, that,
according to Microsoft: "The Chkdsk tool has built-in support for NTFS and
does not require the Ntfs.sys driver to make repairs."
Troubleshooting Disks and File Systems
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457122.aspx
Again: Specifying the /R parameter is usually not necessary, because NTFS
identifies and remaps bad sectors during the course of NORMAL operations:
"NTFS is a journaling file system because it guarantees the consistency of
the volume by using standard transaction logging and recovery techniques.
If a disk becomes corrupted, NTFS runs a recovery procedure that accesses
information stored in a transaction log file. The NTFS recovery procedure
guarantees that the volume is restored to a consistent state. For this
reason, it is unlikely that NTFS volumes might become corrupted."
Stage 1: Chkdsk verifies each file record segment in the master file table
Stage 2: Chkdsk checks the directories in the volume [sometimes very slow]
Stage 3: Chkdsk verifies the security descriptors for each volume
Stage 4: Chkdsk verifies all clusters in use;
Stage 5: Chkdsk verifies unused clusters.
The /F (or /P in Recovery Console) runs stages 1, 2 and 3 to Fix Files.
The /R option runs the 3 File Fix stages, and then runs stage 4 to check
for and recover bad sectors in file areas, and stage 5 in unused areas.
If the drive is 60GB or larger, and/or it has millions of files, the /R
scan could take days, rather than hours to complete. The progress
percentage indicates tasks completed, not necessarily elapsed time.
Directories (folders) with a lot of files and subfolders take longer to
check, so it is normal in such case for Chkdsk to appear to be stuck on a
certain percent number. As long as there is occasional drive activity, it
is still working. (Keep the environment around the drive cool.)
Another problem with running Chkdsk from Recovery Console, (or during
boot,
before Windows loads,) it does not have the benefit of Virtual Memory page
file space on disk, but must run entirely in RAM and can be very sluggish.
Therefore, I believe the best thing to try first, is to run Check Disk
in "Read Only" mode with this:
CHKDSK C:
That will check without fixing errors. If there are errors, then run:
CHKDSK C: /F <== at Normal or Safe Mode Command Prompt, or:
CHKDSK C: /P <== at Recovery Console command line.
(Assuming Windows is installed on C: drive - change letter if needed.)
If the 1st 3 stages fail, it seems best to use the drive diagnostic
utility
from the drive manufacturer next, rather than attempt the /R option.
Anyway, thanks for your patience in reading what started as a short note.
(Triple-click here, to leap like a deer.
--Richard
