Z
zeke7
Am consistently getting a corrupted C: drive on my desktop PC computer
running Windows 2000 SP4 with latest updates, firewall/virus etc installed.
At least 4 crashes / complete formats/reinstalls in as many weeks. Same
standard hardware & software (other than the latest Windows Updates) as when
it ran fine, for years; do have many new files for My Docs, however. Tried
installing on different hard disks, do a slow NTFS format beforehand, etc.
Recovery Console and Emergency Repair Disks have consistently been
unsuccessful in salvaging the installations.
A detailed description of SW/HW/processes would be overly long; the
following is a summary in the hopes some of you recognize one of three
conditions described below as being definitely related to the crashes.
Typical incident is a couple of days or so after reloading all software and
about 120gb data files (about 20,000 digicamera jpgs, numerous mp3s, etc,
some with longish filenames), suddenly middle of doing something seemingly
unrelated, pop-up windows appear saying "C: drive [or folder therein] is
unreadable / corrupt. Run chkdsk."
Have to reboot of course to run chkdsk, when it runs it finds thousands of
orphan file records to delete and index entries to fix, then the disk is
unbootable and lots of data and program / system files are missing; some are
recovered by chkdsk. One time a "C:\$Mft is corrupt and unreadable" message
precluded the crash.
I think I have it narrowed down to 3 possible causes. Knowledgeable sorts
out there, please review and advise on which one you think it might be. I'm
going to avoid all three on my next reinstall, which I'm in the middle of,
until I hopefully get a consensus from you:
1. Outlook 2002 (along with its required Office XP service packs) installed
on a system otherwise running Office 2000 Premium. On at least one crash (the
most recent), Outlook 2000 had been inadvertently installed coincidental with
Outlook 2002. (I need v.2002 so that I can synch my Outlook contacts with my
iPAQ PocketPC 2003 PDA). A problem initially starting that program after
installation led to a corrupt web access profile error for which MS KB
provided a fix. And during that latest crash, concurrent with the corrupt C:
drive message boxes popping up were boxes asking for the Outlook 2002
installation CD, thoroughly irrelevant for what I was doing at the time.
2. Long filenames. I've found a few data files that have long names locked
up in Windows 2000, unable to delete or rename them from Explorer and having
to run arcane commands/switches from the Command window to get rid of them.
These files include some mp3s, possibly some photos, and also some Windows
Update files downloaded to disk from Microsoft Update Catalog (not Windows
Update), which inexplicably appends a long string of alphanumeric characters
to many of its update downloads, some of which have already long filenames.
Restoration of data files from backup hard drives during re-installation
initially entailed copying directly from drive to drive in Explorer, most
recently using the Win2K Backup program.
3. Reorganizing the disorganized plethora of shortcuts in the Program
shortcuts folders (C:\Documents and Settings\...\Start Menu\Programs)
resulting from a reinstall so that all are in the \All Users\ folder under a
handful of categorized parent folders. A little prior to one recent crash,
the system locked up when I moved one such folder group there that it
mistakenly thought were program files. And during the most recent crash
yesterday, the folders were reorganized successfully a few hours earlier, but
when the system crashed that was the first symptom noticed: copies of those
shortcuts (MS Office ones) placed in the Quick Launch toolbar started losing
their icon images; shortly thereafter the corrupt folder / C; drive messages
started popping up (along with the Outlook 2002 install disk requests) and
the system went down and out.
That's it; already verbose. Obviously a major malfunction. Quick reactions
from the experts out there please: any of these situations ring a bell for
correlation with sudden NTFS disk corruption?
running Windows 2000 SP4 with latest updates, firewall/virus etc installed.
At least 4 crashes / complete formats/reinstalls in as many weeks. Same
standard hardware & software (other than the latest Windows Updates) as when
it ran fine, for years; do have many new files for My Docs, however. Tried
installing on different hard disks, do a slow NTFS format beforehand, etc.
Recovery Console and Emergency Repair Disks have consistently been
unsuccessful in salvaging the installations.
A detailed description of SW/HW/processes would be overly long; the
following is a summary in the hopes some of you recognize one of three
conditions described below as being definitely related to the crashes.
Typical incident is a couple of days or so after reloading all software and
about 120gb data files (about 20,000 digicamera jpgs, numerous mp3s, etc,
some with longish filenames), suddenly middle of doing something seemingly
unrelated, pop-up windows appear saying "C: drive [or folder therein] is
unreadable / corrupt. Run chkdsk."
Have to reboot of course to run chkdsk, when it runs it finds thousands of
orphan file records to delete and index entries to fix, then the disk is
unbootable and lots of data and program / system files are missing; some are
recovered by chkdsk. One time a "C:\$Mft is corrupt and unreadable" message
precluded the crash.
I think I have it narrowed down to 3 possible causes. Knowledgeable sorts
out there, please review and advise on which one you think it might be. I'm
going to avoid all three on my next reinstall, which I'm in the middle of,
until I hopefully get a consensus from you:
1. Outlook 2002 (along with its required Office XP service packs) installed
on a system otherwise running Office 2000 Premium. On at least one crash (the
most recent), Outlook 2000 had been inadvertently installed coincidental with
Outlook 2002. (I need v.2002 so that I can synch my Outlook contacts with my
iPAQ PocketPC 2003 PDA). A problem initially starting that program after
installation led to a corrupt web access profile error for which MS KB
provided a fix. And during that latest crash, concurrent with the corrupt C:
drive message boxes popping up were boxes asking for the Outlook 2002
installation CD, thoroughly irrelevant for what I was doing at the time.
2. Long filenames. I've found a few data files that have long names locked
up in Windows 2000, unable to delete or rename them from Explorer and having
to run arcane commands/switches from the Command window to get rid of them.
These files include some mp3s, possibly some photos, and also some Windows
Update files downloaded to disk from Microsoft Update Catalog (not Windows
Update), which inexplicably appends a long string of alphanumeric characters
to many of its update downloads, some of which have already long filenames.
Restoration of data files from backup hard drives during re-installation
initially entailed copying directly from drive to drive in Explorer, most
recently using the Win2K Backup program.
3. Reorganizing the disorganized plethora of shortcuts in the Program
shortcuts folders (C:\Documents and Settings\...\Start Menu\Programs)
resulting from a reinstall so that all are in the \All Users\ folder under a
handful of categorized parent folders. A little prior to one recent crash,
the system locked up when I moved one such folder group there that it
mistakenly thought were program files. And during the most recent crash
yesterday, the folders were reorganized successfully a few hours earlier, but
when the system crashed that was the first symptom noticed: copies of those
shortcuts (MS Office ones) placed in the Quick Launch toolbar started losing
their icon images; shortly thereafter the corrupt folder / C; drive messages
started popping up (along with the Outlook 2002 install disk requests) and
the system went down and out.
That's it; already verbose. Obviously a major malfunction. Quick reactions
from the experts out there please: any of these situations ring a bell for
correlation with sudden NTFS disk corruption?