After 2gb install, continuous disk check

  • Thread starter Thread starter scott moore
  • Start date Start date
S

scott moore

Hi,

I upgraded my machine from 1gb to 2gb, I heard you get better
performance.

I don't know about the performance, but now my machine performs
"disk checking" on boot -- every time. It never finds any problem,
and everything else is normal.

Thank you.
 
Try swapping the modules. Try them one at a time. Try;
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Hi,
|
| I upgraded my machine from 1gb to 2gb, I heard you get better
| performance.
|
| I don't know about the performance, but now my machine performs
| "disk checking" on boot -- every time. It never finds any problem,
| and everything else is normal.
|
| Thank you.
 
scott said:
Hi,

I upgraded my machine from 1gb to 2gb, I heard you get better
performance.

I don't know about the performance, but now my machine performs
"disk checking" on boot -- every time. It never finds any problem,
and everything else is normal.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Test the ram.

www.memtest.org

You added some new hardware. Now Windows is seeing a problem. Something is
not right with the upgrade. If the ram tests OK post back for more
suggestions.

Kerry
 
Kerry said:
Test the ram.

www.memtest.org

You added some new hardware. Now Windows is seeing a problem. Something is
not right with the upgrade. If the ram tests OK post back for more
suggestions.

Kerry
Click to expand...

May I ask, is Windows actually setting a flag to check the disk if it
sees a ram problem? Why would it not say "there is a ram problem"?

Thanks.
 
scott said:
May I ask, is Windows actually setting a flag to check the disk if it
sees a ram problem? Why would it not say "there is a ram problem"?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

When you write to a disk Windows checks that what was written matches what
is in memory. If it doesn't match the drive is flagged for a chdsk. Look in
your event logs for errors writing or reading from disk. These are sometimes
a symptom of bad ram. It's usually not a coincidence when you add some new
hardware and problems occur. It is most likely the new hardware. There are
certainly other possibilities - the hard drive started to go bad at the same
time, the hard drive cable came loose when you added the ram and possibly
more causes. I would check the ram before going any farther. If the ram
checks out then it's time to check other possibilities.

Kerry
 
Kerry said:
When you write to a disk Windows checks that what was written matches what
is in memory. If it doesn't match the drive is flagged for a chdsk. Look in
your event logs for errors writing or reading from disk. These are sometimes
a symptom of bad ram. It's usually not a coincidence when you add some new
hardware and problems occur. It is most likely the new hardware. There are
certainly other possibilities - the hard drive started to go bad at the same
time, the hard drive cable came loose when you added the ram and possibly
more causes. I would check the ram before going any farther. If the ram
checks out then it's time to check other possibilities.

Kerry
Click to expand...

Alright, here's the followup. I pulled the new module, no effect. Next,
pulled the D: disk. Disk D: was put into the system back in January
during a reload of windows due to a windows reboot problem (this was not
common, windows ran for more than a year without problem before that).
It was NTFS formatted, and 300gb in size, and had a duplicate of the C:
drive information. The C: drive in FAT32.

Pulling disk D: stopped the disk checking on reboot.

The event records covering the issue are the same, repeated for every
daily boot:

"The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please
run the chkdsk utility on the volume D:"

Note that (many times) the checkdisk utility was allowed to proceed,
and simply announced the disk was fine. This is a VERY time consuming
procedure on 300gb.

So I am guessing there was some issue with the D: disk, software or
hardware.

Thanks.
 
scott said:
I upgraded my machine from 1gb to 2gb, I heard you get better
performance.
Click to expand...



You heard wrong.

This is *not* a one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the
amount of RAM you have keeps you from using the page file, and that depends
on what apps you run. Most people running a typical range of business
applications find that somewhere around 256-384MB works well, others need
512MB. Almost anyone will see poor performance with less than 256MB. Some
people, particularly those doing things like editing large photographic
images, can see a performance boost by adding even more than
512MB--sometimes much more.

It's a relatively rare person who needs a smuch as 1GB--the need for 2GB is
rarer still. Unless you do highly memory-instensive tasks, the upgrade was
probably a waste of money.
 
scott said:
Alright, here's the followup. I pulled the new module, no effect.
Next, pulled the D: disk. Disk D: was put into the system back in
January during a reload of windows due to a windows reboot problem
(this was not common, windows ran for more than a year without
problem before that). It was NTFS formatted, and 300gb in size, and
had a duplicate of the C: drive information. The C: drive in FAT32.

Pulling disk D: stopped the disk checking on reboot.

The event records covering the issue are the same, repeated for every
daily boot:

"The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please
run the chkdsk utility on the volume D:"

Note that (many times) the checkdisk utility was allowed to proceed,
and simply announced the disk was fine. This is a VERY time consuming
procedure on 300gb.

So I am guessing there was some issue with the D: disk, software or
hardware.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Check to see if the dirty bit is set. You could use "chkntfs d:". If it's
set the only way to clear it is to run "chkdsk /f" I usually use "chkdsk /p"
from the recovery console if the drive has been causing problems. If that
doesn't clear it then you are up the proverbial creek. I don't know of any
way to clear it other than a total format. It still seems really odd that
the problem occurred after adding new ram. Personally I would run memtest86+
overnight and also test the drive thoroughly.

Kerry
 
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