CHKDSK found errors

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim

I am running XP Pro on a Thinkpad, and tried to back up the drive as
usual, and now the backup program will not complete, it backs up about
4/5 of the 60 gb drive then exits with an error message to the effect
that "disk is already written or full", which it is not.

Anyway, ran CHKDSK in the command prompt, and it found unspecified
errors and recommended running with the /F option upon restart. I did
that, but it did not fix the errors.

Is there any utility that I could run that would look at the drive and
repair any errors in the NTFS file system? I certainly would not want
to have to start from scratch w/reformatting the drive.

I suspect that Thinkpad has left some remanant of their proprietary
recovery system on there and it may be causing problems, howver the
system has successfully backed up many times before.

Is there any utility that will do a low level format that would
overwrite whatever IBM has put on there, no matter what protection it
has put on the drive? It's a Hitachi (IBM) 60 gb drive.

If I did have to do a low level format, would a backup with the built
in XP Backup save me from having to reinstall the operating system, as
if I use the IBM supplied disks to restore everything it will install
that protected "secret" partition which I want to eliminate as it uses
up large amount of the drive space.

Any suggestions appreciated.

BTW, I'm using Acronis True Image to back up to an external firewire
drive.
 
Jim said:
I am running XP Pro on a Thinkpad, and tried to back up the drive as
usual, and now the backup program will not complete, it backs up about
4/5 of the 60 gb drive then exits with an error message to the effect
that "disk is already written or full", which it is not.

Anyway, ran CHKDSK in the command prompt, and it found unspecified
errors and recommended running with the /F option upon restart. I did
that, but it did not fix the errors.

Is there any utility that I could run that would look at the drive and
repair any errors in the NTFS file system? I certainly would not want
to have to start from scratch w/reformatting the drive.

I suspect that Thinkpad has left some remanant of their proprietary
recovery system on there and it may be causing problems, howver the
system has successfully backed up many times before.

Is there any utility that will do a low level format that would
overwrite whatever IBM has put on there, no matter what protection it
has put on the drive? It's a Hitachi (IBM) 60 gb drive.

If I did have to do a low level format, would a backup with the built
in XP Backup save me from having to reinstall the operating system, as
if I use the IBM supplied disks to restore everything it will install
that protected "secret" partition which I want to eliminate as it uses
up large amount of the drive space.

Any suggestions appreciated.

BTW, I'm using Acronis True Image to back up to an external firewire
drive.
Click to expand...

Jim:
Determie the service pack level of this Win XP. Is it Sp2, Sp1 / Sp1a, or (forbid) the original ?
Reason I ask, is I may be pointing you toward using setup-boot diskettes in order to run CHKDSK --- based on an assumption you have no XP CD.
Did IBM provide a Windows XP CD ? If yes, the thing to do is to bootup & use Recovery Console & run CHKDSK.

Insure your Acronis software is up-to-date & is XP-compatible.
Use Windows Explorer to see how much FREE space is on this HDD's volumes.
 
I would run recovery console,then in cmd,type:CHKDSK C: /R
To install the console,go to search at microsoft,type:307654
 
Maurice;

I just installed SP2, and am wondering if that could have something to
do with it? Please point me to where I can make the setup diskettes
and will try running CHKDSK /f from the command prompt.

I do have the Ibm recovery CD's (4), but am not sure if it would allow
a stand-alone XP Pro install, as IBM puts a hidden partition on the
hard drive with their recovery software, which is exactly what I'm
trying to get away from, as it takes up quite a bit of hard drive
space. I would be interested in any suggestions you can give as it
would be a major undertaking to wipe the drive and start from scratch,
but if CHKDSK doesn't work it looks like I'll have to go that route.

Thanks for your response.
 
Jim said:
Maurice;

I just installed SP2, and am wondering if that could have something to
do with it? Please point me to where I can make the setup diskettes
and will try running CHKDSK /f from the command prompt.

I do have the Ibm recovery CD's (4), but am not sure if it would allow
a stand-alone XP Pro install, as IBM puts a hidden partition on the
hard drive with their recovery software, which is exactly what I'm
trying to get away from, as it takes up quite a bit of hard drive
space. I would be interested in any suggestions you can give as it
would be a major undertaking to wipe the drive and start from scratch,
but if CHKDSK doesn't work it looks like I'll have to go that route.

Thanks for your response.
Click to expand...
Hello Jim,

This is quite a long reply. Clear up your disk errors first. Then see if you can login to XP SP2.
IF SP2 remains to be a "no go", set aside other issues & see about removing SP2 (temporarily).

What is your specific IBM notebook model ? processor make/model?
and have you checked with IBM whether this unit is compatible with SP2?
Also, see if manufacturer (IBM) has a new BIOS for this system's motherboard. See which BIOS release this currently has.

Get & use the Microsoft XP startup diskettes, then run CHKDSK.


Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks MS-KB Article 310994
http://http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=310994
You need to do 1 download. Follow instructions. This process makes a set of 6 diskettes

Obviously, you need to mark each diskette (1 to 6) so you know which is which. <g>
- -
Run CHKDSK /P from within the XP Recovery Console !

Set pc BIOS to boot from diskette drive. Place diskette #1 in drive. Reboot pc.
Once diskette 1 is loaded, you'll be prompted to load the rest of the set ( one by one).

The intent here is not to setup Windows XP, but rather to be able to get to a point where the RECOVERY CONSOLE can be selected.

Select the first option R Repair/Recovery Console. Select your Windows partition by number. Usually it is 1 .
(Jim, your IBM notebook may have the Windows o.s. on partition 2 ! )

Login to XP with administrator password. (If there is no password, press TAB key, and press Enter).

Then run CHKDSK /P from the command line. (In Recovery Console /P replaces /F ).

Run it once (or repeat) until it shows no errors.
Run CHKDSK for each drive on your system.
CHKDSK /P :X where X is letter for disk drive

References for Recovery Console:
Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console - Article ID 314058
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=314058

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=307654

To exit the R Console, use the EXIT command.


When you do log in to Recovery Console, & run CHKDSK ---it will complain about "missing AUTOCHK.exe".
This is where you point it ---you'll need to type it ---
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

Note: Your pc may have Windows at \WINNT .... if so, point to C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32
- - -

About removing the hidden partition:
Be very aware your notebook may still be under IBM (or store) warranty. If so, removing the hidden partition (used for restoring to factory condition) *could* void the warranty.
In addition, if you wanted to ever resell the notebook, this might reduce its resale value.

You'd want to consider saving the hidden partition to a CD before removing it.

To remove the hidden partition, you'll need to have "partitioning software".
Windows XP does have the command DISKPART. But (iirc) it does not have a "resize" option & its extend option may not be helpful "in your" specific HD setup.

Research first, then details much later.

While in the Recovery Console:
type in
DISKPART <Enter-key>

LIST PARTITION <Enter-key>

write down the information. .

LIST VOLUME <Enter-key>

write down the information.

EXIT

Post back this info here in newsgroup
- - -
Third-party partitioning software I recommend: BootITNG from Terabyte Unlimited.
They have a free trial download (which I think is good for 30 days) and costs only about $35 to buy.
http://www.bootitng.com/bootitng.html
Plus it has support for imaging (backup) to CDR / DVD+RW , & more.
 
Did you try running the repair option from your operating
system cd? Many times in all windows operating systems,
chkdsk ( check disk errors), will have important
operating system files where the errors were located, and
more than likely will soon become bad sectors.
-----Original Message-----
Maurice;

I just installed SP2, and am wondering if that could have something to
do with it? Please point me to where I can make the setup diskettes
and will try running CHKDSK /f from the command prompt.

I do have the Ibm recovery CD's (4), but am not sure if it would allow
a stand-alone XP Pro install, as IBM puts a hidden partition on the
hard drive with their recovery software, which is exactly what I'm
trying to get away from, as it takes up quite a bit of hard drive
space. I would be interested in any suggestions you can give as it
would be a major undertaking to wipe the drive and start from scratch,
but if CHKDSK doesn't work it looks like I'll have to go that route.

Thanks for your response.
Click to expand...
setup-boot diskettes in order to run CHKDSK --- based on
an assumption you have no XP CD.
 
Jenifer said:
Did you try running the repair option from your operating
system cd? Many times in all windows operating systems,
chkdsk ( check disk errors), will have important
operating system files where the errors were located, and
more than likely will soon become bad sectors.
Click to expand...

With XP, a repair-install is a major undertaking with likely repercussions (such as the XP CD being an older version compared to the service pack-level of XP on the HDD). So it ought to be considered only as one of the last measures.
You try other solutions first.
On the OP's problem ---- it may have nothing to do with bad sectors at all. It is likelier that it's the simpler allocation errors.
 
Maurice;

I followed the instructions, and thought it had worked, as CHKDSK
finally reported no errors in the recovery console. First if found
this errors in the MFT bitmap".

Ran it again, then it found errors in the VOLUME Bitmap.

Ran it again, there were no errors while in revovery console.

Went back to Windows, it found one or more errors in the VOLUME.

Went back to Recovery Console, ran it until no errors.

Went back to windows, ran CHKDSK and it "found problems with the file
system".

I did this twice and each time coming back to Windows it finds errors
in the file system. Tried to do a backup using True Image, got the
exact same error as before.

Maurice, I forgot to tell you, this drive does not have any hidden
partitions, it is a new drive that I imaged over to this new 60 GB
drive using True Image, and the backup worked many times. Problem
appears to have started when I did the SP2 for XP Pro, but am not sure
that's where the problem was, as it was some time since I did a
backup, as was out of country on a job for few months. When I got
home I did the Windows upgrade as recommended, then tried to do a
backup and then got the error.

Is there any utility that will repair the NTFS or will I have to
reformat the drive and start from scratch?

Thanks for your help, I thought we had it there for a minute.

Jim
 
Jim,

I'm in the middle of a very similar situation on a clients laptop and have
tried a lot of the same actions and then some. In addition to recovery
console, etc., I put the drive as a secondary in another machine where I ran
chkdsk against it with various options, with no success. It always ends up
with the same uncorrectable errors. I had also made an image backup (with
DI), reformatted, and restored the backup ending up with the same errors.
It makes sense that an image type backup might carry file system errors with
it.

Here's what I plan to do next. I made a backup with system state to a
USB drive using ntbackup. I'm going to reformat again, reinstall Windows
(minimally), and then restore that backup. Since that kind of backup is
file based, rather than sector based like the imaging programs, I'm
thinking there's a good chance it may restore the system without recreating
the file system errors.

It seems clear that there are some kinds of file system errors that
chkdsk just can't resolve. I don't know whether there are any third party
tools that would work in that situation. Am looking into that question too.
--
 
Maurice;

I seem to have led you on a wild goose chase. All this time I thought
the problem was in the hardware, but the problem turns out to be with
the Acronis True Image software. The software has 10 levels of
compression you can select from, and selecting 0 yields uncompressed,
1 - 9 more compression. The higher you go with the compression, the
longer time it takes for a backup. I have found that using "1" would
give best compromise between speed and compression.

When I selected "1" every time, the Acronis True Image software would
tell me that only 19 Gb of space was required to back up the 60 Gb
drive with 41 Gb of data on it. Well, after fighting this thing for
two days, the damn software lied.

Today, after trying everything else, I decided to back up across the
network to another computer, using the exact same settings as I had
used over the firewire to my backup drive, that is, using "1" for
compression. The Acronis software told me only 19 Gb drive space
would be needed to back up my C: drive (where I had assumed the
problem to be), so I began the backup. Well, when it was finished
backing up with no problem, I looked at the file size and guess what?
It was 41 Gb in size, there was NO COMPRESSION at all. Thus, I was
trying to fit 41 Gb of data in a 35 Gb partition. So I tried again
using a higher number and guess what? Exact same size. So, the
software is flawed somehow. I upgraded the software as Acronis
recommended, and got exact same results. To be fair, the software did
work until recently.

So either the drive errors caused the software not to compress the
data or there is something amiss in the software that it stopped the
compression. I've given up on Acronis True Image, been fighting it
for over a year now and it's not worth the grief.

Thanks again for your help, I've learned a lot about Recovery console,
CHKDSK, etc.

Jim
 
Hello GTS;

I sure would be interested in your results, and your last effort saved
me some grief, as that is just what I was going to try until I saw
your message.

I am waiting to see how you make out with the USB drive using
NTBACKUP, please keep us posted on your results.

There is another possibility I'm thinking of that was mentioned in the
Comp.sys.laptops newsgroup. One of the regulars there said that if
your Windows directory has the I386 folder in it, you can completely
reinstall windows from that folder by burning it to CD, then running
the install from that folder. I don't know if it will re-install
Windows exactly as it was before the install, or as it was as new, but
it may work with your next plan of attack. That is, you could make a
NT BACKUP to your external drive, then re-format the C: drive,
re-install windows from the I386 folder, then do a restore from
Windows. I wonder if that would work?

Anyway, please keep us posted, it will avoid duplication of effort.

Jim
 
Jim,

I've been slightly delayed by other work and a delay from for my client
in providing me the original Dell media I wanted to use for the
reinstallation. I will definitely post the result when I have it. Your
comment re. the I386 folder is interesting. I don't know if that's true and
may check into it.

GTS
--
 
Great to hear that, I'll give it a try and see what happens.

BTW, I tried the I386 method to try the restore as my WindowsXP came
with the IBM Thinkpad and can't be installed separately.

Well, since I had updated to SP1 and SP2, when it tried to install
itself I got the error message saying that the version of Windows that
is on the drive now is a later version of Windows than the one in the
I386 folder. So, I guess to get it work correctly I would have to
remove SP2. Brother, it never ends.... Linux is looking more and
more attractive all the time..... he he..

Jim
 
Jim said:
Great to hear that, I'll give it a try and see what happens.

BTW, I tried the I386 method to try the restore as my WindowsXP came
with the IBM Thinkpad and can't be installed separately.

Well, since I had updated to SP1 and SP2, when it tried to install
itself I got the error message saying that the version of Windows that
is on the drive now is a later version of Windows than the one in the
I386 folder. So, I guess to get it work correctly I would have to
remove SP2. Brother, it never ends.... Linux is looking more and
more attractive all the time..... he he..

Jim
Click to expand...

Howdy,
On the topic of repair installs of XP, hope you find this useful.
On the presumption yours is a retail XP with the CD, or an OEM with full XP CD: making a slipstream CD with Service Pack 2 is a good idea. Then you can use that CD to make a repair install if needed. Instructions on how to successfully slipstream SP2 and create a bootable CD :

<http://www.justinwojas.com/bootcd.htm> &

<http://www.infinisource.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html>

If you cannot make that CD, in a last resort, you can conceivably use the SP2 setup diskettes to get to Recovery Console or make a repair install.

These are for Service Pack 2:

Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 Utility: Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install

<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...9F7-4A2D-983D-81C2137FF464&amp;displaylang=en>


Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 Utility: Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install

<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...E10-49B5-B80C-0A0205368124&amp;displaylang=en>
 
I tried it, it didn't work. IT installed, Windows booted up, but it
said the system was corrupted. So, I had to bite the bullet, reformat
and do a new install. Still working on reinstalling all the software.
This time I'm going to leave Windows XP SP2 out until they get it
fixed, as it was right after that that the problems started.

The folks at Acronis who make True Image have sent me proprietary
diagnostic programs to run, had me take pictures of the screen, and
all kinds of other things, but they apparently are still stumped. I
also tried Drive Image 7, and a few other backup programs and NONE of
them would work correctly.

From now on I'll just use the built-in backup built into the IBM
Thinkpads. It takes up some hard drive space, but at least IT WORKS,
whereas none of the others I have tried are reliable.
 
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