Drive Errors each time I boot up Windows XP

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Guest

Does this sound familiar to anyone???

For the last few days I've been getting strange behaviour on my Win XP Home
system (NTFS disk), in particular, multiple file system errors EVERY time I
boot up.

For a while Windows would step in and try to fix them with CHKDSK during
boot.

This no longer happens but if I run Norton Disk Doctor straight after boot
it ALWAYS reports errors in the Security descriptorss section of my boot
drive.

It will ALWAYS say there are errors in the volume bitmap. it also
intermittently shows up a whole bunch of errors in other sections of the
test, including:
Corrupt attribute records
Index errors
Orphaned files (143 orphans earlier today all from one directory file)

(Surface test always reports OK and no errors show up in the file data area.)

Errors are ALWAYS found on the boot drive but often also on other drives,
including my empty and unused drive G. I should note that drives C: to G: are
all on one physical disk.

I've also twice had Windows report itself unable to boot due to a corrupt or
missing system file (windows\system32\config\system)- fixed with a boot from
the installation disk and "R".

And the system clock has started losing hours.

And the other evening, during a session where the computer had been working
OK, the computer stopped running most of my software except Windows Explorer
and Internet Explorer. However after running Norton Disk Doctor from their
recovery disk the problem seemed to go away.

To eliminate or define the problem I have already:
- Done thorough hardware tests using the disk manufacturer's software.
- Done full virus scans with Norton's latest updates.
- Moved my whole system to a different physical drive.

And it all still happens.

There have been a couple of error messages on boot to say there have been
serious errors due to a device driver but when I check all devices are said
to be working properly. And no device drivers were added recently.

The only thing I did do before all this started happening was run the Norton
System Optimizer, the only changes i made were:
1) I checked the box to disable NTFS last access time (to speed up disk acess)
2) I adjusted the mouse wheel scroll rate.
I have returned both of these settings to their original condition.

Any suggestions?
 
Mark, my first suggestion to you is to save all personal data to CD's
as soon as possible, for it looks like you may be ready for a complete
Clean Reinstall of XP. Try System Files Checker first:
Start>Run>type SFC /SCANNOW (space between C and /) and have
your WindowsXP CD ready to insert in case it asks for it.
SFC = System Files Checker, which will replace missing or corrupt files.
 
Hello "Byte", first, many thanks for responding your time and effort is very
much appreciated.

My symptoms are still occcurring, but they seem to have settled down now,
errors are stil reported with CHKDSK, but are generally minor and are only on
C:. The computer isn't automatically running CHKDSK on boot any more, and my
time display runs properly.

I ran SFC but no change.

The minor errors which are listed when I run CHKDSK /V are generally unused
security descriptors. THe mesage is:

Detected minor inconsistencies on the drive. This is not a corruption.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.


Funnnily enough I have located a couple of Knowledge Base articles which
describe my symptoms almost exactly, Articles 255008 and 327009.

327009 is about a problem which occured after copying or restoring large
amounts of data- which I have been doing.

255008 includes almost exactly the same error message as I receive and
refers to the problem as ignorable as long as CHKNTFS doesn't report the disk
as dirty. My disk gets reported clean.

However these articles refer to problems with Windows 2000 and say the
problems were fixed in WinXP and/or service packs for Win2000. I am running
WinXP SP2 installed direct from the disk only about 4 weeks ago.

I should mention that apart from the difficulties I have mentioned, the
system works fine- so given that the errors are currently reported as minor,
and only affecting the security descriptors, I am inclined to avoid a
reinstall of WinXP and proceed by keeping an eye on the problem with a
regular CHKDSK on each drive, while running my daily full system backups.

i should also run clean boot and see if the problem continues to occur.

I suppose it is possible this is a Windows XP bug? Nothing in the Knowledge
Base though, so perhaps its not common. I would talk to Microsoft about it
but they only give you 2 opportunities for cost-free support so I don't want
to call them unless I have to!

All the best, if you have any further points I would be deligted to hear
from you!
 
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