Duff C drive? Chkdsk on SATA

[Donald Gray]

I am unsure of the nuances if Sata & would appreciate advice and
comments please.

..........platform...........
A8V Deluxe
64FX53 processor
2 x 200Gb maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Sata/150 drives.

Machine purchased as a made up unit from a well known, reputable UK
company.

History of problem:

1) machine was originally Raid 0 Striped.
I lost several file to some form of corruption whish at the time, I
put down to virus activity.

* System 'crashed' several times
* had bios error reports a few times

Eventually I lost faith in the reliability due to many, many files
corrupted and after consulting the gurus and oracles here, I decided
to change from raid0 and put the drives on sata 0 & 1 as drives C & D.

2) Installed XP Home Sp2 from official MS Disk supplied by machine
manufacturer & sata drivers from asus site.

All seemed to go well and machine, if anything, seemed to be faster
still.

That was about a month ago. A week ago, the machine failed to boot
with a BSOD message:
"STOP REGFILE FAILURE - The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\system Root\System32\Config\System or its log or alternative.
It is corrupt, absent or not writable"

At that time, I didn't know what the 'hive' was...

I tried F8 many times and could not boot. I decided to do a 'format
c:' and start over but tried once more but booted with the Sp2 disk
and opted to booting into dos. That allowed me to 'see' the files. In
dos, I altered the attribute -A------ to ------ , removed sp2 disk and
rebooted normally - all was well.... Or so I believed until last
night!

Yesterday, I tried to open a '.psd' file (Photoshop CS) that I had
saved only a few seconds before, I got an error message:
"The document has been damaged by a disk error. The most likely causes
or this error are: defective drive, defective disk cable, or incorrect
peripheral cable termination."

I have just done a CHKDSK in the dos window (without the /f switch)
and it reports back that it found errors. I tried running CHKDSK /F
but I get the error "cannot run chkdsk /f because volume is in use by
another process". I get the same error if I do a 'Safe boot' in to
dos.


QUESTION: How do I do a chkdsk - I presume I have to be in pure dos.
How?

I am wondering if I have an intermittent fault on drive C and it was
that that caused the 'crashes' when in raid0 & not virus activity..

Comments & advice welcome. Thanks
--
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[Ben Pope]

I am unsure of the nuances if Sata & would appreciate advice and
comments please.

.........platform...........
A8V Deluxe
64FX53 processor
2 x 200Gb maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Sata/150 drives.

Something sounds pretty wrong to me.

Have you got the latest BIOS (1009), and the latest drivers for your
chipset and SATA/RAID controller? Is there a BIOS/Firmware update for
your SATA/RAID controller?

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/a8v-deluxe/A8V1009.zip

http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/drivers/4in1/VIA_Hyperion 4in1_v455vp1.zip

http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/drivers/RAID/VIA_RAID_V420A.ZIP

Can't find much on the Promise, at first glance.

Ben

 

[Donald Gray]

Something sounds pretty wrong to me.

Have you got the latest BIOS (1009), and the latest drivers for your
chipset and SATA/RAID controller? Is there a BIOS/Firmware update for
your SATA/RAID controller?

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/a8v-deluxe/A8V1009.zip

http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/drivers/4in1/VIA_Hyperion 4in1_v455vp1.zip

http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/drivers/RAID/VIA_RAID_V420A.ZIP

Can't find much on the Promise, at first glance.

Ben

Thanks for the links Ben.


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[Robert Hancock]

I have just done a CHKDSK in the dos window (without the /f switch)
and it reports back that it found errors. I tried running CHKDSK /F
but I get the error "cannot run chkdsk /f because volume is in use by
another process". I get the same error if I do a 'Safe boot' in to
dos.


QUESTION: How do I do a chkdsk - I presume I have to be in pure dos.
How?

If you do chkdsk /f and it says the volume is locked, it should offer to
do a check on the next bootup. Doing a chkdsk without /f while the
system is running also isn't valid since the disk can get changed while
it is checking..

 

[Donald Gray]

If you do chkdsk /f and it says the volume is locked, it should offer to
do a check on the next bootup. Doing a chkdsk without /f while the
system is running also isn't valid since the disk can get changed while
it is checking..

I realise that. I did a chkdsk without the /f switch just to see what
got reported. It reported 'problems'.

I then ran it with /f, & it did offer do on next boot. It did not do
it at the next boot!

So, the question still remains, How can one run chkdsk /f ???
--
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[Donald Gray]

Something sounds pretty wrong to me.

Have you got the latest BIOS (1009), and the latest drivers for your
chipset and SATA/RAID controller? Is there a BIOS/Firmware update for
your SATA/RAID controller?

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/a8v-deluxe/A8V1009.zip

That is the one I used...

http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/drivers/4in1/VIA_Hyperion 4in1_v455vp1.zip

http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/drivers/RAID/VIA_RAID_V420A.ZIP

Not using the raid ports so don't need them...

however, I am very grateful to you for your reply.


--
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Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[abc]

I realise that. I did a chkdsk without the /f switch just to see what
got reported. It reported 'problems'.

I then ran it with /f, & it did offer do on next boot. It did not do
it at the next boot!

What exactly happened at next boot?
Usually it will run chkdsk then reboot automatically, so if you go away you
will be faced with the logon screen. Check event viewer\applications for
"Winlogon" entries.

I had a problem on an NF7-s v2 where one day chkdsk on the system disk just
refused to happen when it should. I think this is an XP problem. Try the MS
knowledgebase. (IIRC there was no known fix "at this time"). One day it
started working again. I think this was before SP2.

The other alternative is to either move the drive to another PC (as
non-system disk), or install XP to another drive and use that installation
to check the disks. A long way around I know but if you are desperate....

 

[Ben Pope]

Not using the raid ports so don't need them...

But I assume they are the drivers for your RAID/SATA controller.

So unless your drives are plugged into the Promise controller, you will
require the latest driver for your controller.

I had an SiI3112A on my A7N8X and although I was not using RAID, I did
have the latest drivers installed for it.

Just because they call it a RAID controller / RAID drivers, doesn't mean
they are not valid for the normal SATA situation.

If you knew that and you really don't need them, ignore me - I am
guessing here as I don't have that board.

Ben

 

[Donald Gray]

But I assume they are the drivers for your RAID/SATA controller.

So unless your drives are plugged into the Promise controller, you will
require the latest driver for your controller.

I had an SiI3112A on my A7N8X and although I was not using RAID, I did
have the latest drivers installed for it.

Just because they call it a RAID controller / RAID drivers, doesn't mean
they are not valid for the normal SATA situation.

If you knew that and you really don't need them, ignore me - I am
guessing here as I don't have that board.

Ben

Hello Ben

I know it is a bit late in replying - Sorry, especially as you had the
courtesy to respond and help with my problem.

My two brain cells got confused. (again) In fact I had changed the
drives from the Promise Raid ports and put them on the VIA SATA 0 & 1
Ports.

Contrary to what I replied in an earlier post, I did indeed use the
VIA drivers. I had downloaded from the VIA site, made a floppy and
when the XP install asked for third party drivers, I pointed to the
floppy. Install of XP went OK (I think)...

I am not using the PROMISE Raid Ports, so did not install any drivers.

Regards
--
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Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

[]

What exactly happened at next boot?
Usually it will run chkdsk then reboot automatically, so if you go away you
will be faced with the logon screen. Check event viewer\applications for
"Winlogon" entries.

[]

Hi ABC

Thanks for info - sorry for a late response.

Nothing happened when I scheduled a chkdsk c: /f

I can only assume that I did not hit the 'y' key properly... (the
other brain cell malfunction!)

Following your advice, I tried again to schedule it and it worked.
Scandisk report below. Thank you for your advice & help


=====================

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 20 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 20 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 20 unused security descriptors.

199133675 KB total disk space.
27858880 KB in 108260 files.
35928 KB in 4793 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
185495 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
171053372 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
49783418 total allocation units on disk.
42763343 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
e0 ba 01 00 a8 b9 01 00 8b ab 02 00 00 00 00 00 ................
5f 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 eb 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 _...............
50 d6 dc 01 00 00 00 00 f2 72 a6 4e 00 00 00 00 P........r.N....
f4 3c 82 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .<..............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 74 a8 20 59 00 00 00 00 ........t. Y....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 a0 39 07 00 e4 a6 01 00 ..6......9......
00 00 00 00 00 00 5f a4 06 00 00 00 b9 12 00 00 ......_.........

Windows has finished checking your disk.

--
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Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Ben Pope]

Hello Ben

I know it is a bit late in replying - Sorry, especially as you had the
courtesy to respond and help with my problem.

My two brain cells got confused. (again) In fact I had changed the
drives from the Promise Raid ports and put them on the VIA SATA 0 & 1
Ports.

Right. So you;ve had problems in RAID on the promise, and problems not
in RADI on the VIA, correct?

Contrary to what I replied in an earlier post, I did indeed use the
VIA drivers. I had downloaded from the VIA site, made a floppy and
when the XP install asked for third party drivers, I pointed to the
floppy. Install of XP went OK (I think)...
OK.

I am not using the PROMISE Raid Ports, so did not install any drivers.

Makes more sense.

Right... so have you updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest?

And installed the latest 4in1, or whatever VIA are doing now for their
SATA controllers?

If you've answered these questions, please be patient as I don't really
recall the thread.

The only other thing I can suggest is if the drives themselves can be
updated. If you contact Maxtor and tell them you are having problems
they may be able to supply an updated/different drive firmware.

Of course, it's absolutely essential that you are sure that there are
not any other stability issues with your machine by running at least one
full cycle of memtest and say, an hour or two of Prime95 Torture Test,

http://www.memtest.org/
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Good luck.

Ben

 

[Donald Gray]

[]

What exactly happened at next boot?
Usually it will run chkdsk then reboot automatically, so if you go away you
will be faced with the logon screen. Check event viewer\applications for
"Winlogon" entries.

[]

Hi ABC

Thanks for info - sorry for a late response.

Nothing happened when I scheduled a chkdsk c: /f

I can only assume that I did not hit the 'y' key properly... (the
other brain cell malfunction!)

Following your advice, I tried again to schedule it and it worked.
Scandisk report below. Thank you for your advice & help


=====================

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 20 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 20 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 20 unused security descriptors.

199133675 KB total disk space.
27858880 KB in 108260 files.
35928 KB in 4793 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
185495 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
171053372 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
49783418 total allocation units on disk.
42763343 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
e0 ba 01 00 a8 b9 01 00 8b ab 02 00 00 00 00 00 ................
5f 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 eb 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 _...............
50 d6 dc 01 00 00 00 00 f2 72 a6 4e 00 00 00 00 P........r.N....
f4 3c 82 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .<..............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 74 a8 20 59 00 00 00 00 ........t. Y....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 a0 39 07 00 e4 a6 01 00 ..6......9......
00 00 00 00 00 00 5f a4 06 00 00 00 b9 12 00 00 ......_.........

Windows has finished checking your disk.

--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

Right. So you;ve had problems in RAID on the promise, and problems not
in RADI on the VIA, correct?

Correct - I had data corruption which I put down to Virus activity It
was this that made me very aware of the reduced reliability of a RAID0
that gave me the fear of total data loss. Hence dumping raid all
together. It was later that I believe the corruption may have been
caused by an intermittent problem with one of the HDs. The jury is
still out on that one.

[]

Right... so have you updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest?

Yes - I used the ...1009.zip

And installed the latest 4in1, or whatever VIA are doing now for their
SATA controllers?

Yup - just downloaded it via the link you gave - all installed and up
& running OK


I have downloaded the Via Raid V420a.zip setup you suggested. BUT I am
very hesitant to install it as the readme indicates it should be
installed as part of the setup for the OS installation. I am unsure of
how to extract and manually install them as an 'update'

I used 410a when I reinstalled the OS (XP home sp2) - Unless there are
any major issues with this I feel minded to retain 410a unless I am
forced to do another OS install!!

If you've answered these questions, please be patient as I don't really
recall the thread.

Ben, I really do appreciate your help - I think that it may be best
for me to run with the machine as is for the time being - it seems to
be behaving itself...

The only other thing I can suggest is if the drives themselves can be
updated. If you contact Maxtor and tell them you are having problems
they may be able to supply an updated/different drive firmware.
Noted.

Of course, it's absolutely essential that you are sure that there are
not any other stability issues with your machine by running at least one
full cycle of memtest and say, an hour or two of Prime95 Torture Test,

http://www.memtest.org/
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

I shall visit these links in a few moments....

Good luck.

Thanks



--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Ben Pope]

I have downloaded the Via Raid V420a.zip setup you suggested. BUT I am
very hesitant to install it as the readme indicates it should be
installed as part of the setup for the OS installation. I am unsure of
how to extract and manually install them as an 'update'

Well, I dunno. It could be a case of extracting the contents of a zip
and pointing the driver update stuff in wodows to that directory. If
you only inlude that directory in the search, rather than explicitly
saying use the driver from that directory, windows should decide if it's
newer or not.

Perhaps this driver is included in the 4in1s and that it is only for
convenience with an F6 type XP install.

I used 410a when I reinstalled the OS (XP home sp2) - Unless there are
any major issues with this I feel minded to retain 410a unless I am
forced to do another OS install!!

....just trying to elimate anything "old" to see if it fixes the problem.

As you say, run with it and see what happens.

Ben

 

[Donald Gray]

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 13:47:17 +0100, Ben Pope

[]

Of course, it's absolutely essential that you are sure that there are
not any other stability issues with your machine by running at least one
full cycle of memtest and say, an hour or two of Prime95 Torture Test,

http://www.memtest.org/
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Ran both tests A-OK

Torture test 4 hours = 0 errors, 0 warnings

Interesting exercise...

CPU (64FX54) temperature 45c min to 53c max
MB Temp (Cover off) 23c to 33c
As measured by Asus probe so it is relative rather than definitive.

Thanks for the tip on those utilities Ben.

--
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[Ben Pope]

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 13:47:17 +0100, Ben Pope

[]

Of course, it's absolutely essential that you are sure that there are
not any other stability issues with your machine by running at least one
full cycle of memtest and say, an hour or two of Prime95 Torture Test,

http://www.memtest.org/
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Ran both tests A-OK

Torture test 4 hours = 0 errors, 0 warnings

Interesting exercise...

Depends if you sat and watched it or not

CPU (64FX54) temperature 45c min to 53c max
MB Temp (Cover off) 23c to 33c
As measured by Asus probe so it is relative rather than definitive.

Sounds reasonable.

Thanks for the tip on those utilities Ben.

Well... now you can be sure that your system is stable, which rules out
a few things and gives you "peace of mind". It's narrowed down the
range of possibilities.

Ben

 

[abc]

<snip>

There is a setup.exe in the zip file, just run that. You should read the
entire readme, as that is where the instructions come from

You can use the "update driver " button in the Device Manager/ VIA raid
controller propeties section, and point it to the extracted files.

 

[Donald Gray]

<snip>

There is a setup.exe in the zip file, just run that. You should read the
entire readme, as that is where the instructions come from

You can use the "update driver " button in the Device Manager/ VIA raid
controller propeties section, and point it to the extracted files.

Hi abc
being dikylekik I try not to do too much reading - hence not RTFMing
the FM...

Many thank to you for the help and pointers.

Regards
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
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Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

[]

Ran both tests A-OK

Torture test 4 hours = 0 errors, 0 warnings

Interesting exercise...

Depends if you sat and watched it or not

You're joking of course! No - I went for a meal and watched F1 Grand
Prix on TV...

[]

Thanks for the tip on those utilities Ben.

Well... now you can be sure that your system is stable, which rules out
a few things and gives you "peace of mind". It's narrowed down the
range of possibilities.

Absolutely!!!!

I am indebted to you Ben. Thanks

Have a good one!
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
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