File Corruption - very upset !

  • Thread starter Thread starter Synapse Syndrome
  • Start date Start date
S

Synapse Syndrome

I have some files in Documents that can't be opened, moved or copied. They
can't even be deleted.

I have backups on my old PC, but how the hell can I find teh extent of this
corruption in thousands of files? And how do I delete tham once found???

ss.
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
I have some files in Documents that can't be opened, moved or copied. They
can't even be deleted.

I have backups on my old PC, but how the hell can I find teh extent of
this corruption in thousands of files? And how do I delete tham once
found???
Click to expand...

SS, what is exact error message you get when you try to open/copy/move
documents?
 
Alexander Suhovey said:
SS, what is exact error message you get when you try to open/copy/move
documents?
Click to expand...


It just gives the standard dialogue box that you'd get if you were
moving/copying/deleting a lot of files, or a large file (even though these
are just small files) and just hangs there saying that estimated time is
being calculated and that 0 bytes have been moved. It just hangs like that
and when I try to close the Explorer.exe crashes and starts again (ie. the
taskbar and icons all disappear then come back).

ss.
 
Rick Rogers said:
Hi,

Have you tried taking ownership of that folder?
Click to expand...

The folders are already owned by the Administrators group. This has just
started happening today on files that I have been working on, and now I
can't access them. Luckily I have back-ups of older files on another
computer. But the fact that this is happening is very worrying.

I don't think that it is a virus problem. If it is not some major problem
with Vista. the only other thing I can think of is the RAID 0 array that I
am using. There are known problems with the motherboard I am using with
Vista, to do with PCI cards. But now I am thinking the problems may be more
serious.

ss.
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
I don't think that it is a virus problem. If it is not some major problem
with Vista. the only other thing I can think of is the RAID 0 array that I
am using. There are known problems with the motherboard I am using with
Vista, to do with PCI cards.
Click to expand...

Then I'd suggest you running disk diagnostic program like chkdsk ASAP.

I'd also argue with using RAID0 for any data except temporary but then
again, if you have a good backup solution... why not?
 
Alexander Suhovey said:
Then I'd suggest you running disk diagnostic program like chkdsk ASAP.

I'd also argue with using RAID0 for any data except temporary but then
again, if you have a good backup solution... why not?
Click to expand...


I only use the RAID 0 for OS and work in progress. It's the work in
progress that I have lost.

I have other drives where I keep the data, and I'll have a RAID 1 array set
up once I figure out how to do it well in Vista, like I knew with XP. I see
that you can change location of the folders in the user folder, like you
could do with My Documents in XP. I haven't tried it yet, but I hope that
they still get treated as though it is the same drive when these folders are
moved. To avoid having a plus sign (for copy, rather than move) when
dragging things into My Documents (as it was on another drive) I have to use
'Mount Volume' in Disk Management. I hop this is not needed on Vista, as I
will have to 'mount' so many folders, and it will be unfeasible to have
separate partitions for most of them.

The fact that I have had data corruption like this is really bugging me, and
makes me worried about the safety of my data. I better sort those RAID 1
disks out and setup TrueImage for nightly automated incremental backups...

ss.
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
PS. I already ran chkdsk, but it had no effect.
Click to expand...

Do you mean that it didn't find any problems?

Do you have an antivirus installed? Did you try to turn it off temporary or
uninstall altogether? Do you have any relevant errorrs/warnings in event
logs and/or 'problems and solutions'?

From what you have said I don't see any definite signs of data corruption
yet since you wasn't able to see file content to confirm its corruption,
right? I'd say that the problem is probably somewhere between controller
drivers/ file system filters (A/V adds its filters to the stack to be able
to intercept file system access)
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
I haven't tried it yet, but I hope that they still get treated as though
it is the same drive when these folders are moved. To avoid having a plus
sign (for copy, rather than move) when dragging things into My Documents
(as it was on another drive) I have to use 'Mount Volume' in Disk
Management. I hop this is not needed on Vista, as I will have to 'mount'
so many folders, and it will be unfeasible to have separate partitions for
most of them.
Click to expand...

Just checked that with both "MKLINK /D" and "MKLINK /J" - you don't have to
worry, it woworks exactly as you need it to.

By the way, you can always hold down Shift key when you drag things to force
move operation regardless of the source and target being on the same or
different volumes.
 
Alexander Suhovey said:
Just checked that with both "MKLINK /D" and "MKLINK /J" - you don't have
to worry, it woworks exactly as you need it to.
Click to expand...

I was not familiar with this new command yet so I read this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link

This is very good. It can completely replace the mounting of partitions to
empty folders and seems much more versatile. The fact that it can link to
UNC locations is extremely cool, in that I can transparently publish
straight to my webserver without messing around with shared network folders,
for example.
By the way, you can always hold down Shift key when you drag things to
force move operation regardless of the source and target being on the same
or different volumes.
Click to expand...

Of course I knew that, but it's not ideal.

Cheers

ss.
 
Alexander Suhovey said:
Do you mean that it didn't find any problems?
Yes

Do you have an antivirus installed? Did you try to turn it off temporary
or uninstall altogether? Do you have any relevant errorrs/warnings in
event logs and/or 'problems and solutions'?
Click to expand...

I am currently trying out the OneCare 1.5 beta, which I think is a bit crap.
From what you have said I don't see any definite signs of data corruption
yet since you wasn't able to see file content to confirm its corruption,
right? I'd say that the problem is probably somewhere between controller
drivers/ file system filters (A/V adds its filters to the stack to be able
to intercept file system access)
Click to expand...

What you say about the possibility of some process tying these files up
seems to tally with the known facts quite well. I'll investigate further.

Cheers

ss.
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
I am currently trying out the OneCare 1.5 beta, which I think is a bit
crap.


What you say about the possibility of some process tying these files up
seems to tally with the known facts quite well. I'll investigate further.
Click to expand...


Well I tried disabling the antivirus component of OneCare. That didn't
work, so I tried stopping the service as I couldn't find any other way to
turn it off. That still didn't work.

Tomorrow I'll try uninstalling OneCare altogether, and try Safe Mode as
well.

Have you got any other ideas to see what is tying these files up?

ss.
 
I would use msconfig to disable all startup items including services you
don't need and boot to safe mode as Admin. Then see if you can access the
files.

steve
 
Steve Cochran said:
I would use msconfig to disable all startup items including services you
don't need and boot to safe mode as Admin. Then see if you can access the
files.

steve
Click to expand...

Good idea, but it didn't change anything. I booted into Safe Mode with only
essential services and no network.

So I now I know that these files are corrupt in some way. It's really
discomforting,

ss.
 
When you right click on a file and select properties, do you get a normal
response? Can you check the various tabs and see if everything seems
normal? and try changing permissions on the security tab and see if that is
possible. Do you have any other os on the system you can try to read the
files from. Can you hook the drive up to another computer to see if you can
read them. Are these on a Sata or Ide drive?
 
John Barnes said:
When you right click on a file and select properties, do you get a normal
response? Can you check the various tabs and see if everything seems
normal? and try changing permissions on the security tab and see if that
is possible. Do you have any other os on the system you can try to read
the files from. Can you hook the drive up to another computer to see if
you can read them. Are these on a Sata or Ide drive?
Click to expand...


When I try to enter properties explorer.exe freezes in the same way, and
nothing comes up.

I opened the files without any problems through Remote Desktop from another
machine, so it must be something in the OS rather than file corruption..

Please see my new thread entitled "Corrupt Files !!??" which I hope will
lead to some explanation of this phenomena.

Cheers

ss.
 
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