Unnamed MFT Table Entry

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jisha
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Jisha

I have noticed numerous instances of "{file#} Unnamed MFT Table Entry".
Is this normal for NTFS partition, or indicative of a problem?
If the latter, can it be repaired... and how?


Some probably relevant history follows:
----------------------------------------------
This morning, I heard that unmistakable "CLICK" of an eminent HDD failure.
When rebooted, win2Kpro failed to start (as I suspected)... in varying
degrees depending on which F8 options I tried.
I put the Drive into another win2Kpro computer, and ran chkdisk on it there.
Replaced it into it's proper computer, and then booted up fine.

However, I decided to clone it to a new back-up drive, just in case.
The clone was successful, and I am now using that drive.

It was during the cloning process that I noticed the overabundance of
"Unnamed" entries.


PS:
I AM planning on doing a total... clean reinstall... but don't have time to
work on that right now, so I'm nursing my current installation along as best
as possible.
 
Is this not the correct forum for this question?
If so... would someone kindly redirect me appropriately?

Thanks very much

Christopher

(....donating my corpse to Burger King. :-)
 
Jisha said:
Is this not the correct forum for this question?
If so... would someone kindly redirect me appropriately?
Click to expand...

You might get some helpful replies in microsoft.public.win2000.file_system.
I have noticed numerous instances of "{file#} Unnamed MFT Table Entry".
Is this normal for NTFS partition, or indicative of a problem?
If the latter, can it be repaired... and how?
Click to expand...

I'm no expert in this area, but this sounds like hardware going bad to me.
 
Christopher,

This is not "normal". I would suspect some file system corruption. Does
running CHKDSK /F /R on the drive result in these things being fixed?

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows Storage Management/File System
 
No... I've run it several times... but can run it again... one never knows,
right?

But, actually, I noticed the entries while cloning a drive I knew WAS
dying... so... the new drive, which I am using now... may or may not have
inherited the problem.

I'll try cloning the NEW drive and watch to see if the "Unnamed" entries has
been reduced.

Thanks.
 
OK... here's what I did.

To save myself hours of re-booting...

1) I cloned the system drive (Call it D1) to another
brand-new-fresh-out-of-the-anti-static-bag-drive (Call this one D2).

I compared my notes on the {filenumber} from when I first noticed this
problem (scroll down to the end to review my comments at the beginning of
this thread...) Several filenumbers matched.

I know this is hit-or-miss... because I really can only confirm files which
are displayed long enough to catch the filenumbers... but it seemed to be
about the same as the first time.

2) Forced a dismount on the newly cloned drive (D2) and ran Chkdsk /f/r/v
repeatedly.
It took 4 passes for Chkdsk too complete w/o any clean-up messages.
All clean-up messages pertained to phase-3: security descriptors.

3) Swapped the drives, booting from the newly cloned drive and cleaned up
system drive (D2).
BTW, system booted a wee-bit more efficiently.

4) Cloned the "cleaned-up" copy (D2) back over the original copy (D1).
Again... numerous "unnamed MFT table entry" messages were displayed.

5) Ran Chkdsk /f/r/v again on (D1)... and no clean-up messages were
displayed.

This tells me 2 things...
a) the file system problem is NOT a result of the cloning process, and
b) there is corruption in my MFT which Chkdsk is NOT detecting.

I vaguely recall a reference to some utility which will clean-up, fix/repair
MFT, re-compact it, etc...
I'll have to track that down...

And, I suppose I will move this post over to
"microsoft.public.win2000.file_system" as Gary suggested in

Thanks...
 
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