Scandisk Lost File Fragment(s), Question?

I Ran Scandisk on all drives on my Celeron PC from with-in Windows98-FE... and got the following Error on my F: Drive only...

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Drive GAMES (F https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ contained the following errors:

ScanDisk found 4096 bytes of data in 1 lost file fragment(s).
Resolution: Convert the lost file fragment(s) into file(s)
Results: Error was corrected as specified above.

ScanDisk found errors on this drive and fixed them all.

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This was the first time i ran it in a few days... i ran it 'cuz i suspected problems after WinZip was Quiting halfway through Zipping-up a Game Dir for BackUp reasons to clear some space on the HDD....... (as i no longer play that game on that PC and i NEVER uninstall stuff unless needed for upgrade, i use Ghost instead)

as u probably know it has created the usual "FILE0000.CHK" file on that drive... if i open it with NotePad it means nothing to me...

So the Question is:
How can i look in the "FILE0000.CHK" to see what it messed up? i'm not so worried about recovering them (as i have the game on other PC too), but i would mainly like to know in what folder it found these Lost Fragments so i can replace them with a copy from my other PC b4 Zipping again?

Normally when this error happens it on a drive which is Backed-Up with Ghost so its not a problem... i just restore and don't worry about it...

This time its on an Unbacked-Up Game partition and the funny thing is, it happened immediatly after trying & failing to Back it Up... sods law init!

I'm mainly just interested in what the deal is with these "FILE0000.CHK" files as i have no past experience with them and think now would be a good time to learn, if theres anything to know that is... any good links that will explain more?

I dodn't include PC specs as i thought it was irrelevent, lemme know if u need 'em!!!

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ and thx in advance for your replies https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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Just my opinions from past experience...and guessing. Post back to let others know if our ideas worked!
With a good backup program u can UNDO (almost) all your mistakes & bad installs etc in Windows!

Hi, i've just noticed that my game Dir IS backedUp to my other PC... i forgot about that... so long ago i made it...

when comparing them i just noticed is when i select properties on Both My PC's the number of Files [9036] and Folders [451] and its size [931,504,128 bytes used] are exactly identical....... so would i be right to assume that these files were untouched by Scandisk as all is still same size etc ???

So no loss wat-so-ever anyway as its allready backed up PPPHHHHEEEWWWW https://discussions.virtualdr.com/, i shall use that 1 for my CD BackUp if i have to.....

But i am still wondering what can be done incase i get this prob in future! just learning...

Also another thing... do u think WinZIP/WinACE are good for backup or would i be better off just "Ghosting" the whole partition as it only has 1 game on it! (now i think about i should of used Ghost in the First Place i think)....

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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Just my opinions from past experience...and guessing. Post back to let others know if our ideas worked!
With a good backup program u can UNDO (almost) all your mistakes & bad installs etc in Windows!

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 09-28-2001).]

You can look at the contents of .chk files with wordpad (utilizing "open with") The only real use that would be is if any of the fragments deleted contained real text. Otherwise it would be typical pc gibberish. In other words if the file fragments that were deleted were, for example, text or document files then you could manually recover parts, or if you were extremely lucky most of a written file. But if the fragments were from exe, dll or any other kind of file, and they usually are, then looking inside will tell you very little indeed.

if i open it with NotePad it means nothing to me...
That's usually the problem with the frag file even if read in a hex editor. Almost always (almost) just junk and completely useless. May see some clue if scan thru and pick up a word relating to a program, but *** at best.
A long time ago, I used to look. Now I just del *.chk in dos or del in windows without even wondering what they may be. It's normal to get these sometimes. Too many, continuosly, can lead to future disk probs really fast.
Good luck.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2001/09/1.gif
Good luck.

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"There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range of risks and costs of comfortable inaction."

CHK files (Lost File Fragments) get created for the following reason.

When a program is running that is in the process of either creating a new file, or updating an existing one, the changes are obviously being written to an area on your disk (cluster). BUT, that cluster does not get actually assigned to a particular file name until that program closes the file.
Windows keeps track of all clusters, as to whether or not they are in use, and if in use, which file they belong to.

When an application is terminated (ctl-alt-del), or it fails on an error or you reboot your PC while that program is running, the clusters continue to be "in use" and continue to be "not assigned".

When Scandisk runs, it finds these "lost clusters" and either creates CHK files or deletes them, depending on the option. In general, delete the files. The only time you would want to attempt recovery, is in the event that the file being edited or created, was extremely important and needed to be recovered.

Thx Guys, u've comfirmed what i thought about the .CHK files...

however, i started copying a few files to and from that dodgy partition and found that when i ran scandisk after, it would find more lost clusters... i made several attemps, sometimes rebooting... deleting files again then recopying them and kept getting the same thing on and off, couldn't really find a pattern... done a thourogh scan once and found no errors... the cycle repeats...

i think it would have been OK to leave the drive as was if it wasn't for the above continuing prob, but me being me... [b]i formated that partition and copyed the files back from my other PC, and then Ghosted that partition... (Haven't put it on CD yet)

BUT even after all that still off and on it finds lost clusters... i'm trying to narrow it down as we speak... any sugestions please as to whats going on... hope my HDD isn't knackered!

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

Restart to DOS and run
SCANDISK /Checkonly
and see what is found

Your original message indicates that one cluster was found (4096 bytes). If Scandisk continues to find only one, it would seem to indicate that you have a program running that creates a file, but never closes it. And, it aborts or you use something like EndItAll to kill apps or force shutdowns. Regardless, it should not be indicating a failing drive.

While you are in DOS you can do a Thorough run of Scandisk to confirm that you do not have failing clusters somewhere.

thx WhitPhil, i've tryied the DOS SCANDISK /Checkonly switch to see... one thing? How do i run it on the other partitions and also do a Thorough run of Scandisk from DOS? sorry i've just never used DOS scandisk B4 apart from auto after bad shutdown, no errors on C: tho.

u r right...at the start it was just 1 lost cluster, but now after replicating it several times by just copying and deleting Data it seems to change from 1 to 3 and even 4 quite irregulary https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ mostly 1 lost tho...

apart from the WinZIP errors earlier, one other possible start to all this was when... wednesday night i left my PC on all night to download and went to bed... and the files were being downloaded to the partition which now has problems... when i awoke and turned on the Monitor, i clicked on sumut and then the PC froze & BSOD... i had to hard shutdown with reset button... scandisk ran all drives after and found no errors... hhmmmmm...

...could i have been planted with a Virus, could that cause it or would there be other obvious things to look for 1st

BTW, during my testing there was NO lockups or hard shutdowns. and usually its VERY rare for my PC to even have an illegal operation let alone frezing...

also during the testing after i BackedUp that partition, i formatted it and left it empty for the boot to windows... i made 2 attempts 1st time it crashed just after showing desktop and then crashed just b4 it would have been finished... reghosted... same thing... i put back the Game partition in question then it booted fine!!!...so it does seem my PC is depending on the contents of my Game Drive, theres only 1 game and 1 empty forder which it says is OS dependant and recommends not to delete???

Does this make any sense to u or any1, its getting me more confused the more i type

at least i've got a record of what i've tried so far on here... saves my memory! 'cuz this is gettin' technical!

Glad to hear it shouldn't be a failing drive anyway.

i have finger ache now, lol

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 09-28-2001).]

Scandisk F: /CheckOnly

I recommend CheckOnly, so that errors will be found and displayed, but NOT fixed. You should always review what scandisk finds, before turning it loose on your drive.

Thorough:

Scandisk F: /Surface


[This message has been edited by WhitPhil (edited 09-28-2001).]

Thx WhitPhil, i'll try it now!

UPDATE: that so called empty folder (in windows) on the Game Partition does actually contain 2 folders if i go into DOS and look 1 is called "." and the other ".." seems wierd to me but then again i don't usually search my drive on DOS... but all i know is they arn't there in windows Explorer...

i think it maybe time for a backup of my other so far good partitions on that same drive, i'm getting quite concerned for my data!!! :O

Regards, thx again https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 09-28-2001).]

Thx Mosaic1 glad those invisable folders r normal... yes this is getting rather confusing... probably my grammer lol

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Quote: Mosaic: What's the exact wording of this message please?

=This change could impact one or more registered programs. Do you want to continue?

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The PC specs should now be in my signature below... its not that fast!!! but the HDD in Question is the 20 gigger... also its been OK for the last year and a half... but still, the patch might be worth a shot... i'll read up on it l8er.

the 20gig drive was split up b4 i knew about cluster sizes, i plan changing them soonish anyway.
D: 6 gig. files (1 gig free)
F: 3 gig. Games install(s) ONLY (apart from occational temp files) (2gig free)
G: 11 gig. MP3's ONLY (2 gig free)

on drive f: there is one Game installed called KingPin 850mb approx... the full path is F:\GAMEFULL\Kingpin... (for full installs)

the other protected empty Folder is F:\GAMEPART\ (was for Games which require CD)

when i formated this drive F: in DOS then i could no longer boot...

damn hard to explain, with my slow fingers!!!

most appreciated for all the help https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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Daewoo: Celeron 300a, 256mbRAM, Voodoo 3 2000, SB 128, Win98FE / Win2000Pro & Cable Modem
Fujitsu 3.2gb & Maxtor 20gb HDD's, Mitsumi CR4804TE CD-RW, Daewoo 36x CD-ROM

I've also just notice my drives r running in MSDOS compatability mode, i realised the symptem of the disapearing StandBy from the Shut Down Box i have seen that several time l8ly, i think it ties up to the above lost cluster problem exactly. does this make it easier to pin point

another problem i wasn't worried about until now is that on the drive in question the DMA box will not stay checked, its been like it for months and i can't remember when it started or if in fact it was ever checked!

or maybe that just trying to think of a reason https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ any ideas. this must all be related?

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

Mosaic note that the Compatability mode and the missing standby were occering together, almost everytime scandisk was finding errors after moving large (850mb) amounts of data around to test it... but the NON DMA issue has been permanant for at least a few months now...

searched the REG for these entries NOIDE NO_IDE BADIDE BAD_IDE and found none. 1 good thing i spose https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

NO Yellow Exclamation Points on device manager normally or at the moment, i'll have to look next time i see Compatability mode.

as for the Virus scan... i've never permantly had any virus s'ware installed (just a firewall)... but i did install McAffeVS few days ago, but just gotta reinstall again due to "reghost"... u just reminded me, that found 1 virus i cant remember the file mane, but it was an executable patch and i had ran it a month ago but not recently... McAffee found it... i didn't want it to delete it yet until i investigated further on the ol' WWW. the next time i looked in the folder it was gone, i scaned and searched again nowhere to b found... it simply disapeared...

...however i dont think that virus was relevent as i've Restored my windows install and Game partition backups...

i'm gunna do the DOS SCANDISK stuff in the morning as i wont be able to surf now otherwise, as that PC is my Proxy server and my connection doesnt like swapping around!

also i'll try an older Backup file of Drive c: and see if that fixes the DMA prob... if all above fails.

for now i'm gunna install McAffe again and see what what it finds!!!

Thx again & Regards for now https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

EDIT: off to bed now... back with the mission in the morning https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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Just my opinions from past experience...and guessing. Post back to let others know if our ideas worked!
With a good backup program u can UNDO (almost) all your mistakes & bad installs etc in Windows!

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 09-28-2001).]

Hi, i've still not solved this, but heres an update... i'm expecting the worst, so have been backingup all important files. as it will probably have several hard lockups B4 i find out the prob...

things suggested i've done so far....... scanned for viruses with none found https://discussions.virtualdr.com/...

ran "scandisk /checkonly" on all my drives with no errors found, i'll try thorough after i've finished my backing up!

...also looked in device manager when drives in compatability mode and there were 2 Exclemation marks, one next to Primary IDE ctrl'er saying drivers wern't installed and other by GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE01 b'cus controler wasn't working properly... https://discussions.virtualdr.com/, only happens occasionly and it makes standby disapear too as i said...

i think all these probs r related (Permanently No DMA, Random HD Compatability mode and random lost fragments on F: drive) and one fix will solve it all, i just have to find it!

i've had enuf of backing up for the moment and will try one of my 1st Ghost images on the drive and see if that fixes the DMA prob for now... it will indicate a software prob if it does i guess!

is there a switch (like in windows) that will check all drives in 1 go in DOS rather than telling it to do each drive separatly for example: "scandisk /all /checkonly"... let me know just for convenience so i can add it to my modified boot disk as well? do order of switches matter?

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 09-29-2001).]

Thx for the link Mosaic1

Just a thought but could these problem be related to the CMOS battery? the PC also seems to lose time aswell to add another problem to the list, its lost half hour since yesterday... also 3 times in the last few weeks it would only boot from cold boot after windows would hard hard-lockup/reset (twice with Win2k at first then once with Win98)...

...now i think about it, this PC was "perfect" until i installed Win2000 on it a few weeks ago, win2000 had to go cuz it was incompatable junk IMO, could it have done any permanent hardware damage when it locked-up during atempt to burn a CD?

these r longshots i know but i need to rule them out of my current DMA/lost fragments/compatability mode problems, so your opinions would be appreciated.

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 09-30-2001).]

UPDATE

i've now repartitioned all drives to suit and reloaded my 1st ghost image back (with diff snd&gfx card then)
on it and still the DMA problem, so now i'm back with my latest image...

Haven't had any lost fragments since with scandisk, but still it gets the non DMA and compatability mode! and has had 1 boot failier!

one thing that is strange is that at one point only drive C had anything on it and the PC booted normal everytime, so i don't think my boot failier were to do with deleting game folders on my other partitions.

other than DMA these problems are very random and...

Questions...

Any thoughts on why the DMA box doesn't stay checked after reboot on the - primary slave HDD?

Could these probs be related to my BIOS battery, or would it then fail completly until i change it?

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What a nightmare, i might have to try Fresh Win98 Install https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ just to narrow it down a bit... or maybe try SecondEdition https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ or...

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

hi,

I suppose you put the image back like from gho to part.

you also mentioned scandisk.
DOS tools directly acting on a hard disk, will lock a drive in native compatibility mode.
if scandisk hangs, or has an issue, the drive can remain locked.
(same as with formating, one needs reboot to unlock)

or...
one can try this internal DOS command
boot from your start floppy and from the dosprompt try this.

unlock C:
unlock D:
unlock ...etc

remove floppy, boot to windows, and pray it solved the DMA and compatibility issue.


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Remember, there is always something we forgot to ask.
And, it's only FREE advice!

Kind regards, Jaak

LotusAstra

"." and ".." aren't folders. They are the nearest thing DOS has to shortcuts.
"." means go up one level, and ".." means go to the root folder of the drive.
For instance, if you are in c:\folder1\subfolder1 and you type at the prompt "cd\.." (w/o quotes) you will go straight back to c:\
If you type "cd\." you will be in c:\folder1

Thx jtdoom, i tried the unlock command, then tryed enabling DMA in device manager but unfortunatly it still don't stay checked after reboot https://discussions.virtualdr.com/.

Quote jtdoom: I suppose you put the image back like from gho to part? thats correct, its the way i've always done it! oh well, Looks like i'm gunna have to fresh install from W98CD insteed of ghost to narrow this down...

the compatability mode and lost fragments issues haven't happened recently since i haven't been swapping large Data around, but the problem is most likely still there tho if i did, i'll have to check?!

thx Paul D for the info, i never had a clue what they were, but now i do... most appreciated https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

hi

I hope paul D reads this.
suppose you are in \windows\desktop\documents\davy_crockett\2001\september\

when you do
cd..
that gets you to
\windows\desktop\documents\davy_crockett\2001\
if you do cd... (three points)
you then go up two branches
\windows\desktop\documents\

a single point dont get you anywhere.

cd\ gets you to root of drive you are on

cd\.. also gets you to root, because of the slash in there.

suppose you are still in \windows\desktop\documents\

cd C:\ghost
gets you to ghost folder in one step

to see what's in a folder, you can do dir /w /o /p


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Remember, there is always something we forgot to ask.
And, it's only FREE advice!

Kind regards, Jaak

Thx for clarifing jtdoom, i'll have to ammend my notes... but still thx paul d for bringing this to light...

I've tried a Fresh install too... and that did NOT work!

EDIT: Ideleted my other question as this is being answered in this other post http://discussions.virtualdr.com/For...ML/051071.html

Thx guys & Regards https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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Just my opinions from past experience...and guessing. Post back to let others know if our ideas worked!
With a good backup program u can UNDO (almost) all your mistakes & bad installs etc in Windows!

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 10-06-2001).]