Checkdisk Mystery
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Thread: Checkdisk Mystery

  1. #1
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    Checkdisk Mystery

    relating to Windows XP SP3 ... I have not tried this with other OSs

    I have been looking for an answer to this for a long time, but still have not found any good explanation as to what the issue is.

    I have noticed that some Windows XP machines fail the checkdisk test when run either from the GUI version in disk properties or from a command prompt (on the system drive) but pass it if you check the drive remotely as an external drive.

    When you run the test from Windows on the system drive, it shows various kinds of errors (usually index errors) but the drive, partitions & file system checks out perfectly when mounted as an external drive, and also passes every other test including surface, SMART, manufacturers drive tests and third party drive tests.

    I have observed this on a number of completely unrelated random computers. It's not just one machine or brand. But it doesn't happen on all computers with the same OS.

    A lot of people complain about this same thing when you Google it, but I have never found out what the explanation is or whether it is reason for concern.

    This has to be an MS known issue since it is obviously common.

    Does anyone know anything about what causes this and whether or not it is a data threat?

    Thanks!
    Last edited by Joe Randall; February 28th, 2011 at 04:03 PM.

  2. #2
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    Run the drive makers diagnostic tool on the drive.


    See what it says.

  3. #3
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    Did that on two different machines that had this problem. Each had a different brand of drive. Both drives checked out 100% good.

  4. #4
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    From the cmd prompt
    chkdsk /f /r

    Now if that does not work, back up what you would hate to lose, the DBAN the drive with the default 3 passes.
    http://www.dban.org/

    What I had to do when that happened to me. Yes, had to reset the hdds surface.
    Believe me, that can take some time.

  5. #5
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    Chkdsk is more about the System's Files than it is the Drive Surface and mechanics..
    The Manufacturer's tools are about the actual drive mechanics and disk media..
    running CHKDSK on a drive that is not the system drive will give you different results, typically because it is, as far as the host operating system is concerned, not the Boot disk.

    As for the Fix.. Train has the answer... also be sure your HDD's are not too hot ... if the drive is too hot to touch after half an hour of running it is tooo hot to use... heat is responsible for more HDD issues than anything else..(in my workshop)

  6. #6
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    CHKDSK, ("Check disk"), is a command on computers running DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It displays the file system integrity status of hard disks and floppy disk and can fix logical file system errors. (It is similar to the fsck command in Unix).

    On computers running *NT-based versions of Windows, CHKDSK can also check the disk surface for physical errors or bad sectors, (a task previously handled by SCANDISK). This version of CHKDSK can also handle some physical errors and recover data that is still readable.
    *NT-based versions of Windows are: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, Home Server, Server 2003 & 2008).

    Tip: CHKDSK's "/r" parameter implies "/f". In other words, when you specify "/r", it is not necessary to also specify "/f" because "/r" does exactly what "/f" does, plus more.

    Microsoft TechNet > Windows XP Professional Resource Kit > Troubleshooting Disks and File Systems
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb457122.aspx

    Microsoft > Understanding what CHKDSK does (NTFS only)
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314835/EN-US/#/

  7. #7
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    Thanks to everyone for the advice. Not sure where I am going to go from here. I have already used the /f switch many times, and of course what happens when you are in Windows is that it tells you the drive is locked and asks you if you want to schedule checkdisk to run on reboot. I have done that many times and when it runs on reboot, it seems to run all the way through not showing any problems. I'm not sure if that is because no problems are displayed in that mode even if they are found or because it didn't find any problems.

    Either way, even after checkdisk runs automatically before booting, when I then run checkdisk after Windows is fully booted, I get file system errors. I have never seen an actual error in the files, it almost always seems to be in the indexes.

    I never used the checkdisk /r switch on these computers, but I did use other deep surface tests such as the manufacturer's tests and found no problems. My suspicion is that it is more file system related than hardware related, but of course I could be wrong.

    I don't have any good way to back up my whole drive right now, so I don't want to do anything more aggressive than what I have already done.

    Since the manufacturer's disk tests showed no problems, and checkdisk shows no problems when I mount the drive externally, I a puzzled by what the heck is going on.

    Let me ask this. Is it possible that, when I run checkdisk from the system drive while Windows is running that something is writing to the disk while checkdisk is running and that that creates a false result because the file database changes in the middle of the process?

    I've heard of DBAN, but never used it. I'm not sure I am ready to do a complete reinstall yet as everything is working great in practice even though there is an anomoly with checkdisk. I did however use Spinrite on these disks at one time and it found nothing. I'm hesitant to go through all of that as I suspect it's a long shot since I have already done plenty of decent surface testing.
    Last edited by Joe Randall; March 1st, 2011 at 07:38 PM.

  8. #8
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    What you are seeing is a bug in WinXP, I used to get that all the time, where Chkdsk would perpetually find errors, and it happens to loads of other people too As long as the startup check is not finding errors, you can ignore the results from within Windows.
    Nick.

  9. #9
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    You are right about a lot of people seeing this same problem. You can find numerous references to it on the Internet and I have personally seen it on a number of random machines.

    I have been dealing with it by just ignoring it, although I have to admit that I am not comfortable with that. I worry about undetected data corruption.

    I think there is a good chance that you are right about it being an XP bug. I have come to that as the only explanation that makes sense to me myself.

    But I would feel a whole lot better about it if I could read something "official" that backs that up (ideally from MS, but another reliable source would help too)

    You'd think that a bug with implications that potentially serious would be well documented and understood. Without seeing anything official, I just don't feel comfortable closing the case and ignoring it.

  10. #10
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    I forgot how I discovered that it was a bug now, it was quite some time ago (I haven't run XP other than as a virtual machine since 2006). FWIW, back then I installed Vista on the same drive that XP's chkdsk was always finding errors on, and Vista chkdsk never found a single error. And I have never had the problem in Vista or Win7, but I used to get it all the time with XP, and on more than one PC too.

    But I know what you mean, it would be nice to find some official word, just for complete peace of mind.
    Nick.

  11. #11
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    These are the kind of things that bug the heck out of me.

    It seems obvious that this is a widespread problem. And if that is true it seems obvious that MS knows about it. And it also seems obvious that it is an important issue.

    Unless I have just been unable to find it, AFIK, MS has nothing to say about it.

    This kind of thing doesn't give me a lot of confidence in their products (not to imply that they are the only developer who seems to have this kind of gap).

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