chkdsk ... How?

Good Evening All!

I was just hit with the chkdsk 'advisory' and of course it runs it's routine but as we all know without the /f parameter this is an excercise in futility and eventially I just have to bypass the utility and just boot into Windows... for the record, of course it's XP Pro and all up to date.

I think I have a chronic problem that just seems to crop up every once in a great while... I've never resolved it to the best of my knowledge and it will 'go away' for up to a year or more and then all of a sudden it becomes an overt issue again... I have no idea as to why or how but it seems to be it's own work around after a few attempts and my bypassing the procedure

I read through the previous threads on the topic and it didn't give me the comfort level as to whether or not the previous user actually had his problem resolved using the installation CD... I too will have to go on a Snipe Hunt for mine as well. I don't know if the other user being from Norway had anything to do with the difficulty he ran into with the Install CD or not but he did allude to that.

Of course I am no fan of ending up doing an F Disk or reinstall of Windows

So where do I go from here, please??

Thanks Much

PS: I surely have been on here a lot more than is being stated and once thought I even made it to Pvt First Class... Oh Well... Now I have to Salute Everyone Again... Lessons in Humility I guess... :-}

 

Well Thank You for your response and 'the Fix' ... I think????

The .reg file obviously from what is being inferred will disable chkdsk from automatically running ~~ but is that providing a Real Resolution to the 'problem' being denoted when chkdsk is invoked??

Like I tried to explain this has been an intermittent problem for literally years now where it will just pop up.. I reboot and attempt to get into Windoze either by "Safe Mode" ~ which by the way I can no longert seem to do.. it loads a bunch of files that come scrolling across my screen and gets to a certain .sys file and then hangs ~~ I have to turn the PC off and then on again.. invoke F8 again and then choose to Start Up Normally... which it will do..

Then from that point irrespective of when I will reboot from that point on the chkdsk routine ceases to be an operative and for a long period of time ~~ well over a year this last time. If I am correct in reconstructing the circumstances that will invoke this procedure it is usually precipitated by a "hard shut down" such as either a Power Loss or a System Hang by which my only alternative is to just turn the PC off sans a normal sequential Shut Down.

So then am I left with some actual Bad Sectors which would invoke the chkdsk routine?? If that is so then what is the consequence of not being able to run chkdsk /f?

Also since with XP's NTFS it precludes being able to run the DOS based chkdsk with the /f parameter then what alternatives are there to accomplishing what that was/is supposed to accomplish?

Lastly is there a possibility that chkdsk is reporting erroneously and I don't have bad sectors??

Where do I go from here? I will wait to hear from you before I utilize the .reg fix you provided.

Thanks Much

 

You can manually schedule a boot time chkdsk with full error checking.

• open My Computer and right click on the C: drive
• click Properties
• click the Tools tab
• in the Error Checking box, click Check Now
• click both of the check boxes and then Start

Note that if you select to scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors the process will take a long time,
depending on how large your hard drive is.

There is a a picture of this dialog HERE

The failure to be able to start in Safe Mode may be due to a different issue.

There is also a way to run chkdsk from the Recovery Console, but you should try this method first.

The "hard shut down" that you described can cause an automatic boot time chkdsk.
It is Windows way of checking for errors when it has not been shut down properly.

 

Thanks Sarg !!

This is the first time I have ever heard of this routine... Just to be sure I am understanding this correctly: This will occur when I reboot the next time and this is tantamount to running chkdsk with the /f parameter??

Thanks Again and I will report back the success of this.

Mid Range

PS: Can I ever get my previous status back as per I had joined back in 2008 and had over 49 submissions and a few "Thank You's" along with the illustrious Rank of Pvt First Class??

 

You're welcome, and Yes, your understanding is correct.

As per your membership status, why not post a question about this in the lounge and see if you get a response from an administrator.

If not, then you may have to send a private message to one of the administrators about this issue.

 

You can also run chkdsk from the command line -

Start > Run and type cmd in the Open: box, which opens a command window very reminiscent of DOS. At the prompt type chkdsk <drive letter>: /r If the drive letter is that of your XP system drive you will be asked if chkdsk is to be scheduled to run at the next restart.

(if you use /? first instead of /r you will get help on all the chkdsk parameters)

 

One thought, when using the Windows method of scheduling chkdsk mjnc gave, is that I believe ticking the first box is equal to chkdsk /f and ticking both boxes is equal to chkdsk /r. The difference being that the /r attempts to copy data from bad sectors and then mark those sectors as bad so Windows doesn't use them again which take longer. Ticking no boxes would just run chkdsk with no changes. (Again, this has been my interpretation of the different check boxes.)

The other thing I would mention is when running it with both boxes ticked (as properly recommended by mjnc) if it finds bad sectors during your first run then you should run it again and make sure it doesn't find more bad sectors. Finding bad sectors twice would indicate a problem with the HD which should be addressed.