Multi part Question-Chkdsk, Bad sectors...???

I Run Win XP SP2., Zone Alarm Suite.

No. 1- After going through everything relating to "CHKDSK" problems and trying everything suggested, I can only get the chkdsk to run as read only. It does show some issues but no matter what, I can NOT get the chkdsk to run a repair.
I continually get the blue screen message at every bootup saying that the file system is NTFS and cannot access or lock the the drive because it is in use. HOW is it in use when it is in initial boot-up?
I can't defrag until a successful chkdsk has run.
I have frequent freezes and even sudden diagonal black and white stripes appear on the monitor requiring forced shutdowns and restarts. the PC is free of viruses or malware etc. When it is not randomly freezing, the thing works great...no other problems. Any ideas? Programs conflicting with others????
I am at a loss and am ready to just re-install Windows, but what a giant pain having to re-load all my apps.

No. 2- If I resort to having to "restore" WINDOWS to perhaps fix this, is there a way to keep from having to "reinstall" all of my progs., drivers and applications as I have a LOT of them...especially graphics programs? Is there some software that would back them up "not cloning the drive", but actually able to reinstall from a backup/copy of all the applications and related files to function as originally installed prior to a repair or re-install of Windows.

No. 3- If I were just to clone the drive, would these chkdsk issues, etc. migrate to the new drive?

No. 4- Could there be a voltage problem causing these weird things to happen and is there any application that would be able to discover that in a diagnostic monitoring of the system or drive itself?

Thank you all so much for the help you give us all every day with your knowledge, it is greatly appreciated!!!

tarmin8or

 

How to run chkdsk:

1: Boot to your Windows XP install disc; press any key when you see "Press any key to boot from CD...."
2: Once it loads to the first screen where you are given the option of pressing "R" for the Recovery Console, or press Enter to install Windows, press "R" for the Recovery Console.
3: The PC will go a black screen with white letters and looks like an old-school DOS environment. You may promped for the Administrator password; if you have a password, enter it, otherwise press Enter.
4: Once you get to a prompt, type the command chkdsk c: /r and press Enter.
5: When chkdsk has completed, type exit and press Enter to restart the PC; be sure to remove the XP disc from the drive.
That's it!!!

Running chkdsk can take some time. Like a LOOOONG time. I've seen it take over 8 hours. Be patient. Do not turn off the PC during a chkdsk. Do not cancel the chkdsk. You may think the PC has locked up during chkdsk, it hasn't. You may see the percentage progress counter actually count backwards. This is normal so don't worry about it. Let chkdsk run in it's entirety. If the PC is booting to the Windows desktop, I would strongly recommend that you run CCleaner or another drive cleaner before running chkdsk, and especially before running a defrag. This will remove any junk files, temp files, cookies, and unneeded garbage and will help both a chkdsk and defrag complete quicker.

GOOD LUCK!!! Let us know how it goes!!

 

The random freezing and strange screen images are likely due to either faulty RAM, or the PC is overheating. Run a memory diagnostic (I like this one) and let it run for an extended amount of time (overnight if possible) and if the program you choose has extended or advanced tests, use 'em. Questions 2 & 3 are related: if you clone the drive, the errors with the file system (ie; the chkdsk errors) will probably migrate to the cloned drive, but you probably won't be able to clone the drive with the file system corrupt as it is now. Question 4: yes. There could be a voltage problem. Try using HWMonitor. It will look at the various sensors in the PC and provide any available readings including temps and voltages. Many older PCs do not have universally recognized sensors, or have very limited sensors so HWMonitor may not provide detailed info on older systems. Voltages and temperatures can be usually found listed in the system BIOS under the "PC Health" or "Hardware Monitor" headings.

Other monitoring programs can be found in the Monitoring and the System Info sections here at Major Geeks; other RAM diagnostics can be found in the Memory download section; I prefer the bootable tests as they have unrestricted access to all the system memory without Windows and other programs getting in the way.

Good luck!