re: CHKDSK won't run to completion
Monday, July 28, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by C K
(6117 messages posted)
If it won't complete, then it is not capable of handling the errors it is finding,
or you have hardware issues with the HDD. CHKDSK can't magically repair anything..
It needs a good backup of the file system TOC (there are a primary and a secondary
TOC on the drives), to replace damaged data and correct file system errors. Keep
in mind that chkdsk is very limited in what it can do, and further that a program
or utility (and therefore the computer) can only do what the code writer tells it
to do. When a problem is encountered that hasn't been specifically programmed into
the utility to recognize and fix is encountered, the program or utility will exit
so that further damage is not caused. (speaking as a former code writer)
First you should run a diagnostics utility from the HDD manufacturer and check for
hardware issues (if they have one, some don't) or the hardware diagnostics from the
BIOS on some machines, then you would usually run some professional utilities that
would attempt to recognize the damage and attempt to repair it. However, you should
recognize that you shoud follow recovery procedures when working with HDD's on which
you are trying to save data as you can further corrupt more data if you don't know
what you are doing. Generally, you would make a bit for bit copy of the drive/partition
to another HDD and work on the copy, not the original drive.
Many shops won't spend the time to try and figure out the damage as people won't
want to pay hourly fees that could/will be many times more expensive than the computer
is worth, plus they don't have the recovery expertise that the pro recovery labs
do. That's why many machines are just reloaded after hardware has been checked or
repaired if needed.
Thinking that you are just working with simple file system errors is totally not
the whole story in many cases. It's much more complicated than that and may involve
data corruption from many sources be it hardware causes (bad memory, HDD etc) or
malware/program incompatibility etc.. The list is huge but bottom line, if the HDD
stores corrupt data for any reason, you aren't going to get it running if the repair
utilities can't handle the errors it finds, and no one utility can in my experience......
Running Windows without having a recovery or install disc is like running any kind
of mechanical or electrical device. It will break sooner or later at some point
and need repair. If there are no parts available, you buy a new one or it just doen't
operate anymore.. ;-)
On Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 6:12 pm, David Bookbinder wrote:
>I'm trying to accomplish one main thing, which maybe I have not made clear:
>
>Get chkdsk to run to completion so that it fixes file system errors. There are obvious
>file system errors that I am pretty sure chkdsk can repair. Currently, chkdsk starts
>up when the computer is booting but then immediately self-cancels, so it never fixes
>the errors. Thanks for the tip on how to get it to not check the dirty bit, but
that
>is not the issue right now.
>
>Windows runs, but I have no way to fix the file system errors without running chkdsk,
>and chkdsk won't run to completion.
>
>
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