CHKDSK/Scandisk stops working on Vista - How to fix?

[Mhzjunkie]

Stephan G. spewed out this bit, and i'll scatter a few bits myself:

> Thanks for the suggestion - I tried the MFT repair strategy in the
> utility and received a write error. I suspect that is because we are
> dealing with my boot partition, which means it must be locked.

Maybe it's the same old deal like it was in XP, when it wouldn't run. You'd
have to boot to the recovery console, where it would complete. After that it
run from within XP, after a restart of course.

Boot with your Vista DVD and pick the repair option.. There's an option
there to start command prompt, try and run CHKDSK from within that.

--
Mhzjunkie

1 PRINT "Windows Vista ERROR"
GOTO 1
END

[John Barnes]

I am beginning to suspect you have physical damage. Have you run a disk
integrity checker, preferably one from your hd manufacturer? Now, those do
run a long time, especially if you have a very large drive. Also chkdsk has
the 'scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors' the /r option from the
command line. Sorry if you have already answered this question.

"Stephan G." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Thanks for the suggestion - I tried the MFT repair strategy in the utility
> and received a write error. I suspect that is because we are dealing with
> my boot partition, which means it must be locked.
>
> Still looking...
>
> John Barnes wrote:
>> If other suggestions fail, look here. I haven't used it.
>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advan...and_MFT_Repair
>>

[Spirit]

I don't suspect you have a boot problem, often when you repair
the MBR it resets everything from the Zero sector and allows
CHKDSK to then work with the backup copy of the MFT.
Probably the reason you are hanging is that the backup copy
of the MFT is inaccessible and the main copy is corrupt.

"Stephan G." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> OK, many thanks to all responders to this cry for help. Also I loved
> the pointers to the various articles, all were informative although I
> suspect some were more germane to my issue than others.
>
> I do think I have a problem with my MFT, as I will detail below.
>
> So, a couple of questions and then some data.
>
> Spirit - what is triggering your suspicion that I am having a boot
> problem? I want to be efficient with my time, so I don't want to be
> fishing in an area where it won't be productive. I'm not saying you are
> not correct, you seem to be very much more informed than I, but can you
> share a bit more about what is causing this instinct?
>
> Andrew - I understand that CHKDSK might take a very long time. In one
> of your posts, I think you said 12-24 hours. So far, I have only let it
> run for as long as two hours. But in that two hours, it has NOT moved
> from the place where it stopped (originally 3 percent complete at 41108
> of 137024 file records, now 2 percent complete at 37405 of 137024 file
> records). Disk light is not blinking, no disk sounds of any nature, I
> can't even hear the disk motor, but the cooling fan starts to really
> really fly, and the system still seems to get very warm. It would be
> tough to suddenly go 24 hours with no system... I would need to really
> schedule that, so do you think that no movement or change at all in two
> hours might still mean that CHKDSK is working correctly?
>
> So... now for some data.
>
> First off, something that may bolster Spirit's claim that something is
> wonky on the boot front, before I had all the wonderful responses to my
> post, I thought I would see if Safe Mode would help me with any of this.
> So I tried to boot into safe mode. First time I have tried this under
> Vista. I hit the F8 key at boot time, and got the boot menu, and
> selected "Safe Mode". Then I saw a very fast scroll of information of
> the loading of a number of drivers. That fast scroll abruptly stopped
> after it said "Loaded <path>crcdisk.sys". Then the system just stopped
> responding for several minutes, before the boot process restarted, and I
> booted up into normal, not safe mode.
>
> OK, as for the CHKDSK. In normal mode, I opened a command prompt window
> as administrator. I created a batch file named "checker.bat" so I could
> roughly time how long things took. The contents of the batch file were:
>
> time /T
> chkdsk c:
> time /T
> chkntfs c:
> time /T
>
> I ran checker.
>
> I then ran CHKDSK with the /F/I/C options so that I would have the
> "faster" version running when I rebooted.
>
> Output of that command session are attached as a text file to this
> posting.
>
> Data of note, summary:
>
> 1. Seemingly unable to boot into safe mode. Not sure how
> relevant this is.
>
> 2. Read-only version of Chkdsk in command prompt seems to
> run in about 4 minutes.
>
> 3. Read-only version of Chkdsk reports that
> "5 unindexed files were processed".
> I am not sure what this means or how important it is to
> this discussion.
>
> 4. Read-only version of Chkdsk reports that
> The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute
> is incorrect.
> Windows found problems with the file system.
> Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.
> I am unclear what the BITMAP attribute is.
>
> 5. chkntfs reports that the dirty bit is not set.
>
> 6. As suggested, I ran CHKSK with the /F option, which requires
> that it be scheduled at reboot. I ran it with the /I/C
> options as well. As before, it started chugging along
> but seemingly completely stopped working at 2% of stage
> 1 with 37405 of 137024 file records processed.
>
> I am most appreciative for the feedback thus far, and would be most
> grateful for any additional insight....
>
> Yours Truly,
>
> -stephan g.
>


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


> C:\Windows\system32>edit checker.bat
>
> C:\Windows\system32>checker
>
> C:\Windows\system32>time /T
> 09:58 AM
>
> C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk c:
> The type of the file system is NTFS.
>
> WARNING! F parameter not specified.
> Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.
>
> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
> 137024 file records processed.
> File verification completed.
> 198 large file records processed.
> 0 bad file records processed.
> 0 EA records processed.
> 44 reparse records processed.
> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
> 492882 index entries processed.
> Index verification completed.
> 5 unindexed files processed.
> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
> 137024 security descriptors processed.
> Security descriptor verification completed.
> 14426 data files processed.
> CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
> 37710320 USN bytes processed.
> Usn Journal verification completed.
> The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute is incorrect.
> Windows found problems with the file system.
> Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.
>
> 110655688 KB total disk space.
> 43934204 KB in 105906 files.
> 63988 KB in 14427 indexes.
> 0 KB in bad sectors.
> 283996 KB in use by the system.
> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
> 66373500 KB available on disk.
>
> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
> 27663922 total allocation units on disk.
> 16593375 allocation units available on disk.
>
> C:\Windows\system32>time /T
> 10:02 AM
>
> C:\Windows\system32>chkntfs c:
> The type of the file system is NTFS.
> C: is not dirty.
>
> C:\Windows\system32>time /T
> 10:02 AM
>
> C:\Windows\system32>del checker.bat
>
> C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /F/I/C
> The type of the file system is NTFS.
> Cannot lock current drive.
>
> Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
> process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
> checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) y
>
> This volume will be checked the next time the system restarts.
>
> C:\Windows\system32>

[Stephan G.]

Thanks to all the feedback on this thread, and the fascinating reading
that was pointed my way.

The final solution was fairly easy, although getting to understand it
required some interpolation.

I have an HP laptop, which came shipped with the OS and a RECOVERY
partition, as well as a System Recovery DVD. I do not have actual VISTA
disks. HP only gave the tools to re-image the disks to factory settings
in the case of a disaster, which would then leave VISTA installed.

I tried to put in the SYSTEM RECOVERY DVD, which brought up the app to
re-image the hard drive. No good, or at least too destructive for now.

So, following some verbiage that came with the DVD, I booted the
computer and hit F-11 on the boot screen, which started the "Recovery
Manager", which appears to be an HP-specific piece of software, so I
don't know how general this solution might be for other folks. The
Recovery Manager gave me a few options, but under the "Advanced Options"
button, it allowed me to run a command prompt.

NOTE: In this environment, for some reason, the windows partition that
usually is my C drive was assigned the drive letter D.

I was running on a virtual disk with the drive letter X:.

In any event, I was able to do a CHKDSK D: /F/R/B, and it did take over
an hour, but it solved the problem with the MFT.

Thanks again, all, for your help.

-stephan

Stephan G. wrote:
> Hello.
>
> On my several-month-old Vista system, I wanted to scan the disk for
> errors, just as part of routine maintenance.
>
> It turns out that the way VISTA needs to do this is to run CHKDSK but
> run it at startup so that no other program is accessing the drive.
>
> Fair enough.
>
> The interface asks if you want to schedule the disk scan at the next
> reboot, which I have done.
>
> Then I reboot.
>
> It starts to run CHKDSK, presumably with the /F option.
>
> However, very shortly after the start of CHKDSK, it just stops. Disk
> light stops blinking. The following is where the display stops:
>
> CHKDSK is verifying files (Stage 1 of 5)
> 3 Percent complete. (41108 of 137024 File Records Processed)
>
> and the only way to deal with the situation is to do a hard (power-down)
> reset. On the next boot cycle, you can "Press Any Key" to bypass the
> disk scan.
>
> But all this means that I am completely unable to execute a disk scan.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> -stephan g.

[Andrew McLaren]

"Stephan G." <[email protected]> wrote ...
> The final solution was fairly easy, although getting to understand it
> required some interpolation.

Outstanding! Thanks for letting us know you got it resolved; that's always
useful information for future cases.

Cheers,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

[thepringle]

i have exactly the same problem ..and i did as u said stephen i also have an hp laptop pavilion dv2500 and i ran the check disk from the recovery manager and it didnt freeze and it didnt find any problems ..but when i tried the check disk by choosing chkdsk /f to be done at the next restart ..it also hanged at 3% ....dont know what to do ? i also ran the hard drive self test in the bios setup by pressing f10 at the hp logo screen ..this test is said to be reilable i detecting physical damage of the hard disk ..it ran but hanged at 20% for over two hours then it jumped to 100% and said it passes the test ...i donno is this normal or there is something with the hard...by the way this laptop is the third replacement i get from hp due to the same issue ..

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Well, maybe its time you return it back for a refund and buy another brand
if this is your third system from them with similar issues.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"thepringle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> i have exactly the same problem ..and i did as u said stephen i also
> have an hp laptop pavilion dv2500 and i ran the check disk from the
> recovery manager and it didnt freeze and it didnt find any problems
> .but when i tried the check disk by choosing chkdsk /f to be done at
> the next restart ..it also hanged at 3% ....dont know what to do ? i
> also ran the hard drive self test in the bios setup by pressing f10 at
> the hp logo screen ..this test is said to be reilable i detecting
> physical damage of the hard disk ..it ran but hanged at 20% for over
> two hours then it jumped to 100% and said it passes the test ...i donno
> is this normal or there is something with the hard...by the way this
> laptop is the third replacement i get from hp due to the same issue ..
>
>
> --
> thepringle
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[thepringle]

i just wanted to make sure if this is hardware issue or software and since it occurred three times maybe it is just software and if i get an installation dvd ofwindows vista it will solve the issue plus i found stephen here who has the same issue exactly so i dont think its hardware .this case is driving me nuts cuz the only problem is that the check disk freezes but other than that everything is working normally ..but im afraid that maybe after one month or two a huge problem might be manifested and then all i could get is repair not a replacement

[uvbogden]

Check out your Repair Vista Options. You may have a corrupt chkdsk.exe or
autochk.exe file.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/10...-sequence.html

"thepringle" wrote:

>
> i just wanted to make sure if this is hardware issue or software and
> since it occurred three times maybe it is just software and if i get an
> installation dvd ofwindows vista it will solve the issue plus i found
> stephen here who has the same issue exactly so i dont think its
> hardware .this case is driving me nuts cuz the only problem is that the
> check disk freezes but other than that everything is working normally
> ..but im afraid that maybe after one month or two a huge problem might
> be manifested and then all i could get is repair not a replacement
>
>
> --
> thepringle
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> thepringle's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=37824
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=815446
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>
>

[JonnyP]

I had a very similar problem, and it took me a while to remember what I'd done to cause it.

I'm using an MSI K9N SLI board with NVidia SLI chipset - I had installed the NVidia IDE drivers to try & fix another problem, which turned out to be a memory problem.

As soon as I uninstalled them the problem went away - so try uninstalling your motherboard IDE drivers.