Running chkdsk after dirty shut down

Is there any way to run chkdsk automatically after dirty shutdown on NTFS partitions just like old Win9x days ?

 

Chkdsk is run at every boot of XP. To see it add /sos to boot.ini after the other arguments on the XP line.

 

But how to run it with /f parameter, so that it can fix the damages ?

 

I have FAT and it fixes automatically. You can watch it!

 

Agreed that NTFS is more robust than FAT, but even it requires some basic house cleaning.

My problem is that I have to support some 100 odd pcs at different locations and running chkdsk manually every week is becoming a big problem. On top of that we have quite severe power shortage out here & its very hot so PC's keep on hanging & rebooting. So I need a way to run chkdsk /f automatically if the system shutdown was dirty.

 

Sparrow, I don't normally recommend that people use FAT with XP unless they have some specific requirement - like sharing partition(s) with other OS (Win9x, Linux) or some other program which does not run on NTFS ( a major accounting program comes to mind) - and never ever in business environment.

Perhaps you should also start using NTFS & dump FAT .

 

Can't say that mine does. However, if my computer is shut down improperly, chkdsk always runs just like the old win 9X days. I get no prompt to fix it, it just does it on it's own. It does show what it fixed (if anything) but it goes by pretty fast so I generally have to look at the event viewer to see what it did.

I always thought it did that by default???? I've never done anything to make it work that way. It just does.

 

This has me confused. Perhaps chkdsk runs on FAT partition (ala Win9x) and not on NTFS partiotion, or perhaps you need a switch to enable it in both .

As per Microsoft, you have to run chkdsk manually on NTFS ?

http://www.updatexp.com/windows-xp-chkdsk.html
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

 

I don't really know, but, I'm using Fat32. Maybe that's why it runs for me?

 

Yes - XP is emulating 9x. But what about NTFS?

 

Illuminating to say the least, but I have yet to see any NTFS system running chkdsk automatically after a dirty boot & this includes Win 2k, Win 2k3, XP & server editions.

Maybe the automatic checking is reserved for such instances that the volume becomes unmountable & unreadable and then only it starts checking, but if one waits for so long for this, I think the volume is a gone case anyway and one can expect massive data loss on it.

 

Agree 100%; my computers are at home; I'm retired, and feel NTFS is not suitable for folks at home. Have seen too many problems there, probably stemming from lack of IT help that is available to corporations.

You haven't turned off the XP splash screen as was suggested if you still haven't seen chkdsk running automatically at boot on NTFS partitions.

 

Ok would do that but does it fixes anything or does it only checks & reports the error (aka chkdsk without any switches) ?

 

Fixes as well. Think you can see it work when splash screen is turned off by just pressing reset button (or pulling the plug if no reset) and then reboot- you don't have to wait.

 

Added the /sos switch to boot.ini & did just what you suggest above, yesterday. (just to make sure that it fixes them too)

Though Windows checks the hard disks, it gave all the partitions a clean chit of health whereas after booting I was not able to access one directory & had to run chkdsk /f manually to recover it.

 

You can see what, if anything, chkdsk fixes while booting by looking at your event viewer. It's been a while since I ran it but I believe it'll be under "application" although it may be "system ". Look for an event type named winlogon.

 

That's a first.for me. Been running without splash screens since win98 and never have had such an experience. Something must have happened to the disk after it was checked.

Don't accept one experience as proof. Keep watching. for a while.

 

It's not an one off experience. I have been facing this problem for long and on different computers. The computers would hang or reboot & then the users would not able to access files & folders until chkdsk /f is run manually.

I have not been able to find any doc on Microsoft site which says that chkdsk runs & corrects the errors automatically on boot - it always says that you have to run chkdsk /f manually.