Scandisk problem on Windows XP Home Ed.

When I first got this computer back in August I had no problems running scandisk when the computer was starting up (i would select both options in scandisk and I would be given a window telling me scandisk would run on the next time i restarted my computer)

Yesterday I attempted to do a scandisk scan since I hadnt done one in a few months. I went through it all, and restarted my computer expecting the scan to work. My computer restarted but when it got to the screen for scandisk (the all light blue screen) it said "Cannot Open Volume for Direct Access. I researched this and found that it was a bug or something in Windows XP and that a fix was in the making.

Even though the scan could not be done, everytime I restarted my computer or shut down/powered on my computer after that failed attempt, the scan would still attempt to run. This became annoying as the scan would always fail and all it was succeeding in doing was slowing down my computers startup time by a few minutes.

To fix this, I installed a registry utility from www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_c.htm

This utility disabled scandisk on the startup of my system, and it worked.

My question (finally!!) to you is if it is ok to use such a utility? Afterall it did work, but in the long-run is it ok? I tried to find a fix for this from other resources but this was all I could find. If you know of any other ways of disabling the Scandisk/Chkdisk feature in XP so I wont have to put up with the failed test everytime I restart, please let me know. Right now the utility works fine, but if its something I shouldnt have then I would rather find another fix

I noticed that this same website also offers a utility to Enable scandisk...DO you think I would be able to install this utility once microsoft releases a fix for the scandisk?

thanks

 

I'd feel safe using any of Kelly's fixes. Yes, when the fix is issued, you will prbably need to run the fix to enable.

 

Hi...

The command your looking for is "chkntfs" (without quotes)...

1) Get to "RUN" menu
2) Enter "cmd" in menu window to get to command line
3) At prompt enter cd\ to get to root of C:
4) At prompt chkntfs /x c: This will disable CHKDSK from running on drive C:

Links...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;160963
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;218461

 

Thanks dobhar. Hadn't run across chkntfs before. Looks like just the ticket in this case.

Interesting that both articles only say they apply to NT4/2K because XP certainly has the command available with the same switches.

 

Yeah, know what you mean...

If you do a Google search you can find many an article mentioning "chkntfs" and WinXP.

I think (and that's really hard some days) that it was mainly designed for server class OS for the reason below...

 

Im having the same trouble!! on two computers! and both are using the newest v of zone alarm! apperently zone alarm is having trouble with this I was at faq at zone labs .com, They do not have a fix for it yet but if you use a old v of za the trouble goes away! just thought it may be your prob too

 

I too have the latest ZoneAlarm. I noticed that when scheduling Chkdsk to run at the next startup (from the C: drive's Properties, Tools window), Windows would boot through the part where it's supposed to stay in semi-dos and run chkdsk. The drive would churn as if it was running some kind of defrag type process as Windows desktop loaded normally.

I somehow found a link in some forum (I really spend too much time lurking in these places!) to a Microsoft KB article describing the problem. There is a patch in the works. In the meantime, they recommended a workaround. Apparently something is interfering with Task Scheduler setting up a new task. Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services, and click Task Scheduler. Click Restart the Service (even if it says it's running). Then go to Explorer and right click the c: drive, Properties, Tools, Disk Check (or whatever it's called) and go ahead and check off the check you want it to run and check now. It will then ask to schedule it for the next reboot. Say yes. Restart the computer and it now runs Chkdsk like it should.

I wasn't aware this problem was introduced with the new ZoneAlarm, but that makes sense as I didn't have the problem until recently (after installing the latest ZoneAlarm). Well, at least there's a work around.

 

This is from a post of mine:

One of the non obvious problems that v5.0 may be causing XP users is with chkdisk:

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/...essage.id=12939

http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs...essage.id=13363

Regards - Charles

 

I tried what ECK sugested and still had the same trouble with scandisk, so I uninstalled zone alarm, and restarted my computer( all is well) scandisk ran fine! So i went back to an earler v of zone alarm, all is well, I guess I will wate till they fix the new v befor I will up grade
Now on to the next prob. I need to fing out what is keeping my wif's computer from booting fast. all is fine untill I get the first windows xp Pro screen,it just sits there for (22 blue bars that go from left to right) then the screen goes black for about 10 sec., then i get the pointer for 10 sec.,then the timer for 10 sec.,then the log in screen comes up.! after that all is fine.There are not very many programs that load but one of the little buggers must be causing the slow boot.So I guess I will need to use selective start up to track it down
Any sugestions what to look for or has anybody else had the same trouble thx all

 

Good plan. I would add one suggestion - bring the system up in safe mode to eliminate the possibility that the OS itself has a problem.

Regards - Charles

 

Are the PCs networked and if so, are they sharing file(s)/folders/printers?

Certain setups can cause a PC to spend lots and lots of time (well, seconds to a minute or so) looking around the network for things that aren't there and only finishing the logon process when it has either found what it needs or decided it isn't available.

 

Yes the computers are networked! just the two, mine starts fast! I count only 6 blue bars at the first windows xp pro screen where hers takes 20 or so to start.I setup both networked computers and I dont think I did anything diff. but hers has 10/100/1000 on board and mine is just 10/100 maby I should check for new drivers fo her board! thx for the sugestion
also when I tried to start in safe mode the computer locked when I tried to start safe mode without networking ? (it looked like a dos screen a hole lot of lines of text then just stopped) like it was waiting for a comand without a flashing curser. I had to use the reset button to restart the comp.Then I started in safe mode with networking, and it worked just fine.

 

You may have hit on it with the difference in the network cards.

They are both probably set to autosense connection speed and that can cause delays. Unless they connect thru a hub (as opposed to a switch or direct network cable) set them both to 100Mbps Full-duplex (or 10Mbps half-duplex if you use a hub) and see if that helps.

If not there are quite a few other things to try for speeding up the boot process. Some of the more common network-related ones are
http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak954.aspx
http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak153.aspx (and good to do with any home network I think)
http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak1645.aspx (not network but still good)

And one registry setting to check (and fix if need be)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction should have a value Enable and it should be set to Y. If not, change it. This will force the boot files to be stored on the disk in one place and a fast part of the disk which will speed up the boot process.

 

Thx for the sugestions they helped! the boot time has been reduced by about 15 sec. Never would have thought to look at the network card for the auto sen. also changed the wake to none! the reg. edits helped I also did it to mine!!! thx again

 

Glad it helped.