Service Pack 2 causing CHKDSK errors?

Leave it me, I switch to NTFS (instead of FAT32) and I start getting disk error messages.

Wife booted up to a blue screen. She said it was BSOD but I'm not sure if it was the CHKDSK screen or not. I then run CHKDSK from within WinXP Pro SP2 and get some serious sounding error messages from CHKDSK involving tables. I can't run CHKDSK in "FIX" mode from within Windows so it asks me if I want to run CHKDSK in "FIX" mode on reboot. I say 'yes' but of course, that doesn't work and from what I see on the net, that's pretty common.

I find a .bat file on the net that unmounts the volume and forces a CHKDSK /F /R from within WinXP. It runs and appears to have fixed stuff and then reboots.

I then run CHKDSK from within Windows and the number of error messages has gone down but I'm left with these:

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

I then run CHKDSK from XP on my gaming rig and guess what? I get the exact same error messages. The drives in the two rigs are different brands and the one in my gaming rig is a fairly new Hitachi.

I then search on the net and find something that sounds ominous...someone experiencing the exact same thing! Same exact error message as mine on multiple systems!

Here is the thread. The "meat" is toward the bottom of the thread. I do not use Diskkeeper Pro, btw.

Could some people run CHKDSK on their NTFS drives from within XP (CMD) and see if you get the same results? I have service pack 2 installed and I frequently update.

 

Gary:

Must be that misery loves company. You tweaked my curiousity so I read your link which set the hook - After running CHKDSK from a command prompt, I can report the following:

1. CHKDSK discovered freespace marked as allocated in the master file table <MFT> bitmap.
   
2. CHKDSK discovered freespace marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
   
3. Windows found problems with the file system.

So, I ran with the /F switch and rebooted. Interestingly, when I again ran CHKDSK from a command prompt, the first <MFT> message was gone but the other two were still there. So - I ran again with the /F switch and rebooted. Repeated the same and all three were back. End of excercise.

I am running DiskKeeper 8.0 Professional on this machine and I can't recall when I've had the last hiccup on this box but we can frame it in terms of months and quite possibly a year plus. (Katrina took it down for 3+ weeks) This puppy runs 24/7 and although its my second oldest machine, its the one I probably use the most. Socket 940, FX53 with a 36Gig Raptor system drive - no bad sectors. I may try a couple of other machines tonight if I get the urge but will follow up eventually regardless. Interesting discovery and one that appears to be a glitch in CHKDSK.

Regards,

 

Rockster, when I try to run CHKDSK /F in Windows, I cannot because "the volume is in use ". It prompts me to run it on reboot and I say 'yes' but it never runs.

How are you running CHKDSK /F?

Gary

 

I get the same message, go through the process of saying yes and then I manually reboot. It runs before Windows is loaded during a restart.

 

If the CHKDSK gets "scheduled for reboot" while in the CMD window it doesn't work. But I was advised to try it through drive>Properties>Tools>Error Checking etc., etc. and that worked.

Later on I'll try this and see what the results are of a CHKDSK that's run prior to Windows loading. I think that will be the key.

 

I was able to schedule with the /F switch upon reboot from a command prompt. May get into this again in a while. Like I said earlier, you got my curiousity and then set the hook. I'm also anxious to see if any others post re: this phenomona.

 

AFAIK, allocation of space that should be unallocated is due to a bad shutdown of a program (it doesn't finish writing to disk).
Seen it since Win 95.

For you (both), an update not working?? Then again, I don't use switches (only Tools -> Error Checking) and I don't run on NTFS.

Check for a common program that is not shutting down the way it is suppose to (or maybe is being forced to shutdown by Windows when it has not completed it's "save to disk ").

...That's my "throw in "

Matt

 

OK - so far I'm two for two - same results on FX57 - Newest machine that has never (**** that might jinx it) crashed, locked up or blue screened. Not running DiskKeeper on this one. Sure don't have a bad shutdown of any program on either. No know glitches, performance problems or issues on either machine. (oh yeah - .Net version 2.0 security update was a problem on both) Other than that - flawless - guess its time to test another box.

 

Results are in for #3 - ⅔ of the same - MFT and Windows (last two of the original three). This machine also Steady Eddie - 4000+ SanDiego. Now you have me wondering what goes here - guess I'll have to do some homework to determine whether or not I have a problem or CHKDSK has a problem. I don't like betting against Microsoft but I'm hard pressed for a legitimate reason to shoulder the blame myself.



edit: First afterthought - have two 36 Gig WD Raptors and one Samsung 40Gig SATA II as system drives - all with SATA controller drivers that raised MS flags during the original installations. Not going to speculate yet, but am throwing it out as food for thought.

 

Whenever I shutdown my business box, I always get that gray box that says something isn't shutting down nicely and Windows quickly forces it to shutdown. Several months ago, I was getting gray boxes at shutdown that had a timer and I had to bang through several of them to get the box to shut down. Now I get only one box and it quickly disappears as Windows forces it "down ".

Over the years I've seen this happen with Adobe-related apps and from what I recall, something called SysFader which is probably the app that darkens the screen as you shut down.

I don't know what I can do to get these apps to shut down of their own accord. I have alot of stuff loaded on my biz box: ZA Security Suite, .NET, QuickBooks 2005 Pro, etc., etc.

Maybe I can try an app like CCleaner and block some things from loading up unnecessarily upon boot-up.

Gary

 

I looked in the MS KB, they describe the message and that's all.

I take it that you can't get chkdsk /F to work. From what I saw, I would boot the Win XP CD and run chkdsk /F from the Recovery Console.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831426/en-us
Method 3.

I could not guarantee that the messages will be gone if the problems with the shutdown of programs remains.

Luck
Matt

 

Hi there,

I've got the same problem overhere. I became aware of it yesterday for the first time, because my defrag program refused to do its defrag job for chkdsk found the errors you mentioned. I really don't know since when I've got this problem exactly. Did one of you found a solution already?

Regards,
TeeCat

 

TeeCat, you need to get CHKDSK to run at boot up by double-clicking My Computer, right-clicking on your C: drive, selecting properties, clicking on the Tools tab, under Error Checking click the Check Now button, check the Automatically fix file system error box and if you want to verify all the bits and bytes, check the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors (which adds alot of time to the scan).

You'll then be prompted to reboot and upon reboot the CHKDSK will run. What I suggest you do before shutting down to reboot is to manually shut down all the apps you have running in the background: firewalls, anti-spyware, anti-virus, etc. Then reboot to have CHKDSK run. I would do this entire procedure a couple of times to see if the problem behind all this is the fact that Windows is having to force apps to shutdown when when you shutdown or reboot.

I have one process called zlclient.exe which is part of my ZoneAlarm Security Suite that Windows has to force down before shutdown/restart. I think this may be the cause of my problem.

Gary

 

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your instant reply. I did run chkdsk at boot up for a couple of times now (no bad sector scanning, though): no problems found. The thing is, that at boot up chkdsk does not find any problems, but in a dos box (while running Windows) it sometimes does. Do I have to worry about the health of one of my disks (RAID-0 configuration), do you think?

Regards,
TeeCat