What is the purpose of file named $BitMap?

WinXP Home, SP2 running.
I recently added a second SATA hard drive.

My system's drive layout is:
A; Floppy
(Beginning of Physical HD #1)
C: Primary - NTFS
D: extended logical - NTFS
E: extended logical - NTFS
F: extended logical - NTFS
(End of Physical HD #1)

(Beginning of Physical HD #2)
Unassigned space (7.xx meg
G: extended logical - NTFS
H: extended logical - NTFS
I: extended logical - NTFS
J: extended logical - NTFS
Acronis Secure Zone Partition (7.xx meg) - FAT32
(End of physical HD #2)
K: Zip Drive
L: DVD Combo
M: CD-RW
P: External HD - NTFS, used for backups only

When i defrag the HD's, I will get an error about Write Delay for file $BitMap
( or H:\$MFT) saying the data is lost. At that point, all the partitions for
G, H, I, J, disappear (do not show) when i click on My Computer. If i reboot,
all partitions return and i have R\W access.

I was using the Perfect Disk (Demo) as the defragger but when it started
having this problem, i removed it and started using the normal XP defragger
program. I still get the same error messages.

Any ideas anyone?

I'm thinking about re-formatting HD #2 and re-partitioning it, only this time
I'll put a primary partition and 3 logical partitions (and of course the Acronis
partition will be put at the end).

Thank you,
savagcl

 

Are you gettting this error:
Delayed Write Failed
Windows was unable to save all the data for the file drive_letter:\file_path\file_name. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

Those $mft/$bitmap files are the NTFS equivilent of the FAT table. Losing data out of them can cause some hard core corruption. not good.

Go look in your event log for error 9s or error 11s, and any other relevant errors from disk, FTDISK, atapi, etc..

Two vectors for this problem, disk filter drivers and bad hardware.

 

Thanks Joe,
Didnt find any "9" or "11" errors but did find this:

Event Viewer - Application: Error
Event ID: 1000

Application Error
Faulting application PDE Engine, version 7.0.0.34, faulting
module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000094
---------------------------------------------------------
Event Viewer - System
Source PlugPlayManager
Catagory: None
Type: Event ID: 12
Description: The device "ST3200822AS" (IDE
\DiskST3200822AS________________3.01___\5&
3759664c&0&0.0.0) disappeared from the system without first
being prepared for removal.

Note: This is the new internal HD, occurred 2 times.

savagcl

 

ok, that error 12 is bad news. Its telling you the same error you would get if you yanked out the data cable while the machine was running.
New hard drive.. Hows your cabling, remove and reseat all connectors. Make sure that nothing is pinched or tweaked. Possible that drive is no good.

 

Thanks, Joe, i'll double check the cableing and report back (after breakfast).

savagcl