unrepairable disk errors (w2k)

[tenthirty]

i've been getting all these stop errors and blue screens from my system. i've been trying everything to find out what's wrong. i just boot up with the 2k cd to the recovery console. i tried running chkdsk and it says that there are errors that are unrepairable. is my only option to reformat? what would cause something this serious that will cause my system to be so messed up?

any ideas?!

 

[Mitzi]

Really need more information. Have these errors only just started happening? Have you added any new hardware lately? Any new software or drivers? What hardware have you got?

The first thing to do when trying to troubleshoot any Win2K error is look in the event log.

Start->Settings->Control Panel->Administration Tools->Event Log.

See if any errors are listed and if there are let us know.

 

[tenthirty]

system:
- athlon 1.33GHz
- gigabyte ga-7dxr
- 256mb DDR
- tdk burner
- ati radeon ddr 32mb

these errors started recently. it all started with a missing or corrupted file "csc0.tmp" the error kept popping up on randomly and i couldn't find it to delete it or repair it. i installed norton antivirus to check for viruses and none found. tried getting a sp2 for w2k and that didn't work. now the system doesn't even boot up.

i would go to "Start->Settings->Control Panel->Administration Tools->Event Log" but i can't even get to the desktop. can't get into it with any modes. i've had some random luck and was able to boot up fine and the next time i get lucky, i will look at that event log. i've only been running w2k for a few months so i'm still a newbie at it. i didn't even know that it didn't have a scandisk anymore. pls bare with me... TIA!

 

[Mitzi]

What make/model is your hard drive?

 

[tenthirty]

it's a WD 60gig

 

[Mitzi]

Download and run Western Digitals Hard drive checker (I don't know what its proper name is).

If the hard drive is not faulty, we may have to look elsewhere. Did you make any changes to your system recently?

Let me know how you get on.

 

[tenthirty]

well, i ran the diagnostics for the drive with the lifeguard tools that's from WD. I ran both quick and extended checks and nothing was found. everything seemed fine from there. i guess it might be a corrupted OS? any more ideas...

 

[SemperFi]

Tenthirty, Are you using raid feature?

If you are not and if you are using the promise controller try putting it on the chipset ide. I have an A7V that has promise controller non raid. A couple of months back I installed a new video card and a couple weeks later I started having some lockups and various Bsod occasionally power off. Power off happened probobly 10 times in the 6 months before card install. Well anyhow it took me quite a while to find out the promise chip quit. When I tried to restore my setup off of the cd it said I didn't have a drive connected on the promise controller.

I am running 98Se and 2000. 98 shows the device is working properly but I can install the drivers for promise but shows it isn't working properly. I tried various combinations of installing both os's and drive channel combos and the only way I could get this thing up was to leave all of the drives off of promise controller.

if you are using raid you might be able to save it by installing a raid card and connecting your drives to it. If you know someone with a raid you may want to borrow it to make sure that is it before you shell out the jack. Don't forget regular promise cards can be easily hacked to raid. That is if you are good at soldering.

I thought your problem sounded similar in your other thread. I would lay odds on it now. That is if you are using the promise controller.

 

[tenthirty]

semperfi:

i am not using the raid feature on my mobo. it's there but i don't have any drives hooked up to the two IDEs for the raid. everytime i boot up, it always show the promise controller trying to look for a device and says that there are no drives connected. sounds right since i don't have anything connected. i also found out that i can disable this promise controller via jumpers on the mobo, i think i'll do that in a few days when finals are over. it's annoying to not have a working computer during finals week.

status:
ran, hd diagnostics and no errors found. system seems to boot up fine with out a bluescreen but windows is still trying to do a consistency check everytime it boots. i don't know how to get rid of it. i'm thinking that the drive is flagged as dirty and the OS is trying to scan it everytime on bootup but it's not able to clean it. the thing is that i haven't added any hardware at all lately. i put this system together at the start of the fall quarter, approx 3 months ago and haven't had any problems up till now and i guess when it rains it pours and i get all these funky errors. thanks for all your help fellas!!

 

[Mitzi]

As you said, try to disable the Promise controller via the jumpers - I guess its one more thing to rule out.

If that doesn't solve your problem I guess its time for a clean re-install. Strange that you've not changed anything on the machine to cause these errors though. It could be a faulty bit of hardware but really, the only way to pinpoint it to hardwre is to install a clean OS first.

Anyway, hope you get it sorted soon.

 

[SemperFi]

Since you don't have your drives hooked up to the promise I doubt that that is the problem. I only had problems when I had a drive connected to it. I am wondering if the chipset controller is going.

You can use the promise controller as a regular controller (non Raid) correct? If you can swich your drive to there and try to boot the cd and do a repair. Hopefully that will make a difference. I was really hoping you were going to tell me that you had your hard drive hooked to the promise controller.

When I was trying to figure out my problem I spent so much time trying to figure out how my new video card affected this. After a week and many installs of both os's finally figured out it was not related to the video card.

Hope this helps.

Semper Fi

 

[tenthirty]

ok so here's an update:

i've reformatted the computer with the WD ez-install disk. i think it defaults to fat32 format unless you specify that you want fat16 for running NT. i go ahead with the fat32 and then i proceed to install win2k. i was able to install win2k up to the point where it was configuring the components and then i got a stop error and could go no farther. at that point, i reformatted again and ran the installation again. now the setup indicates that the disk is corrupted but the HD diagnostics don't report so.

i've looked at the western digital FAQ page and it there is an identical situation with mine where the w2k installation reports curruption and stop errors. it said it has to do with the VIA south bridge chipset on my gigabyte GA-7DXR mobo. the instructions tell me to disable the UDMA in the bios and reinstall the OS. then it says to update the via drivers and reenable UDMA. i've been searching like crazy to find out how to disable the UDMA but i do not see an option anywhere in the bios. any ideas where this is and how to do it?

this is becoming more and more frustrating due to the fact that when i put this system together 3 months ago, eveyrthing went smoothly on the first pass and there were no errors with installation. then for the past week, i started getting stop errors and eventually my system wouldn't boot anymore. i decided to back my system up and do a clean reformat. now it doesn't even want to install.

one last thing, i was told that fat32 can't handle partitions over 32gig. i have a 60gig and i was trying to use the w2k installation to format to ntfs (because it can handle partitions > 32gig) but it would go through the formatting up to 100% and then it tells me setup can no longer continue due to disk corruption and forces a reboot. help me someone!!!

 

[ssoni223]

I say ditch the drive. This isnt worth the $50. Time = money
Worse would be it works, then you get drive errors x months from now. Ugh.
I say: Reinstall OS on NEW drive, and just hook up old drive as slave so you can copy all your files over to the new drive.