what do these delayed write messages mean?

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bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: VinDSL

Okay, I'll bite...

Where can I find this software you wrote, and how much do you charge to recover data from HDs?

You first. I asked what your qualifications where. Are you going to answer?
Bill
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: VinDSL
Originally posted by: bsobel
Did you run chkdsk /R or just chkdsk?

Er...

You mean chkdsk /F /R right? ;)

No, wrong again. /R implies /F. /F doesnt need to be supplied.


/F Fixes errors on the disk.
/V On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file
on the disk.
On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
(implies /F).

/L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number
of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current
size.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
(implies /F).
/I NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.
/C NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
structure.
/B NTFS only: Re-evaluates bad clusters on the volume
(implies /R)

Again I've asked you a three direct questions:

1) How does a lose power cable cause write failures on one out of three partitions on a single physical drive
2) What disk recovery software have you written
3) How many damaged drives have you repaired


Bill
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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I suggest you salvage YOUR reputation first... ;)

My reputation is fine, thank you. You claim to be knowledgable in this area, back it up, lets hear what you've done in this area. Otherwise, stop giving advice about thing you know nothing about, it just causes you to become defensive and you then ruin threads like this one.

Again I've asked you a three direct questions:

1) How does a lose power cable cause write failures on one out of three partitions on a single physical drive
2) What disk recovery software have you written
3) How many damaged drives have you repaired

Either answer them or stay out, your non answers are just trolling responses.

Bill
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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VinDSL:

You don't seem to be paying close attention. You continue to argue with bsobel about his technically correct advice. I suggest you spend time researching Bill's points rather than continuing to argue with him.

There's nothing wrong with making a mistake. But when we're corrected (several times) by an expert in the topic, it's a good idea to do some research, rather than to continue to argue.

RebateMonger
 

dbarton

Senior member
Apr 11, 2002
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I ran chkdsk from the right click menu of my computer, and did check the surface scan and fix problems boxes. Hard to tell if the problem is solved as it only seemsed to fail now and again, and maybe most often when doing a backuup, so large amount of data are being copied.

The disk is 500g, sata, with an IDE SATA controller, if that makes any difference to anyone.

I thank eveyrone for their help so far, and hope not too much bad blood has been caused by this thread! :)

 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: dbarton

I ran chkdsk from the right click menu of my computer, and did check the surface scan and fix problems boxes. Hard to tell if the problem is solved as it only seemsed to fail now and again, and maybe most often when doing a backuup, so large amount of data are being copied.

Are the failures when data is being copied to that parition or copied from that partition. And is the source/destination on the same drive or a seperate one when it occurs? Even when doing a backup from the drive meta data in the MFT is updated (last access time, archive bit, etc). Trying to get a sense if its when your moving a large amount of data or if its when all/most MFT entries are getting written to due to the data being copied.

If you run a chkdsk from the command line you should get a report at the end, someting like:

976502992 KB total disk space.
171026988 KB in 129384 files.
117296 KB in 29598 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
446944 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
804911764 KB available on disk.

What, if anything is reported for 'bad sectors'?

Bill




 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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Originally posted by: dbarton
I ran chkdsk from the right click menu of my computer, and did check the surface scan and fix problems boxes.
That's the equivalent of doing a CHKDSK /R from the command line.
 

dbarton

Senior member
Apr 11, 2002
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I dont think the sytem will let me do a chkdisk with /r unless i reboot as files are in use by the system for soem reason, so this is the chkdsk with no /anything, done from cmd prompt within XP.

(/f says cannot lock drive, so I right clicked and had it check on boot)

F:\>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is AUDIO.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

293824408 KB total disk space.
280887800 KB in 88951 files.
57824 KB in 5315 indexes.
20 KB in bad sectors.
181628 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
12697136 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
73456102 total allocation units on disk.
3174284 allocation units available on disk.

F:\>
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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Ok, those 20kb in bad sectors *hopefully* where the issue. Its likely the surface scan picked them up and marked them as bad so NTFS will not try to write to them again. At this point you need to see if the problem happens again. Hopefully those here the only bad sectors. To be safe I'd run the scan on each volume on that drive with the surface test (your d and e volumes). If the bad sectors count across all three partitions is high it might be worth it to RMA the drive. If however its just these 20kb, your hopefully will be ok.

(Then again, maybe its your power cable ;))

Bill
 

VinDSL

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2006
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Originally posted by: dbarton
WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

293824408 KB total disk space.
280887800 KB in 88951 files.
57824 KB in 5315 indexes.
20 KB in bad sectors.
181628 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
12697136 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
73456102 total allocation units on disk.
3174284 allocation units available on disk.

F:\>

Heh!

That's what I was waiting for...

Thank you!!! :D

'/F' aside, this proves your HD is dieing!

Do a backup of your data, NOT a mirror image, transfer it to a new drive - and drive holes in the old one... ;)
 

VinDSL

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2006
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Originally posted by: bsobel
(Then again, maybe its your power cable ;))

Glad to see you're in a better mood this morning! ;)

I'll tell you what...

Do an extended write, and pull the power connector to the drive in mid-action.

Tell us what the error said, after you get back online...
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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You might have a flaky Y-connector on your power supply cable to the drive or whatever.
I'm suspecting it's something other than a HD failure, however, I would make sure you're backed-up, just in case!


Oh really, suspecting something else eh?

That's what I was waiting for...

Strange, you were waiting for something that I requested. You told him to check his cables, dont you dare come in here and suggest you've added ANYTHING usefull to this thread.

'/F' aside, this proves your HD is dieing!

No it doesn't.

Do an extended write, and pull the power connector to the drive in mid-action.

Read this slowly, since I cant be there to read it to you. If you pull the power plug you'll get a device detach notifcation (well, the system will) as well as errors on ALL OF THE PARTITIONS ON THE DRIVE. The D and E partiitions aren't going to keep working while he F drive doesnt. Seriously, you cant be this dumb, you have to be trolling.

Again I've asked you a three direct questions:

1) How does a lose power cable cause write failures on one out of three partitions on a single physical drive
2) What disk recovery software have you written
3) How many damaged drives have you repaired

Either answer them or stay out, your non answers are just trolling responses.

Bill
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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'/F' aside, this proves your HD is dieing!

To the OP. Please ignore the troll, he really doesnt know anything about this. Bad blocks are not uncommon, do you remember if you did a full or quick format when you setup each partition? If you did a quick one, you never checked the drive for bad blocks (which is what /r did for you). As such, the system didn't know to mark the bad blocks as used so it wouldnt try to write to them.

Now, if you DID do a full format on that partition its possible the drive is failing. You can switch it out now or run that chkdsk in few more days and see if the bad block count is growing. If it continues to grow or you start seeing bad blocks on the d an e partition, I would swap the drive.

Bill

 

VinDSL

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2006
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LoL! I'm NOT trolling!

If I was, I'd tell you I finally found the program you wrote... :D

chkdsk /r

This isn't a laughing matter any more, Bill!

You know the guy's HD is going bad, and so do I...

Why lead him on?
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: VinDSL
LoL! I'm NOT trolling!

Yes, you are.


If I was, I'd tell you I finally found the program you wrote... :D
chkdsk /r

I believe I asked for your qualifications to be making this diagnosis, and to date you have not replied. I've asked you to stay out of the tread until you do.

This isn't a laughing matter any more, Bill!
You know the guy's HD is going bad, and so do I...
Why lead him on?

Im not leading anyone on. I (unlike you) am trying to help the OP. Bad clusters are normal on drives, they do not always indicate drive failure. 20k (40 bad sectors) isn't a large number. I suspect the OP did a quick format on the drive (I've asked him, see prior post). If he did then the OS didn't have a chance to discover and mark these sectors as bad, thus causing the occasional write error when they were hit. The fact that the two other partitions do not shown such errors, and the errors appear to have stopped since the surface test suggest this. I told the OP what metrics to use to verify this is the case.

I also told him if he HAS done a full format (vs a quick format) already, then this is indeed more indicative of a drive issue. I also told him if the bad sector count grows that is also indicative of a drive failure.

However, the simple existence of 40 bad sectors in of itself is not an indication of a bad drive.

Please refrain from posting in technical threads you don't have the background to be commenting on. Your diagnosis are wrong and dangerous (you started by saying you 'had a feeling it wasn't the drive' and now you tell him to 'replace the drive'). Stay out and let the actual experts diagnose the problem and help him.

Bill