XP Corruption? "Windows found problems with the file system."

[NoahFrenzy]

I ran chkdsk tonight on my priomary harddrive (a WD120JB.) It reported that problems were found and that I should run chkdsk with the /f switch. I did so, and scheduled a file scan with repair on reboot. When I did, it seemingly "fixed" things, but as soon as I got back into windows, I ran chkdsk again and it reported that there were still problems. Anyone have an idea what's going on, and how to fix it, or if I should be worried for that matter. Thanks.

 

[bsobel]

It's very very normal for chkdsk to report 'minor inconsistancies' with the drive. The issue is that the volume is not locked (unlike the 9x OS's) so while chkdsk is running, the file system can still write to the drive. So (for example) if anything writes to the drive and causes a file to allocate or grow, the volume bitmap will be out of sync and you'll see the recommendation to check at startup.

However, if chkdsk is reporting alot of problems (more than the 'minor inconsistancies found') there may be a 'real' corruption problem to track down. If you post the exact message from chkdsk, I can probably give you more of a definative answer.

Bill

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: NoahFrenzy
I ran chkdsk tonight on my priomary harddrive (a WD120JB.) It reported that problems were found and that I should run chkdsk with the /f switch. I did so, and scheduled a file scan with repair on reboot. When I did, it seemingly "fixed" things, but as soon as I got back into windows, I ran chkdsk again and it reported that there were still problems. Anyone have an idea what's going on, and how to fix it, or if I should be worried for that matter. Thanks.

It has been my experience, with a dual-boot Win98se and W2K SP2 system, that the CHKDSK.EXE program including with W2K, is actually less capable, in terms of detecting and fixing certain types of errors, than the older SCANDISK.EXE program included with Win98se, at least in terms of checking FAT32 volumes. Try booting off of a Win98se boot disk, if you are running FAT32, and use the SCANDISK.EXE from that to check the drive/volume. (I once had a similar problem, CHKDSK.EXE could detect a problem, but not fix it. SCANDISK.EXE fixed it, and CHKDSK.EXE didn't report the problem anymore.)

 

[Abzstrak]

I'd probably suggest you run a chkdsk /r to rule out physical problems... please note it will take considerably longer to run than chkdsk /f

 

[NoahFrenzy]

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Noah>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Main.

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.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

117178078 KB total disk space.
21187988 KB in 44077 files.
14368 KB in 2562 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
117234 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
95858488 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
29294519 total allocation units on disk.
23964622 allocation units available on disk.

C:\Documents and Settings\Noah>

There we go. bsobel, it does seem to just be indicating the "volume bitmap problem' that you had mentioned... I think. Oh, and thanks again to everyone who's posted so far. I'll be running it with a surface scan later today, just in case.

 

[bsobel]

Yea, you can ignore the error, it's just because the volume was in use and the bitmap (the table of used/free portions of the disk) changed while chkdsk was running.
Bill

 

[alkemyst]

yeah schedule to run on reboot then it runs well and more accurately.