Drives and chkdsk errors (solved)

[crimson]

Here is the dilemma,

Chkdsk reports volume bit map errors on two drives and bad sectors. If i try to recover the drives by using the drive tools, the bad sectors multiply. if i format the drive, chkdsk won't detect any bad sectors and says that everything is fine and no problems found.

On the contrary, the disk management shows that all drives are healthy even when chkdsk reports them. The ' system maintenance under system and security'  checks for volume errors and says no problems found. I even ran a thirdy party software 'asc ultimate 7 disk doctor tool', even that did not detect any problems.
So why is the chkdsk bugging me with these errors. Is it static?

My computer is running fine. no bsod, no slow running, i can access everything, no hang-ups, never had to do a back up. it's just bugging the hell out of me

[Shane]

Sounds like it was more of a file system problem instead of bad sectors and chkdsk was just getting fooled by it.

To check for bad sectors a program will write and then read data to the free sectors. On sectors that are already in use it will just try to read all the data. Same way a memory test is done, write data to it and read it back and make sure you can read it and that the data you wrote didnt change.

So on yours, if the file system was somehow corrupt then it could have fooled the chkdsk to make it think it was a bad sector instead, and the other software.

But when you formatted the drive you recreated the file system, thus fixing and replacing any problems with it.

At least thats what it sounds like from what you told me. If it was truly a bad sector on the HD then it would fail every time you hit that sector.

Of course I might be completely wrong and it could have just been a heating issue lol

Shane

[crimson]

Hmm, I see. I have formatted all drives in succession, after moving data from one to the other and later ran chkdsk which didn't detect any bad sectors. I have done this process a couple of times before and every time it has been the same result.

So, i guess it must be what you have mentioned.

So, should i leave it alone or should i look into why the file systems are getting corrupted and then try any alternative (if any) to fix them?

[RocketNut]

I to have a drive problem. I create a volume on my USB external drive so I could run a repair install (unsuccessful even after using a flash drive) using the new volume. Now I can not get the drive to work. The drive keeps resetting and windows says that the volume I (my new volume) needs to be formatted. When I click on the ok button, it can not find it because the drive has restarted. I can see the main volume and even long enough to start a copy of a folder I need off it. The copy starts then crashes because the drive has rested. I can reformat the entire drive after I can get this importunate folder saved.
I was wondering is there a way I can save this folder then erase the bad volume or reformat the drive with out losing this fold?

RocketNut

[Shane]

Hmm, I see. I have formatted all drives in succession, after moving data from one to the other and later ran chkdsk which didn't detect any bad sectors. I have done this process a couple of times before and every time it has been the same result.

So, i guess it must be what you have mentioned.

So, should i leave it alone or should i look into why the file systems are getting corrupted and then try any alternative (if any) to fix them?

Hard to tell, if it keeps happening see if you have any software that might affect the file system, like 3rd party defraggers and things like that.

I to have a drive problem. I create a volume on my USB external drive so I could run a repair install (unsuccessful even after using a flash drive) using the new volume. Now I can not get the drive to work. The drive keeps resetting and windows says that the volume I (my new volume) needs to be formatted. When I click on the ok button, it can not find it because the drive has restarted. I can see the main volume and even long enough to start a copy of a folder I need off it. The copy starts then crashes because the drive has rested. I can reformat the entire drive after I can get this importunate folder saved.
I was wondering is there a way I can save this folder then erase the bad volume or reformat the drive with out losing this fold?

Your problem is different than this one. I have had usb drives do that as well, but when I unplug them and put them in a different usb port they work again. If it does that then the drive is fine. If the problem happens with it no matter what computer you plug it into then the drive is bad.

Shane

[RocketNut]

  sorry 

[crimson]

Hard to tell, if it keeps happening see if you have any software that might affect the file system, like 3rd party defraggers and things like that.

No i have only windows defragmenter. I am not really sure if there are any such software that might affect the file system. In any case, i'll keep investigating and then see what comes up. Should i close this post?

[Shane]

A lot of programs can mess with the file system actually Defraggers can depending on how the work with the files and the file system. Partiotion tools and anything that works directly with the file system can do it. It is also easy for the file system to get corrupted if say a file is being written or the sile system is being updated and the system loses power.

Anyways at least you are working so you can marked solved and close if you like :-D

Shane

[crimson]

oh that rings a bell. this happened a year ago, so i don't remember the details in exact 

here's what happened : system crashed, could not boot . so I took it to my brother ( I wasn't so knowledgeable back then) and he formatted the c drive and installed windows for me. but what i noticed a few days later was that, one logical drive wasn't showing ( a 100GB drive with only a pictures folders- important) . it was like it vanished into thin air.

I took it back to him, he used a number of tools to recover that drive and couldn't. So i was told that ''since there is no important user folders on your system,  I will reformat the whole thing ( i mean into a single drive of 500GB) and then partition it. It was then that new drives were created. After that they have stayed like that.

It's only been a few weeks since i decided that i should take care of my own system (not depend on others) that i have been finding these discrepancies. I am debugging them one by one and it's actually much easier to maintain my system myself .

So, back to the main topic, i think while recovering the lost drive, maybe some file systems may have been messed up. It could be one of the possibilities. I'm not definitely saying that that is the only cause.

But in order to rule out this possibility I will have to reformat the whole thing again after backing up some 100GB of data to an external drive, which I don't have.

Any suggestions? Oh by the way, I ran a hard drive test from dell and it failed the SMART test. I suppose it's a physical damage, but i don't recall my laptop having been dropped or anything close to that. If there really was a physical damage,  I don't think my laptop would function the same it is doing. Ever since i started maintaining my system since few weeks ago, it's been a smooth sale and no performance issues in spite of all the errors.

Regards,
Crimson

[Shane]

Almost all hard drives have a self reporting software on them call SMART, which is used to report any problems that it finds. It doesnt always work as a drive can die without smart ever reporting a thing. But when SMART reports there is a problem then most of the time you can count on it being correct.

In this case what is SMART complaining about? It reports a lot of different things. One of the things some of the drives can do is remap a bad sector to a good one. Most of the drives have a few spare sectors set aside, so when a sector goes bad it will get remapped to a good one. So sometimes you will see a bad sector and then it is gone. But 1 or 2 bad sectors is one thing, if more and more sectors are going bad then the extra sectors get used up and there is a problem if the sectors keep going bad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_sector

http://www.mjm.co.uk/articles/bad-sector-remapping.html

Shane

[scarsxp]

Well, there is also categories. Bad logical sector vs Physical sector.

Don't understand why you wouldn't run the manufacturer's utility for your specific brand of hard drive. On a DOS boot up disc.  And other 3rd party utilities on a DOS boot up disc. To check SMART and for bad sectors. If it's a bad physical sector, it will never go away. If it's a bad logical sector, you can repair it. And it won't show up again, unless it reoccurs. I think one or more bad physical sectors will eventually lead to more and more. Then you basically need to throw the hard drive away.

[crimson]

In this case what is SMART complaining about

. I don't know. The software ''my dell'' says that it just failed the test and the problems started after 1900 + hours since system use. In any case, i will continue to use it and when it's time to replace the hard drive, i'll just do that.

Don't understand why you wouldn't run the manufacturer's utility for your specific brand of hard drive

- i did and that's why i know it failed the smart test. Or are you talking about something else ?

[Shane]

Normally the rule of thumb is when SMART starts complaining it is time to replace the drive. The drive could last only a few more days or months, who knows.

But if you decide to use the drive till it dies that is fine, just make sure you keep backups of anything you dont want to lose on an external drive, because the the drive does die everything on it goes with it

Shane

[scarsxp]

In this case what is SMART complaining about

. I don't know. The software ''my dell'' says that it just failed the test and the problems started after 1900 + hours since system use. In any case, i will continue to use it and when it's time to replace the hard drive, i'll just do that.

Don't understand why you wouldn't run the manufacturer's utility for your specific brand of hard drive

- i did and that's why i know it failed the smart test. Or are you talking about something else ?

Oh you did (my mistake), but on your initial post you didn't say anything about checking that. That's the first thing I would have done or second thing immediately after seeing the result of bad sectors from chkdsk.  Just saying, don't forget it.  And manufacturer's utilities usually work best  if the drive has any problems. I rather not see someone going through the hassle of constantly running chkdsk and reformatting again and again if the drive is failing, especially if it fails the SMART test.

Because a person's data is more valuable then the drive itself. I wouldn't trust your data and operating system to a failing drive. But suit yourself, I guess. And if you start getting hard drive not found, or inaccessible boot disk errors. Then I really wouldn't use it.

[crimson]

Thank you guys, I understand. I actually don't have anything on my hard drive worth saving. so i'm at ease. so i am closing this thread now.
I appreciate the responses i've got.

Regards,
Crimson

[crimson]

Hi,

I don't know if i should create a new thread or not.
A few minutes ago I downloaded the latest version 2.6.2 'all-in-one-windows repair'. I ran the 3rd option to check for disk errors.

No matter how many times i run it from the tweaking program it says errors found.
But if i run the chkdsk from cmd as an admin, it says no errors. I even did several boot time tests that didn't pick up the errors.

I have attached an event log from all chkdsk logs: from read only (cmd), boot-time and from tweaking program.

I just want to confirm which is true.
If this has got nothing to do with the condition of my hard drive, then i will create a new thread. please let me know.

[Shane]

My program runs the same command chkdsk C: as you do in the cmd.exe Window.

What i have found is that chkdsk isnt always correct. I have seen it do that before, I think because when it is running in read only mode there are still files open and if a file it is checking is being written at the same time it will think there is a problem with it.

Also when you do a boot time chkdsk scan on the drive it isnt chkdsk but autochk.exe. Since it is a version designed to run outside of Windows.

So since the errors where
Index entry avgcchfi.dat in index $I30 of file 68103 is incorrect.
Index entry avgcchmi.dat in index $I30 of file 68103 is incorrect.

That looks like those files where being written to while it was checking them so the data didnt match. You can ignore those

Shane

[crimson]

Alright.

Thank you,
Crimson

[scarsxp]

Hi,

I don't know if i should create a new thread or not.
A few minutes ago I downloaded the latest version 2.6.2 'all-in-one-windows repair'. I ran the 3rd option to check for disk errors.

No matter how many times i run it from the tweaking program it says errors found.
But if i run the chkdsk from cmd as an admin, it says no errors. I even did several boot time tests that didn't pick up the errors.

I have attached an event log from all chkdsk logs: from read only (cmd), boot-time and from tweaking program.

I just want to confirm which is true.
If this has got nothing to do with the condition of my hard drive, then i will create a new thread. please let me know.

Alternate way for you to check bad sectors. With HDD Regenerator.

Download this:
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v106/

Make the boot disc.

Follow this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UM_DflBgJI

Just scan for bad sectors, do not repair.  I just use chkdsk for Windows after I use this utility,  to repair file system problems due to bad sectors. Although it might take you longer depending on the size of your hard drive. But it might find bad physical sectors, which can't be repaired. That way you know it's using spares. I think when you reformat, all that is happening is that the hard drive is using spare physical sectors. Then when you use Windows utility you aren't discovering any bad sectors. Because those physical bad sectors are being mapped to new physical sectors, therefore there isn't bad sectors anymore that Windows can detect. Because they are already being remapped.

[jraju]

Hi, Shane,
                       Just the thread owner changed the title by adding solved or is there a button to do so. I remember that i have requested you to include a button for solved. Please let me know. I have gone to some places, so missed threads. pl

[Tomas_Sweden]

jraju, I think this will explain about solved:

http://www.tweaking.com/forums/index.php/topic,1917.0.html

The person who started the thread have to add (solved) to the title himself.

Tomas

[jraju]

Hi,

                  Please see this link
http://www.tweaking.com/forums/index.php/topic,1654.0.html
                         Since it is time that i log on to this forum after some time, I did not know the latest. But is it that it is enabled to the owner of the thread or anybody. I sincerely wish that either the owner and Shanes to close a thread , as otherwise, there is a possibility to add solved by some one . Since this is a forum, i am expressing my opinion.

[Tomas_Sweden]

Please see this link
http://www.tweaking.com/forums/index.php/topic,1654.0.html

Ok, interesting haven't read that before.

But is it that it is enabled to the owner of the thread or anybody.

I think only owner of the thread and Shane could change the title to solved.

Tomas

[Shane]

Yes the owner of the thread can go to the first post in the thread and click modify, just like you would to edit your post, there you will see the title and you can modify it as well

Shane