Is My Hard Drive Dying?

[LenC]

I can't get a clean run of chkdsk. I've run it a few times and keep getting warnings about unused index entries and security descriptors - but no "bad sector" warnings. They always relate to the same file 0x9. Is there any way to determine the file name associated with 0x9? Maybe I could eliminate the problem by deleting it.

Also, I ran the windows defrag. The analysis told me the drive needed to be defragged, so I ran it. It completed and gave me a list of files that could not be defragmented. It looked like not much of the drive was defragged - apparently those files got in the way of it. When I reran the analysis, it said that the drive (still) needed to be defragged.

Any thoughts regarding the status or health of my hard drive?

Two consecutive chkdsk reports are attached below. As you can see, the second report continues to show these index entry errors.

Thanks for your help,
Len

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


#1)
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 17 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 17 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 17 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

244131740 KB total disk space.
140579212 KB in 155263 files.
62344 KB in 19452 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
364520 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
103125664 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
61032935 total allocation units on disk.
25781416 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
10 d8 02 00 86 aa 02 00 eb 32 04 00 00 00 00 00 .........2......
d8 02 00 00 04 00 00 00 e1 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
d6 3e af 04 00 00 00 00 d2 20 a8 af 00 00 00 00 .>....... ......
34 c3 26 0a 00 00 00 00 de d4 3b ff 0c 00 00 00 4.&.......;.....
88 ed 50 1b 05 00 00 00 c8 96 5c eb 12 00 00 00 ..P.......\.....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 90 38 07 00 7f 5e 02 00 ..6......8...^..
00 00 00 00 00 30 46 84 21 00 00 00 fc 4b 00 00 .....0F.!....K..

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#2)
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
The remaining of an USN page at offset 0x2108a65f0 in file 0xf3c1
should be filled with zeros.
Repairing Usn Journal file record segment.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

244131740 KB total disk space.
140496676 KB in 155412 files.
62416 KB in 19455 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
364524 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
103208124 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
61032935 total allocation units on disk.
25802031 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
10 d8 02 00 1e ab 02 00 4e 34 04 00 00 00 00 00 ........N4......
d8 02 00 00 04 00 00 00 d1 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
ea dd 8d 04 00 00 00 00 86 e5 ac af 00 00 00 00 ................
c0 1c 3d 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..=.............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4e 08 c0 cf 00 00 00 00 ........N.......
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 90 38 07 00 14 5f 02 00 ..6......8..._..
00 00 00 00 00 90 3c 7f 21 00 00 00 ff 4b 00 00 ......<.!....K..

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

[Keyboard_Commando]

0 KB in bad sectors.

Means your disk is ok, literally.

Have you tried a 3rd party defrag (Smart Defrag is good) and see what happens with chkdsk.

[LenC]

Thanks, I will take a look at your defrag recommendation. You don't think the unused index entries are a problem?

[Keyboard_Commando]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831374/

I did a little bit of googling ... I presume you're on XP or Winserver, it only shows results for those two OS's.

I found a description that applies for winserve 2000. Also same for XP

-{ Quote: "After you restore or copy a lot of data and the NTFS file system security information that is associated with that data, Chkdsk.exe may report errors on the partition. This problem may occur even if you restore or copy the data to a partition that you know to be error-free. " }- from here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327009/)

For XP it was fixed in SP3 here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389/).

I haven't come across this before so I'm not entirely sure how you go about fixing it if you already have the latest Service Pack. Might find an answer/fix with some googling. I hate recommending reformats ... Googling usually comes up trumps.

[LenC]

Keyboard Commando -

Thank you for looking into this for me. I'll review your post more carefully when I am at home in front of my computer. I am running XP SP3, so I'm not sure this is applicable to me, but I do want to review it all.

Len

[LenC]

-{ Quote: "http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831374/

I did a little bit of googling ... I presume you're on XP or Winserver, it only shows results for those two OS's.

I found a description that applies for winserve 2000. Also same for XP

from here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327009/)

For XP it was fixed in SP3 here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389/).

I haven't come across this before so I'm not entirely sure how you go about fixing it if you already have the latest Service Pack. Might find an answer/fix with some googling. I hate recommending reformats ... Googling usually comes up trumps." }-

According to these articles, the fix to my problem is updating XP to SP3. I did that a long time ago - so that isn't my problem. Any other thoughts as to what might be causing these messages?

BTW, defraggler defragged the drive (windows defrag was unable to), so that problem has been resolved.

[Carver]

Can you do a chkdsk in safe mode, or does the error message change then it might be software related (programs). I recently had my own bought with chkdsk. The last error message I got said I had a kernal memmory leak, and since I got through a chkdsk in safe mode which is just basic systems and drivers so it had to be non-OS driver. So it might with you. BTW Before I got the kernal memory leake error I had installed the recovery console to replace the Boot .ini
-{ Quote: "Keyboard_Commando 0 KB in bad sectors.

Means your disk is ok, literally." }-
0 kb in Bad sectors is the bottom line....The best result you could hope for. Just to have visual proof that the HD is OK I also got http://www.hdtune.com/

[LenC]

When I run chkdsk, it is run when I reboot the computer. So I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting - to run it in safe mode. Maybe it's a silly question, but how would I do that?

[Keyboard_Commando]

Hi

-{ Quote: "When I run chkdsk, it is run when I reboot the computer. So I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting - to run it in safe mode. Maybe it's a silly question, but how would I do that?" }-

• Run in safe mode - (tap F8 at boot)
• Click Safe Mode with Command Prompt and press enter.
• when everything has finished the command window with c: prompt will appear
• type, chkdsk (chkdsk should run in normal boot), click enter ... this is a read only command so it should run without any warnings, but if you still get an error message write it down/screenshot.
• if you have any errors ... try chkdsk /f, to fix them. This should still run because safe mode is minimalist driver/applications mode.
• If it doesn't run, post your security applications/software ... there are some good PC audit programs here (http://www.techsupportalert.com/node/84) and post the list. It will give an idea of where to look for conflicts.

Hope that helps a bit.

[LenC]

-{ Quote: "Hi


Hope that helps a bit." }-

That helps a lot! Thanks for explaining - I'll do what you suggested.

Len

[Raza0007]

The logs you attached show that you have zero bad sectors so nothing is physically wrong with your hard disk.

Chkdsk errors that you are getting are software related. Possible causes:

1- You have a utility like rollback rx or eaz-fix installed. When I had rollback rx I used to get chkdsk errors every couple of days, chkdsk identified same sectors and indexes each time.

2- You are having problems with your page file, VM, hibernation file.

3- Your windows system files have developed a recurring corruption. Some times this happens. Only solution is to do a fresh clean install of windows.

If you are unable to run windows built-in chkdsk, get a partition manager and try to run disk check from there. Most good partition managers provide native disk checking capabilities. With a partition manager you also have the option to run a disk check booting outside of windows.

If you are concerned your hard drive is failing, get the diagnostic utility for your hard drive from the manufacturers website and run a drive health check. If your drive is failing that check will inform you.