Backup Validation

I am running TI 9 on a four year old Dell (computer#1) with XP Home fully up to date. This is what happened and I'm hoping someone can explain it:

- I ran a full backup and, by default option, a validation of the new backup. My backups are stored on an external hard drive. The backup step worked fine. The validation ended with an error message:

Failed to read data from the disk.
A possible reason might be bad sectors on the disk.: None

- I ran chkdsk /f on the external hard drive - no errors.

- I reran the vaildation and got the same error message.

- I plugged the external hard drive into another computer (computer#2) with TI 9 on it. The validation ran successfully. And I was able to mount the backup.

- I then ran chkdsk c: /r on the original computer (computer#1) and got this message:
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.

- I reran the validation on computer#1 after the chkdsk and now that same tib file validates successfully.

Can anyone explain why a problem on my c drive affected (or seems to have affected) a validation of a file on an external drive? I've gotten these chkdsk errors before on my c drive; does that mean the drive might be failing?

Thank you!
Len

 

Did you look at the complete chkdsk log which is located as an entry in the Windows Event Viewer? You may find a bad sector report there.

The "fixes" you show shouldn't have any bearing on the validation, IMO. Bad sectors could since TI might use some of C for a work area but I'm not certain.

I wouldn't necessarily rule out coincidence. You may have some other issue such as marginal RAM which behaved itself when it validated successfully.

I wouldn't condemn the drive for the faults reported with chkdsk you listed since they are not uncommon. However, if bad sectors are reported then you should keep an eye on the drive. If more keep showing up after you've fixed them then the time has come to consider a new drive.

 

In fact, I would rerun chkdsk again just to make sure all the errors found were corrected.

For safety sake, I believe you should perform a new backup (plus validation) after the changes made by chkdsk.

 

Thank you for your comments.

There is no mention of bad sectors in the chkdsk report. However, I can't get a clean run of chkdsk. I've run it a few times and still get the warnings about the unused index entries and security descriptors. 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.

I don't want to press my luck if this hard drive is failing. I have no problem replacing it if necessary.

Here are 2 chkdsk reports. #1 is right after the failed image yesterday. #2 is from this morning after a couple of chkdsk runs.

Thanks,
Len

#1) Right after the failed image:
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.

 

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.

I then ran chkdsk and got the same messages as before that it was cleaning up unused indexing entries.

 

It sounds more like the disk isn't working correctly. do yo have a spare you can swap in to try? If a system disk, try cloning then swapping.

 

Thanks Shieber. I don't have a spare, but I think I'll get one - always good to have. You mention doing a clone. Is that better than doing an image restore?

 

LenC,
You may find this of interest.

Clone or Restore using Resize comparison
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299861&postcount=9

 

Geat advice - thank you very much!