Can't defragment: CHKDSK scheduled to run on next bootup

I can't defragment the hard drive I use exclusively for TI backups. I get a message that CHKDSK is scheduled to run at the next bootup either because the user has scheduled it or because the system has detected errors in the disk. There is no CHKDSK check scheduled under Scheduled Tasks. I have Windows XP Pro and TI 9. The disk is an external USB 2 hard drive. Any help would be appreciated. The TI backups appear to work fine.

Ken

 

This sounds something I experienced ...when I CANCELED the HD from Defragging before. You have no choice but to run "Chkdsk" on this drive.

Turn off the External, and Restart your computer. Then, after Windows boots up, ..turn on the External.
Click on Start, then Run. Type in "Chkdsk_X:_/R" (Underscores being Spaces, and X being the drive letter of your HD). Let the Chkdsk run on your External.

 

Many thanks; that worked just grate.

Not that defragmenting did much for the drive even though there were some 130 incremental backups: Diskkeeper 9 reported that fragmentation was degrading performance of the drive, but did not report any reduction in the time to read the files, and the message regarding degraded performance re-appeared on re-analysis of the drive after defragmenting. Do you know if this is perhaps a characteristic of Acronis backup drives?

I don't actually expect a Yes answer; I think that the real reason - strangely not mentioned by Diskkeeper - is that the drive was too full (99%) to be effectively defragmented. I seem to recall that 15% free space is needed for a fully effective defrag.

Ken

 

Sorry "great" not "grate".

 

With that many incrementals on your backup drive I hope you never have to run a restore. Even if you have a modest amont of data it will take forever ! If the drive is formatted in NTFS and you have to run the restore it will take 3 to 4 times forever.
Best practice is to make a sequence of full backups interspersed with a few incrementals, but as they say each to his own.

Xpilot

 

Not sure why, but Acronis Backup Image files will show "RED" (Fragmented) ... AFTER writing Images to the Drive, and then running Windows Defrag.
But however, after running Defrag a couple times, it usually shows "BLUE" or Defragmented.

 

Hi, XPilot

Even with 20 GB of files on the system hard drive and 8 GB on a data hard drive (I don't do daily backups of another data hard drive with 64 GB) backed up to an external USB 2 hard drive, restoring is quite quick - if I remember correctly about 20 - 25 minutes if both backups are image backups. It takes considerably longer - I'm not sure how long - if the backup of the data drive is a folders and files backup. This is without Verification, which can take hours. Restoring backups made to a removable SATA II hard drive is of course quicker.

But I take your point that more frequent full backups make sense and I plan to do so from now on. Thanks for the tip. But can one automate the making, at whatever intervals one wants, of a new full backup with incremental backups thereafter? Also, one presumably can't automate the termination of the existing incremental backup. Both actions would seem to require manual intervention, with the likelihood of irregular performance.

Ken

 

Hi, Starsfan09

Thanks for the addtional information. I tried running Diskkeeper several times on each drive and it did reach 100% defragmentation on each of the other three drives but not on the Acronis backup drive. I'm pretty sure though that this is a simply the result of the drive being too full. I'll try again when I've deleted a lot of what's currently on the disk.

Ken

 

I am glad that it is quicker than I feared though I was factoring in running validations.

I am not the one to come up with backup schedule schemes as I only use full images and schedule these to the secure zone so they are fully automated and like Sh..t they just happen.