Problem with Scandisk and XP - please read

I'm having a bit of a problem with my computer. My disk detected a couple of bad sectors a while ago, and since then I've been scanning the disk to see if the number of damaged sectors increases (it hasn't).

Anyway, I was running Scandisk (on Windows XP), and when I did it I got the usual message saying that "scandisk needs exclusive access to the disk", and then it asks me if I want to schedule the scan for the next time the computer re-starts, which I always choose yes. If everything was as usual, the computer would re-start, and before XP loads the "scheduled" scan would take place.
The thing is when I now re-start, it doesn't scan my disk (it says it needs full access to the volume, even though the OS still hasn't fully started), and then it enters Windows. The thing is this process is atempted each time the computer is started or re-started, and neither have I managed to stop this from happening (it doesn't appear in the scheduled tasks list, so I could remove it), and neither has it actually scanned the disk.

Anyone has any idea of what can be causing this, or knows any solution to this?

I'm using Win XP fully updated, and I have used Norton Antivirus, TDS-3, and Ad-Aware to see if I had any trojan/virus/etc, but nothing is detected.
I didn't change any setting, so I don't understand what could be causing this lack of "full acess" to the disk.

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Please check your Event Viewer. Please look at your Application and System Logs for anything unusual. Also, please look in your device manager for any problems. Make sure that you check the “Show hidden devices” from the View menu.

If you do not find any problems, then enter CMD at the Run prompt. When the DOS prompt comes up, enter “chkdsk /f”. Restart the system and CHKDSK will run at startup. Come back here and let us know what happens.

Close Hauled

 

Hi Funktion

... and welcome to Wilders

The following links may be of interest and help with your issue:

Chkdsk.exe or Autochk.exe starts when you try to shut down or restart your computer

How to Locate and Correct Disk Space Problems on NTFS Volumes in Windows XP

Regards,

CrazyM

 

If you have done everything else and you still get inconsistant performance you might want to test the hard drive with programs that the various manufacturers make available at their websites. (for instance Maxtor, or Hitachi)

- HandsOff

 

Thanks for your replies.

se_Hauled:
-I had already checked the logs at the Event Viewer, and there's nothing different from before, nothing unusual
-Regarding using chkdsk /f at CMD the same thing happens, it keeps saying, when it re-starts, that it can't have full acess to the volume.

CrazyM:
-I've checked those docs, but it didn't work. The only problem the disk apparently has is 4kb of bad sectors (they were already there; that's the reason I used the scandisk in the first place, to see if the number had increased). I've checked the registry like one of those docs suggested, but it didn't help.

HandsOff:
The disk has a great performance (the only difference is that it takes just a little more to re-start, because it tries to run scandisk, it fails, and then continues). No complains there.

----------

I really don't understand why this doesn't stop. It's not a huge problem (my computer runs fine), it's just that I'm unable to stop scandisk from starting everytime the computer re-starts, because it attempts to make the scan I scheduled without sucess, and I can't use the "correct errors" option of scandisk because of this lack of full acess to the "volume" of the disk, which is strange because if the scandisk runs before the OS fully starts, it should have full access.

 

Hi -

for a long while i have been using "Perfect Disk" to do this. I only remember using: start, run, cmd, chkdsk /f

i found some notes though when i was trying to figure it out. don't know where they came from though but:

CHKDSK has to be run "offline" so that it has access to files that XP controls while XP is running. checks of non system files and folders can be made but not system file, page file, free-space checking and full file integrety check. The chkdsk command is given at the CLI, and if it cannot be filled while xp is running it is scheduled to take place during the next reboot. These are my best guesses of what the swiches mean.

CHKDSK (no switch): this is a "read only check", and no changes or corrections will be written to
the disk. This is apparently pretty superficial because the more in depth check very often finds errors after the read only check found nothing.

CHKDSK /F: Will schedule hard drive to be inspected for errors and "Fix" any errors that were
found if CHKDSK read only found an "orphaned" cluster or something. At least it tries.

CHKDSK /R: Is a much more lenthy check, as CHKDSK tries to "Restore" the broken data chain back to a cohesive unit. It runs 5 "Verification Checks":

1 of 5: File Identification
2 of 5: Index
3 of 5: Security Descriptors..."data type collelation maybe...checksum"?
4 of 5: File Data ...
5 of 5: Free Space: This is the slowest of the tests.

-They would have you believe it is "looking" for "damaged" sectors on the disk. The fact is it would already know most likely if there were because the hard drives internal logic would have automatically marked it. i wonder if this stage is for recovering orphaned data?
-Some say you needn't waste time on free space check.
-What is the long format doing that allows for both Free Space Checking, and File Compression. My guess is some sort of direct mapping or numbering of clusters. would explain why a) they use smaller cluster size than FAT-32, and b) why it is so criticle that the cluster size be "default", i.e. 4kb.

also, perfect disk can be scheduled to run at start up, even though i have disabled XP's "scheduler". don't know but maybe you scheduled a repair with some other app you know long use?

well if you run chkdsk /f, or chkdsk /r , maybe it will fix something.

-HandsOff

(or run out and buy perfect disk!)

 

These links may help:

Google Answers: Startup, Checkdisk, and dirty bit

Modifying the Autocheck Time-out Value

Nick