chkdsk runs automatically

This may sound like a scheduling issue and in fact it may be as Task scheduler is set to automatic.

My problem is that a few weeks after installing XP I reboot and chkdsk keeps wanting to run. I have no choice but to allow it and then it deletes thousands of files. I can access the drive via my other IDE drive and after chkdsk has run on my SATA2 drive there's very little left on it. I have to reformat and start again.

I run the ASrock board with a single IDE 80GB drive and a single SATA2 drive. I doubt the problem lies with my mobo.

So I would like to know if any one has any information on this. Perhaps I need more XP updates as I only SP2 installed? Perhaps it's task scheduler perhaps a virus?

sounds like the drive may be going bad..

Get the tools from the manufacturer of that drive and test it using them.

It's a Maxtor. I've only had it a few months ..

I honestly don't remember this happening before so I think it might be something I've downloaded, a virus or trojan. Is a virus or trojan capable of doing this?

I've run HDTune and there's no errors on it and the health window says all is OK. Tried to run Maxtors disk DOS check program too but it didn't find my SATA2 only my ATA133 so I couldn't use it!

Try this:

1. Click on the Start menu and open the run dialog.
2. Type "cmd" and return (without quotes)
3. Next type "fsutil dirty query <letter of drive that ckdsk keeps checking>" (for example, C
4. If the returned message indicates that the volume is dirty, go to step 5
5. Next type "chkdsk <drive letter> /f /x"
6. After that finishes, repeat step 3.
7. If the volume is no longer dirty, reboot and chkdsk should not reappear.

It says it's not dirty. The problem is that it's running perfectly and then for no reason at all it runs chkdsk. Once it does that, that's it the OS is gone.

I have another drive. The first time this happened I loaded my IDE drive and I could access the SATA2 and then copy some files onto my IDE. But it would not load the SATA2 OS. Said something like hal.dll missing so I reformatted. Also when I load the IDE OS the SATA2 drive letter changed from D: to F:!

The second time it happened it deleted just about every thing. Again it changed the drive letter to F: and said hal.dll missing. Obvioulsy if there were no files there it isn't going to load.

It deletes the files after chkdsk has run and I thought I might as well run it becasue it's not letting me do anything else.

I've now got SP2 fully updated to February as before I only had SP2 installed. Didn't realize there were so many updates after SP2. And I'm going to be more careful about what I download and install. So fingers crossed this OS will last.

Surely it's a virus or trojan?

grab the SW to test the drive from Maxtor. I have seen this multiple times over the past few years at work and usually the drive is failing.

OK I managed to get the Maxotr/Seagate utility to work by switching the SATA mode in the bios to IDE. It then recognized my SATA2 drive. Ran the full test which took about 30 minutes and there's no errors - even said congratulations test passed.

So it looks like my drive is OK and I've not seen any problems like this specific to this mobo. I'm going to lie low and do very little with my OS for the next few weeks and see if it happens again. If it does I'll look for anew drive ..

try totally wiping the drive, do a low level format on it and then reformat it and use it.

On NTFS formatted hdds, you need to run scandisk not chkdsk to fix data corruption errors.

Adragontattoo said:

try totally wiping the drive, do a low level format on it and then reformat it and use it.

Click to expand...

Yes I can do that if it happens again, I'm not going to reformat just yet though.

There's Maxblast4 and Powermax. Both seem to be able to format a drive but Maxblast4 looks like it does the job specifically whereas Powermax has diagnostic tools too.

Can it really make the difference though? If it happens again I don't know if I can be bothered testing to see if it works or not as this would be the third time it's happened and it's more than likely going to happen again.

I'm not sure what I'll do if it happens again! When I first bought the drive I created a single partition using the winXP setup options. It worked great for many months, I'm sure it's a virus or trojan.

These programs that Maxtor provide, why isn't it made mandatory to use them if they are necessary?

I think scandisk and chkdsk are the same thing, only chkdsk is the DOS name for it.

Neur0mancer said:

On NTFS formatted hdds, you need to run scandisk not chkdsk to fix data corruption errors.

Click to expand...

I believe you may have this reversed. The command prompt used to check NTFS volumes is chkdsk, while scandisk was used under DOS and Win98.

Also, please note that all NT-based Windows operating systems, including Win2K, XP and Vista do not use DOS. Similar functionality, however, is provided by the command line interface.

hafa said:

I believe you may have this reversed. The command prompt used to check NTFS volumes is chkdsk, while scandisk was used under DOS and Win98.

Click to expand...

Hmm well recently when I was having HDD troubles (it was a dying hdd) chkdsk ran at every boot of XP. I ran Scandisk and it did the samething as chkdsk except it actually repaired the bad sectors instead of just saying it did so.

That was why I said scandisk for NTFS (scan disk can run in DOS but you need to load himem)

So can scandisk fix a dying drive?

It happened again this morning. This time it booted into XP once and then after a reboot all I got was a blue screen! My system is rock stable and I've checked all voltages for my volt mods and they're fine.

I think the drive died. I only had it about 6 months. The only thing I can think of that might have damaged it is I did a sense wire mod on my 12V rail and I set it to 12.20V. Perhaps the regulator on the drive failed. Anyhow, I've now got my 12V set to 12.07V which ought to be fine.

I bought another Barracuda except with exactly the same specs except the circuitry on this one looks different and it's a lot lighter. Fingers crossed it will last a good few years. Thanks for your help BTW, I've never experienced a drive failing before but now I know and also I've learnt that making regular CD backups is essential.