CHKDSK cannot check C: Drive on bootup (XP)

[Anarchi]

I cannot get CHKDSK to check C: drive when XP boots.

Basically, AUTOCHK is ignoring C: drive


I have tried:
* chkdsk c: /f (windows says C: is locked and will check C: upon reboot)
* chkntfs c: /c (to schedule a check on C: upon reboot)
* chkntfs /d (to return to default behavior, i.e. all disks are checked on boot)
* CheckDisk in MyComputer (it says it needs access to c: and will check C: on reboot)
* Safe Mode (It doesnt check C:, Windows reboots before entering the desktop)



If I schedule chkdsk to check D: and E: drive on reboot, it works ok! For some reason it wont ever check C:


I had Vista dual booting on a separate partition on the same HDD, so I blew that away by running FIXBOOT from the recovery tools from the XP CD. This blew away the Vista OS select menu, and now XP boots straight away like normal.


If I run chkdsk on the XP partition using Vista or with the XP CD recovery tools, that works ok. But straight after doing this, I go into XP and run chkdsk c: to check for errors (read only), it still finds errors!

I have done a surface scan on the HDD, there are no bad sectors. Its a fairly new drive.

If I boot Vista, it automatically makes its partition as C: and sets the XP partition as drive E: (as expected). Chkdsk works fine on C: in Vista on bootup.



My HDD setup:

SATA1 = 200GB HDD (XP on the 1st partition, Vista on the second partition, a third partition for data)
SATA2 = another HDD used for data storage
SATA3 = DVDRW drive



The XP installation is considerably fresh, the only apps I have that would possibly interfere are McAfee and SpyBot. But on my previous XP installation (on the same PC), I had these programs installed and chkdsk was working fine. Plus Ive cleared SpyBots blocklist just in case it was blocking the registry entry for chkdsk. Just before rebooting (after scheduling chkdsk), Ive double checked the registry entry using regedit, and the command (seen in the image below) is valid/correct.

When I reboot the PC after scheduling chkdsk, SpyBot detects this change, which I allow:








I'm almost at the point of reinstalling XP (which I really dont want to do for another 6 months) since I cannot fix the errors.


Any ideas? Why does AUTOCHK ignore C: drive?

[CommandrX]

Uninstall Spybot and then see if you are able to get chkdsk to autorun on drive c:. I see no other reason on a some what fresh install for it to ignore running chkdsk.

[Anarchi]

Hmm I doubt Spybot is causing it since it allows the registry changes. I'll try it anyway, you never know sometimes

[Gorganzola]

Boot to the recovery console and run chkdsk /r.

[zapionics<alt>]

Do you have Rescue and Recovery installed?

[Anarchi]

Originally Posted by CommandrX

Uninstall Spybot and then see if you are able to get chkdsk to autorun on drive c:. I see no other reason on a some what fresh install for it to ignore running chkdsk.

I uninstalled Spybot, AUTOCHK still wont check C: Drive.

Originally Posted by Gorganzola

Boot to the recovery console and run chkdsk /r.

Ive tried that. chkdsk does run from the recovery console. There are no bad sectors.

Originally Posted by zapionics<alt>

Do you have Rescue and Recovery installed?

I dont have anything like that installed, such as norton goback, 3rd party disk checkers, defragger, etc..


The only system-related software installed is McAfee which I also have installed on another PC (exactly the same version and configuration) and chkdsk runs fine on bootup.

[Rickwell]

Get a bigger hammer.I have chkdsk not work sometimes to.But I just go back and make a second run at it.I do it through My Computer.I do the second try before I do anything else and it works.Maybe you can try that if haven't already.Good Luck

[Anarchi]

I can run check disk in MyComputer many times, no problems. The problem is that Check Disk doesnt tell you if there are errors and just says "Check Disk has completed". If I tick "Fix errors", it wants to schedule a chkdsk on bootup, which doesnt work.

I cannot enter Safe Mood since it reboots before the desktop, so something fishy is happening. Perhaps I should just reinstall XP

[Rickwell]

Originally Posted by Anarchi

I can run check disk in MyComputer many times, no problems. The problem is that Check Disk doesnt tell you if there are errors and just says "Check Disk has completed". If I tick "Fix errors", it wants to schedule a chkdsk on bootup, which doesnt work.

I cannot enter Safe Mood since it reboots before the desktop, so something fishy is happening. Perhaps I should just reinstall XP

Well that's what you should do is tick the fix box.I always do that.You can see what happened in the event viewer.Are you doing the fix box only?Or both boxes?You also shouldn't have to run it in safe mode.
I sometimes install TuneUp Utilities 2008 and run check disk from there.Never had it fail.You can download a 30 day trial.

[Anarchi]

Ive tried both, ticked and unticked. When its ticked, it wont run (because C: is currently used by Windows) and schedules a chkdsk on reboot.

I might give TuneUp a try

[Gorganzola]

I'm confused by the fact that it doesn't find any errors in recovery console, but it seems to find errors to fix the way you are trying to do it.

[Anarchi]

Originally Posted by Gorganzola

I'm confused by the fact that it doesn't find any errors in recovery console, but it seems to find errors to fix the way you are trying to do it.

The Recovery Console does find errors and fixes them. It doesn't find any bad sectors though.


The strange thing is, when the Recovery Console or Vista fixes the errors, running CHKDSK in readonly mode (when back in XP) still finds errors.

[Anarchi]

Ok I downloaded TuneUp 2008 and ran the Disk Checker. It found no errors.

I then opened a command prompt and ran "CHKDSK C:", it found errors:


Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.


I then ran CHKDSK in BartPE, it found no errors.


I then booted back into XP, CHKDS found errors again.



Now I'm really confused lol
Sounds like CHKDSK has a bug :eek:

[Anarchi]

For those with XP SP2 or SP3, what is the size of your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CHKDSK.EXE file?


Mine is 11,776 Bytes, timestamped 18/08/2001 12:00PM

[Gorganzola]

There was an article once before about CHKDSK giving false error reports but I can't recall where I saw it. If your machine is running fine and you get no errors in the recovery console, I wouldn't worry about it.

Annoyances.org - Problem solved - System Restore causing false chkdsk errors! (Windows XP Discussion Forum)

That might be worth reading too.