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Old 10-04-2008, 05:08 AM   #1
dthomsen8
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Default WinXP Boot Chkdsk every time

Why would a WinXP Pro computer run chkdsk every time it boots? The chkdsk /f does not find anything to repair, yet the system insists on the time consuming scan every boot.
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Old 10-04-2008, 05:15 AM   #2
Robin Springall
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The hard disk (or, less likely the controller chip) is starting to fail. This problem is typically due to a sticky actuator motor, a faulty bearing, or a faulty platter motor, and is your wake-up call: ignore this at your peril, sir! Checkdisk may not find errors, because the drive is ony having difficulties when it's cold (at least, for now).

You absolutely must
1) Back up all your essential data now.
2) Clone the drive using Ghost or a similar application in the next day or so.

Modern drives are quite fault-tolerant, but the downside is that they only call for help when failure is imminent.

   
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Old 10-04-2008, 01:29 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin Springall View Post
The hard disk (or, less likely the controller chip) is starting to fail. This problem is typically due to a sticky actuator motor, a faulty bearing, or a faulty platter motor, and is your wake-up call: ignore this at your peril, sir! Checkdisk may not find errors, because the drive is ony having difficulties when it's cold (at least, for now).

You absolutely must
1) Back up all your essential data now.
2) Clone the drive using Ghost or a similar application in the next day or so.

Modern drives are quite fault-tolerant, but the downside is that they only call for help when failure is imminent.
This hard drive was new two weeks ago. The behavior is consistent, whether the drive is cold or running for hours. Something else must be going on.
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Old 10-04-2008, 06:04 PM   #4
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>> This hard drive was new two weeks ago.

There are two kinds of hardware manufacturers:

- Those that admit to shipping duds once in a while
- Liars

   
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Old 10-05-2008, 08:12 AM   #5
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Steve:

Can chkdsk.exe start on its own? It's a command-line thing, with lots of parameters. And how does chkdsk answer when it's checked everything it can?

   
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Old 10-05-2008, 09:24 AM   #6
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Steve:

Can chkdsk.exe start on its own? It's a command-line thing, with lots of parameters. And how does chkdsk answer when it's checked everything it can?
It can't start on its own, but it may get fired off by other processes that run during bootup.

I don't know how it feeds back results TO another process; programs can set exit codes that let a calling program pick up the results though. Perhaps it does this.

   
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Old 10-05-2008, 09:40 AM   #7
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Steve:

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It can't start on its own, but it may get fired off by other processes that run during bootup
In the dim and distant past, I used to have chkdsk in the autoexec.bat file; there's still an autoexec.bat file, but it doesn't do anything unless it's put there, but I have a vague idea that it is the first file that's dealt with after the boot process and before Windows is automatically initiated.

   
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Old 10-05-2008, 09:52 AM   #8
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Quote:
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This hard drive was new two weeks ago.
Did you change the drive because the previous one appeared faulty, or just because you wanted more disk space? If the former then yes, I agree that something else must be going on, probably with the drive controller; if the latter, then I expect you have a dodgy disk.

   
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Old 10-05-2008, 09:54 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Rindsberg View Post
>> This hard drive was new two weeks ago.

There are two kinds of hardware manufacturers:

- Those that admit to shipping duds once in a while
- Liars
Indeed. I once had a drive fail within one week - it happens. The store replaced it without even blinking. Service would've done it but it was faster to do the actual replacement myself. No problem on either of the two identical drives since then.

(It's my backup drives that are failing now! )

   
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Old 10-05-2008, 09:56 AM   #10
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Steve:

In the dim and distant past, I used to have chkdsk in the autoexec.bat file; there's still an autoexec.bat file, but it doesn't do anything unless it's put there, but I have a vague idea that it is the first file that's dealt with after the boot process and before Windows is automatically initiated.
Actually, Config.sys comes before that. But that's only in the DOS-based Windows versions (through WinME); none of the WinNT class use those files any more.

   
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