Chkdsk - "Windows was unable to complete the disk check" stuck on phase 2

[esbo]

This is very similar to my problem sounds exactly the same.

It's from this link.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/mic...able-complete-disk-check-stuck-phase-2-a.html


Seems like the guy has some success.

"Hmmmm? I just cleared the cache, cookies, etc on firefox which is the default browser I use. Clicked scan disk and it completed pass phase 3."

(annoying the confusion between scandic and chksdk?)

 

[esbo]

Wow I have had chkdsk running for ages and it has got further than ever it seems.

Before it never got past 2 green blobs.

OK now it has green blobs all the way to the end of the progress bar then it says..

"Windows was unable to complete the disk check"

This is an example

FRom here
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc938973.aspx

Following is an example Chkdsk report from an NTFS volume:

The type of the file system is NTFS.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...

File verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...

Index verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...

Security descriptor verification completed.

Windows has checked the file system and found no problem.

4096543 KB total disk space.

639500 KB in 3206 files.

692 KB in 113 indexes.

0 KB in bad sectors.

26427 KB in use by the system.

22544 KB occupied by the log file.

3429924 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

1024135 total allocation units on disk.

857481 allocation units available on disk.


SO it does no seem to have ran phase 3 but it reported no problem on stages 1 and 2?



I am not experiencing any problems other than the fact chkdsk will not complete

 

[ruready2]

Sounds like a failing hard drive. Back-up all your data immediately. Check your hard drive manufacturer's website for a diagnostic tool. If none is available use Seagate's Seatools. You can download either the ISO version and boot from the disc or you can use the windows version and run the test while logged on. My experience is that I have better luck with the iso in repairing bad sectors. Rarely, however, are the ever repaired.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

 

[esbo]

Sounds like a failing hard drive. Back-up all your data immediately. Check your hard drive manufacturer's website for a diagnostic tool. If none is available use Seagate's Seatools. You can download either the ISO version and boot from the disc or you can use the windows version and run the test while logged on. My experience is that I have better luck with the iso in repairing bad sectors. Rarely, however, are the ever repaired.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

Well if it is a failing hard drive it has been failing for about 5 years with no manifestation of the problem whatsoever.

I will refer you to this thread.
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic150127.html

It is Hitachi.
I have tried to used their drive tool but I cannot get it to work.

This is the user manual.
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/downloads/FTool_User_Guide_215.pdf

I do not have a floppy drive. (might get one).

So not much I can do at moment so it is a nusiance, I have to stop it running by rebooting
cos it takes ages and I think it may not complete.

I will try it overnight.

fsutil reports C as dirty.

This is no surprise as I got quite a lot of reboots when I had bad ram.

I have good ram now so the problem should not get worse, I am very sure the bad ram has
lets some file in a bad state however it does not appear to affect my computers usage.
IT runs fine otherwise.

Chance are the bad file is unimportant and it maybe a temporary internet file.

I read someone could get chkdsk to run by clearing temporary internet files.

I mean it is unlike a important system file was being written during a reboot?

I may have to put in a fake chkdsk file to make sure it does not run.

I wonder is deleting temporary files will help and stop chkdsk running?

I feel confident my drive is basically OK, chkdsk has never ran properly on my system and I have had years of trouble free use (apart from when I had the bad ram in, the bad ram is going back to the retailer and not back in my machine!!.


Sometime the chkdsk has done a repair on pass one but I don't think it ever gets past pass two without complaining.

I have just reread your post and I will try seagates tools.

Thanks for that!

As I see it basically a file was being written and it rebooted, thus the computer has a bit set somewhere to say the write operation was not complete?

 

[ruready2]

I have read and posted to the other topic. I would strongly advise you not to continue running check disk on the drive. You state it has been running fine for 5 years but, honestly,., what does that mean?? That it cannot fail now?? Are you telling me that it has never completed chkdsk? Take a look at the fragmentation of the files. This could be the problem. But, not likely.

 

[esbo]

I have read and posted to the other topic. I would strongly advise you not to continue running check disk on the drive. You state it has been running fine for 5 years but, honestly,., what does that mean?? That it cannot fail now?? Are you telling me that it has never completed chkdsk? Take a look at the fragmentation of the files. This could be the problem. But, not likely.

That my drive has been running for 5 years with out problem tell me something very clearly
- THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE DRIVE.

Do the maths, the chances of the drive writing million of files without ever even a hint of a problem tell me either I am the luckiest man on the planet or my drive is good.

My gambling experience tells me l am not particularly lucky!!

So I plump for the latter option.

Yes there may be a file or two which were not written correctly but I have not found them yet.

Chances are they were temporary internet files.

Yes chkdsk has never completed correctly in man years.

Bottom line is my computer is running fine, there is a chance I could make it worse trying to fix it!!

 

[ruready2]

Ok then.. Since you know there is nothing wrong with the drive I have no further advice. My drive always finishes chkdsk. And if it doesn't.. I back up immediately, 20 years of tech has taught me a few things anyway.

Best regards.

 

[esbo]

Ok then.. Since you know there is nothing wrong with the drive I have no further advice. My drive always finishes chkdsk. And if it doesn't.. I back up immediately, 20 years of tech has taught me a few things anyway.

Best regards.

I do not believe it has a mechanical fault.

I have an old back up of some stuff.
20 years of computer use tells me the drive is not failing.
If it has done 200 million ops with out a problem it will manage a few more before it gets serious.
It's not ergonomical to back up.
Yes the bad memory may have left some duff data but it's proven non-essential for normal operation.

I have better things to do than spend 6 years backing up given it takes over a day to back up to my USB drive hence, The computers entire life would have been spent backing up hence I would need a new computer anyway whilst the old one was 'backing up' due to the chkdsk problem I cannot fix!!

All that backing up would have probably worn the drive out by now anyway!! (thus proving it was failing - lol)

 

[superty12]

3 things

20 years of computer use tells me the drive is not failing.

That is plenty of time for a drive to fail. It is amazing that your drive didn't fail during that time.

I have better things to do than spend 6 years backing up

Don't do it every day.

given it takes over a day to back up to my USB drive

Put everything in a folder and backup to the drive overnight. It takes less time and your usage of the computer is just a little (if all) affected.

 

[esbo]

That is plenty of time for a drive to fail. It is amazing that your drive didn't fail during that time.
Don't do it every day.

Put everything in a folder and backup to the drive overnight. It takes less time and your usage of the computer is just a little (if all) affected.

I think a drive can last 10 years easy.
I have only had one drive fail and that was one which was unused for many years.
It was working when I stopped using the computer.
If chkdsk would not complete it would report the error every boot-up.

Takes ages to back up via USB.

Anyway I deleted as many temporary files as I could find from firefox IE and Chrome when I ran chkdsk over night, it had booted up in the morning.

I don;t know if it found anything I don;t think it leaves a log?

However I did a "fsutil dirty query C:" and it reported the drive was not dirty.

So all appears fine now?

I would try another chkdsk but I have the virus scanner running which also takes ages
and I would like to let it finish, however it takes so long I usually abort it.
I will leave it running for now, it might be a bit quicker now I have X2 processor.


OK I found the log, no major problems and there are no bad sectors, so I
doubt the drive is failing!!



One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You
may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended
that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Index entry PPC047~1.JPG of index $I30 in file 0x37c4d points to unused file 0x2157c.
Deleting index entry PPC047~1.JPG in index $I30 of file 228429.
Index entry pp_gradyface_1b8aeeaaa006f0663de471e85ca08884.jpg of index $I30 in file 0x37c4d points to unused file 0x2157c.
Deleting index entry pp_gradyface_1b8aeeaaa006f0663de471e85ca08884.jpg in index $I30 of file 228429.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 2598 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2598 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2598 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

71850239 KB total disk space.
42884964 KB in 554953 files.
393272 KB in 18102 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
868199 KB in use by the system.
4096 KB occupied by the log file.
27703804 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
17962559 total allocation units on disk.
6925951 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
60 81 0b 00 89 be 08 00 36 b5 0f 00 00 00 00 00 `.......6.......
50 a5 06 00 02 00 00 00 33 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 P.......3.......
a4 7c 7b 36 00 00 00 00 04 a1 f9 fe 25 00 00 00 .|{6........%...
84 98 7e 78 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..~x............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 7a d9 4f c7 26 00 00 00 ........z.O.&...
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 90 36 08 00 c9 77 08 00 ..6......6...w..
00 00 00 00 00 90 7d 39 0a 00 00 00 b6 46 00 00 ......}9.....F..

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[DelJo63]

google for Everest Home and get a copy.

install and run it

look for the HD S.M.A.R.T. information; it will tell you the condition of the drive.

[edit] btw: it's under Storage (duh) [/edit]

 

[ruready2]

I think a drive can last 10 years easy.
I have only had one drive fail and that was one which was unused for many years.
It was working when I stopped using the computer.
If chkdsk would not complete it would report the error every boot-up.

Takes ages to back up via USB.

Anyway I deleted as many temporary files as I could find from firefox IE and Chrome when I ran chkdsk over night, it had booted up in the morning.

I don;t know if it found anything I don;t think it leaves a log?

However I did a "fsutil dirty query C:" and it reported the drive was not dirty.

So all appears fine now?

I would try another chkdsk but I have the virus scanner running which also takes ages
and I would like to let it finish, however it takes so long I usually abort it.
I will leave it running for now, it might be a bit quicker now I have X2 processor.


OK I found the log, no major problems and there are no bad sectors, so I
doubt the drive is failing!!



One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You
may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended
that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Index entry PPC047~1.JPG of index $I30 in file 0x37c4d points to unused file 0x2157c.
Deleting index entry PPC047~1.JPG in index $I30 of file 228429.
Index entry pp_gradyface_1b8aeeaaa006f0663de471e85ca08884.jpg of index $I30 in file 0x37c4d points to unused file 0x2157c.
Deleting index entry pp_gradyface_1b8aeeaaa006f0663de471e85ca08884.jpg in index $I30 of file 228429.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 2598 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2598 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2598 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

71850239 KB total disk space.
42884964 KB in 554953 files.
393272 KB in 18102 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
868199 KB in use by the system.
4096 KB occupied by the log file.
27703804 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
17962559 total allocation units on disk.
6925951 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
60 81 0b 00 89 be 08 00 36 b5 0f 00 00 00 00 00 `.......6.......
50 a5 06 00 02 00 00 00 33 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 P.......3.......
a4 7c 7b 36 00 00 00 00 04 a1 f9 fe 25 00 00 00 .|{6........%...
84 98 7e 78 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..~x............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 7a d9 4f c7 26 00 00 00 ........z.O.&...
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 90 36 08 00 c9 77 08 00 ..6......6...w..
00 00 00 00 00 90 7d 39 0a 00 00 00 b6 46 00 00 ......}9.....F..

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

This is nothing more than a file check. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not the drive has bad sectors.

 

[DelJo63]

So all appears fine now?

NO!

One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You
may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended
that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Index entry PPC047~1.JPG of index $I30 in file 0x37c4d points to unused file 0x2157c.
Deleting index entry PPC047~1.JPG in index $I30 of file 228429.
Index entry pp_gradyface_1b8aeeaaa006f0663de471e85ca08884.jpg of index $I30 in file 0x37c4d points to unused file 0x2157c.
Deleting index entry pp_gradyface_1b8aeeaaa006f0663de471e85ca08884.jpg in index $I30 of file 228429.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 2598 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2598 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2598 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

NOW it's consistent. Loss of Indicies can create issues for data integrity.
The PPC047~1.JPG can not be critical, but if that was a file belonging to an accounting system, you could have nasty loss of data.

NTFS seldomly does this like FAT32 was known to do, so you've experienced some previous hank-up where the only thing left you could do was to power-off.

If that every happens, always run CHKDSK /F /R immediately upon restart to reduce
possible data losses.

 

[esbo]

This is nothing more than a file check. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not the drive has bad sectors.

Apart from where it reports bad sectors.

It reports no bad sectors because it has no bad sectors!!!


It would not be reporting no bad sectors if they drive had bad sectors would it?

 

[esbo]

This is nothing more than a file check. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not the drive has bad sectors.

Apart from where it reports no bad sectors!

It reports no bad sectors because it has no bad sectors!!!


It would not be reporting no bad sectors if they drive had bad sectors would it?

Any way as I have tried to indicate I have had years of trouble free use, when using million upon millions of files, I have millions upon million of poker hand history files, never had a problem with any of them, million of cookies and temporary internet files, ,never had a problem with them.

All my software works all my hardware works,
I have recorded days and days worth of video as I use the drive as a hard drive recorder
Never had any problem with any of those files either.
Basically there is no indication whatsoever of any problem or data loss.

I mean if you had been using your computer for many years with no problems it is
rather hard to conclude you have bad a harddrive!

Yes I would expect the reboots caused by the bad memory to cause some minor problems, mainly with temporary files, I would be surprised if it did not. however there
is no indication that there is a problem with my drive.

Basically everything works.

If I find a file that appears to be corrupted I will report it here however I don't expect to be doing that anytime in the near future!!

I have had no reboots during upgrades so I am not expecting any problem, even if I had I would expect the upgrade software to redo the upgrade as it should be
marked as incomplete.

 

[Zilpha]

Esbo, it sounds to me like you are unwilling to accept the fact that your hard drive might just have physical issues. When I read your OP and the symptoms, I too immediately thought "Physical issues".

The best advice given is to immediately take the important information you have on the drive, back it up somewhere else, and replace the drive. 5 years is a good run for a piece of hardware, and usually that's about how long a manufacturer will warranty it for.

If you are unwilling to accept the obvious answer, then there is nothing anyone here can do for you. Shouting that "There is nothing wrong with the drive" when clearly there is, will not help you at all.

 

[DelJo63]

My last comment was drawing attention that there are other issues than just bad sectors.
It is possible to have zero bad sectors and yet have a filesystem so scrambled that your system is virtually useless.

A bad sector is the easiest of all thinks to find and fix; it's the raw media itself.

A clustor, index, or MFT that is inconsistent (although no bad sectors) can cause you much more significant grief.

The MBTF of HD's is highly variable. Don't assume that age has anything to do with reliability or consistency of the data.

Wishing only good things for PC users everywhere :wave:

 

[esbo]

Esbo, it sounds to me like you are unwilling to accept the fact that your hard drive might just have physical issues. When I read your OP and the symptoms, I too immediately thought "Physical issues".

The best advice given is to immediately take the important information you have on the drive, back it up somewhere else, and replace the drive. 5 years is a good run for a piece of hardware, and usually that's about how long a manufacturer will warranty it for.

If you are unwilling to accept the obvious answer, then there is nothing anyone here can do for you. Shouting that "There is nothing wrong with the drive" when clearly there is, will not help you at all.

Yes but how would I know my brand new system had no problems
if there were no reported problems as with mine?

Shouting there is somethign wrong with the drive when there clearly is not and you have
no evidence to support your view is silly.

My last comment was drawing attention that there are other issues than just bad sectors.
It is possible to have zero bad sectors and yet have a filesystem so scrambled that your system is virtually useless.

A bad sector is the easiest of all thinks to find and fix; it's the raw media itself.

A clustor, index, or MFT that is inconsistent (although no bad sectors) can cause you much more significant grief.

The MBTF of HD's is highly variable. Don't assume that age has anything to do with reliability or consistency of the data.

Wishing only good things for PC users everywhere :wave:

Well my drive is so far from 'virtually useless' it would be indistinguishable from a new one.

This is a paranoid view, my drive is in excellent shape!!!

SO until someone can prove otherwise I see no reason to take any action.

No crashes = no problem.

 

[DelJo63]

recall, YOU were the original poster with the question(s).

yes, you may not have an issue at this moment, and those making responses to your questions
are trying to give some insight to data that you provide.

don't shoot the messenger when you don't understand how to evaluate the information.

just so you don't inflame me or coversely, don't expect further replies, here or elsewere.

 

[esbo]

recall, YOU were the original poster with the question(s).

yes, you may not have an issue at this moment, and those making responses to your questions
are trying to give some insight to data that you provide.

don't shoot the messenger when you don't understand how to evaluate the information.

just so you don't inflame me or coversely, don't expect further replies, here or elsewere.

Well fine, I appreciate peoples input but when they tell me my drive is failing I think the onus is on them to provide some credible reasoning as to why that should be the case.

I mean when I have just run a check disk and it comes back with no bad sectors I think be told this 'sounds like a failing harddrive' sounds somewhat unlikely.
Maybe that was because they had not read I had posted about the history of the problem.

 

[ruready2]

Well fine, I appreciate peoples input but when they tell me my drive is failing I think the onus is on them to provide some credible reasoning as to why that should be the case.

I mean when I have just run a check disk and it comes back with no bad sectors I think be told this 'sounds like a failing harddrive' sounds somewhat unlikely.
Maybe that was because they had not read I had posted about the history of the problem.

I read everything you posted. In both topics you created regarding this issue I might add. And at no point in time does the burden of proof shift nor fall upon anyone who offers you advice. I know of no one here who gets paid to offer advice and therefore only owe courtesy in answering. Nevertheless, as previously stated, my proof is 20 years of experience. That certainly does not mean i know everything nor that I am never wrong. But, repeated failures to complete check disk is a sign the drive needs to be replaced. Plain and simple. Don't worry though.. we'll answer your next post on how to install windows and recover lost data.

 

[Zilpha]

I really don't understand the hostility. It's possible that I misread some of your posts - but the impression that I got was that

1. Disk check wasn't completing
2. You were getting file inconsistency errors which indicates a problem with writing to the disk
3. The disk is 5 years old.

Based on these things that you have stated (emphasis on the you have stated) and my own 15 or so years working in IT, I concluded that the disk probably has physical problems preventing it from working properly. We all gave you pretty much the same advice - replace the disk - not because anyone wanted to see you spend money needlessly, but rather because none of us wanted to see you lose your data which I'm sure you will agree would be more catastrophic.

If you want to take your life in your hands so to speak, then so be it. But when you have three or four different techs telling you pretty much the same thing, maybe it's time to just apply occams razor and call it a day.

 

[esbo]

I read everything you posted. In both topics you created regarding this issue I might add. And at no point in time does the burden of proof shift nor fall upon anyone who offers you advice. I know of no one here who gets paid to offer advice and therefore only owe courtesy in answering. Nevertheless, as previously stated, my proof is 20 years of experience. That certainly does not mean i know everything nor that I am never wrong. But, repeated failures to complete check disk is a sign the drive needs to be replaced. Plain and simple. Don't worry though.. we'll answer your next post on how to install windows and recover lost data.

I am not a computer novice either, yes chkdsk never completed before, however it does now, I have just ran it from windows and it completed the three phases OK, maybe the completed run at startup cleared the problem.
However as I had many years (since I bought the computer) fault free running there seemed to me there was nothing wrong with the drive and I am more convinced of that now.
As far as I am concerned the drive is in first class condition.
Just because I ask a question here does not mean I am not able to restored data or reinstall windows, however I do not expect to be doing either in the foreseeable future.

I really don't understand the hostility. It's possible that I misread some of your posts - but the impression that I got was that

1. Disk check wasn't completing
2. You were getting file inconsistency errors which indicates a problem with writing to the disk
3. The disk is 5 years old.

Based on these things that you have stated (emphasis on the you have stated) and my own 15 or so years working in IT, I concluded that the disk probably has physical problems preventing it from working properly. We all gave you pretty much the same advice - replace the disk - not because anyone wanted to see you spend money needlessly, but rather because none of us wanted to see you lose your data which I'm sure you will agree would be more catastrophic.

If you want to take your life in your hands so to speak, then so be it. But when you have three or four different techs telling you pretty much the same thing, maybe it's time to just apply occams razor and call it a day.

The simplest explanation from years of fault free running was that my drive is fine and that is the one I applied. You all seem to have ignored the fact that the drive had been otherwise fault free and you either have to have a lot of money or be extremely cautions to get a new drive under those circumstances, however I appreciated the advice offered even if I chose not to take it on this occasion.
Maybe I will be back here next week asking for advice on how to recover from a failed drive but it is a chance I am willing to take.

Actually I am considering doing a similar thing, ie making a backup of my main drive onto my larger second drive so I can swop them over
to make better use of the larger drive and also have a bootable backup in the event of drive failure.
I did do this on my old computer but was told it would be harder to do with windows XP, I guess I will find that out if I have a go at doing it.

 

[ruready2]

Actually I am considering doing a similar thing, ie making a backup of my main drive onto my larger second drive so I can swop them over
to make better use of the larger drive and also have a bootable backup in the event of drive failure.
I did do this on my old computer but was told it would be harder to do with windows XP, I guess I will find that out if I have a go at doing it.

Now you're talking the right language. When dealing with hard drives, whether the data is critical or just a few pictures you'd soon not loose, it's a prerequisite to back it up. I recommend Acronis image clone. Easeus ToDo is also good and is completely free. Each of these software create images of your partition allowing you to burn them later.

You may find the information on the link below helpful in the future.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

I wish you good fortune with your drive.


Regards,
Joel

 

[tipstir]

Take the HDD out and stick into another system with the same OS and run the CHKDSK /F on it and see if you can get pass the stage your stuck on. That other system HDD Controller might be acting up on you causing the scan to get stuck at random spots. I won't stick with one system if it's acting up. Need to move on to another system to test the drive on.

If you don't want to take out the unit you can run IOBIT Disk Doctor through XP up to Windows 7 and let it scan for errors/fix them. HD Tune is another one you can use under Windows on that HDD.