Running CHKDSK on Windows drive?

[eddie010]

When I ran CHKDSK in the command prompt on the C:\ drive with no parameters it found some errors and old me to run it with the /F parameter to fix it. So that's what I did but it said that the drive is locked. Then it asks me if I want to do a disk check when the system starts up. I said yes and when I restarted the disk check ran but it didn't correct the errors because I ran CHKDSK again and still found errors.
I have also tried to run CHKDSK from the recovery console on the XP cd but it still didn't correct the errors.

So, is there anyway of correcting these errors?

I am running Windows XP SP2.

 

[Cybelex]

That may be an indication of serious problems. What exactly did chkdsk say?

You already did all that you can do, correctly and in the correct order. If there are still errors, repartitioning may be the only way to fix them.

But the chances are high that the drive is defective. Save your data immediately and try some other drive tests.

Free Hard Drive Testing Applications:

Manufacturer's Tests
Victoria for DOS
Victoria for Windows (Both versions of Victoria are among the best and most thorough tests available.)
HD Tune
CheckDisk 1.03 (Marks bad sectors as unusable.)
HDAT2 (Diagnostics and bad sector recovery)
MHDD Low-level Diagnostics
Bootable Hitachi Drive Fitness Test Floppy or CD Image (works on most drives)

Hard Drive Manufacturers' Diagnostic Utilities Links:

TachTech
BleepingComputer

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Memory problems can also appear as disk problems. So if you are inclined, memory tests may prove fruitful, too.

MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)
Memtest86

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista and can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.

 

[eddie010]

I also think it could be a serious problem because the computer loads up unusually slow and it sometimes had some BSODs and sometimes automatically restarts.

I have already ran the Microsoft Memory Test and it found no errors.

 

[Cybelex]

OK. It may well be the drive. You should save all you can before even testing it because the tests can push it over the edge if it is bad. You should have backups, anyway, so even if the drive turns out to be OK (this time), it will not be time wasted to back things up.

HDTune can be run from Windows and is a pretty gentle test that will tell you if you have bad clusters on the drive. If it finds any, that means that there will probably be more soon, so you should get a new drive and copy the old one to it before it is too late. This is a good chance to get a larger drive, if you want one.