How can I clear a chkdsk bit?

[dakota81]

I'm trying to see if I can pull any information off a harddrive that has developed bad sectors. But all the tools at my disposal, loading XP, recovery console, ERD Commander, they all see the chkdsk bit and try to scan the drive, which fails and locks up the system.

 

[Auger282]

cant you press a key on boot to bypass chkdsk?

or you could alter the boot.ini somehow

 

[dakota81]

The bad thing is I have to get the machine up & running with ERD Commander because lucky for me, when HP set up the laptop, they set XP to not share the profile directory with other users. Otherwise I'd probably have all the data I need transfered already... But now I got myself stuck in this loop of all the tools requiring a full harddrive scan upon boot, and I can't stop it. I'll keep trying.

 

[dakota81]

Actually, I believe it's not chkdsk, rather it's "checking for ntfs compatibility" and there are no warnings, no chance to cancel, nothing I can do get anything to boot with this drive attached.

 

[longhair]

dakota81,
can you slave the hard drive into another system?
boot from the other system then copy what you can.
regards,
longhair

 

[dakota81]

longhair - again, doing that, during the boot process XP initiates a full hard drive scan without warning, either in normal mode or safe mode, that I do not have the chance to bypass.

 

[Auger282]

if its not chkdsk.. could you tell us the exact message its telling you when its doing this check?

 

[dakota81]

ERD commander says "checking for ntfs compatibility"

Booting Windows XP, normal more or safe mode, the recovery console, or even if the drive is in a usb enclosure, there is no message displayed. Windows just initiates a full drive scan without warning.


I am going to need a tool on floppy or cd that assumes right from the start that the drive has bad sectors.

 

[s0121]

If the dirty bit is set when the computer restarts, chkdsk runs to verify the consistency of the volume.
Every time Windows XP starts, Autochk.exe is called by the Kernel to scan all volumes to check if the volume dirty bit is set. If the dirty bit is set, autochk performs an immediate chkdsk /f on that volume. Chkdsk /f verifies file system integrity and attempts to fix any problems with the volume.
To view help for the available subcommands at the command prompt, type fsutil, type the subcommand, and then type help (that is, fsutil subcommand help).


Frank Smith irc.dhcnetwork.com

SomeWhere in Kansas Near Dodge City

 

[allteltec]

Did you try NTFS DOS form your ERD ? A good run with Spinrite could allso help

 

[dakota81]

I tried the drive a few more times in a usb enclosure, and it finally went through - Autoplay popped up & Windows began scanning the entire drive to figure out what to do with it, and I was able to hit cancel and access the drive again.

I'll chalk this one up to luck, and I'll be more experienced not to get myself into this problem next time.

Thanks everyone.