startup scandisk ok, surface scan hangs

[xhaya]

i've tried a search of the forums and the internet but to not much avail...

i run win98 which informs me that "windows was not properly shut down, press any key to run Scnadisk..."
i do that and everything runs ok until it comes to the surface scan where it freezes at cluster 17490 and my hard disk starts to chirp "dreep, dreep, dreep" at regular intervals.
i always then have to restart.

if i scandisk in ms-dos mode, exact things happen.
MS says mayb is Klez worm but i worked my antivirus and cleaned that in a jiffy. still happens....
impending hard disk failure?

appreciate advice.....
xhaya

 

[vop]

Depending upon how much time, money and effort your are willing to spend on this:

Run a disk health analysis

http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/DiskHealth.asp

(info on cross linking or fragmentation levels)

Run Diskeeper Lite (freeware) - analysis option only

http://www.webattack.com/get/dkeeperlite.shtml

(possible insiteful error messages may be returned)

Try to convert existing HDD to another drive,

or

Consider using a repair/recovery product such as SPINRITE ($US89)

http://ww.grc.com/spinrite.htm

 

[vop]

Can you get through a minimal Scandisk in Safe Mode without autofix selected?

If there are any errors reported, let the following link be your guide:

http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/scandisk.htm

 

[cshajkur]

This may not solve your specific issue but here is some general information you may find helpful in the future. Here:

http://www.1960pcug.org/~pcnews/2003/02/scandisk_and_defrag.htm

 

[xhaya]

thank you very much...

i got thru minimal scandisk without the autofix
it tells me i have a problem that only a surface scan can fix.
i guess its really gonna be harddisk failure anytime.

i'm gonna try to do a xcopy onto a new disk.
bothersome thing i alre have a master slave disk and the "new" hard disk i have alre has winxp in it.
i've never done xcopy with this kinda setup before...
how does it differ from doing xcopy on a machine which original has only one hard disk?
rgds,
Xhaya

 

[xhaya]

sorry i think i did a typo ..
i alre have a primary master and primary slave(which i use for data storage) on my machine

 

[Jontmke]

You might run into problems copying your data until you do the surface scan.
Most people (me included) when first running a surface scan think it is crashed or halted when it finds bad sectors. That's because scandisk will retry each tiny sector 6 or more times before giving up. When it is doing this you will hear the HD making a wierd ratcheting noise. It is working the way it was designed.
All you can do is let it go, the bigger the hard drive the longer it will take. God forbid my 120GB ever needs this, it would take over 24 hours!!!
My suggestion is to boot into dos then run this command and let it go over night.
Here it is:
scandisk c: /nosave/autofix/surface
Just substitute the correct drive letter if it is not the c: drive.

FYI: I have had drives get bad sectors and still work for years afterward. But I have had drives completely fail within a month. It is a bit of a crap shoot whether to replace them.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[vop]

As was briefly mentioned above, SPINRITE can do amazing things on bad sectors.

Keep that cost/benefit in mind if you are left with few remaining options.

 

[cshajkur]

W9Xx Scandisk/Defrag

Many are having problems running ScanDisk and/or Defrag, with the program running 1%-70%
and then stalling. Often with a message that Windows is trying to write to the drive.


How to run ScanDisk/Defrag successfully:


Go to Start > Run and type: msconfig in the Run (Command) box, clk ok.
On the General tab, uncheck all items listed under Selective startup (make sure that Selective
startup is selected)
Hit apply then OK and restart Windows
This starts Windows with only Explorer running, and insures nothing will interfere with ScanDisk
and Defrag, other than the Screensaver option, so be sure disable it before beginning.
Run ScanDisk first, then Defrag.
When completed go into Msconfig and select Normal startup, choose no when prompted to restart,
then manually select restart, press the shift key then click restart. This will perform a quick or warm
reboot which is much faster. Note: this method can be used when installing programs as well, as it
will still update any new changes to the registry.

W95x Users:
Download the Msconfig file, and place it in the C:\Windows\System folder. Then follow the above
instructions. Msconfig

Alternate W95x Solution:
Restart the system, and when you see the "Starting Windows 95... "text on
your screen, quickly press the F8 key. Choose Safe mode from the menu.
Run ScanDisk first, followed by Defrag.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Defrag Error Message: ID NoEFRAG00205
This error can occur if the Applog file in the hidden \Windows\Applog folder is damaged.

To fix this:

First make sure that you are able to see hidden files on your system. To see all files: Open Windows Explorer, and select Folder Options from the View Menu Click on the View tab, go to the Hidden Files header and choose Show all files, and press Apply
Select Start > Find, and then click Files or Folders
In the Named box, type applog, select C: in the Look in box, click to select the Include subfolders check box, and then click Find Now
Double-click the Applog folder to open it
On the Edit menu, click Select all
On the File menu, click Delete, and then click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the deletion.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Add a value for DEFRAG.EXE /ALL to the RunServicesOnce key
The Disk Defragmenter for Windows 98 (DEFRAG.EXE) may start and not complete its task. If repeated attempts to defragment the drive are unsuccessful, it may be because an application is writing to the disk. The Disk Defragementer cannot share access to a drive with other tasks.

An application loading automatically at startup may interfere with DEFRAG. Run DEFRAG before applications load at startup by adding a value for DEFRAG.EXE /ALL to the RunServicesOnce key in the registry.

Note: You can use your computer while Disk Defragmenter is running, however, Disk Defragmenter restarts if the contents of the drive you are defragmenting change.

Select defrag.inf found in the \tools\mtsutil folder on the Windows 98 CD
Right-click defrag.inf, and choose Install from the menu
The next time you start your computer, Windows will defragment your drive(s) automatically.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ScanDisk Errors on IDE Hard Disks larger than 32GB
If your computer uses a Phoenix BIOS and uses the Phoenix Bit Shift translation algorithm to report the geometry of large IDE hard disks, the Windows protected-mode IDE disk driver (Esdi_506.pdr) may not correctly recognize the translation mode for the drive, resulting in an inability to access areas of the drive beyond the first 32GB.

In such cases, if you use the protected-mode (graphical) version of ScanDisk to perform a thorough scan (which includes a surface scan) on an integrated device electronics (IDE) hard disk that is larger than 32GB in size, ScanDisk may report errors on every cluster after approximately cluster number 967,393.

Microsoft has released an updated Esdi_506.pdr driver for Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition. The file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center, and the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.