unable to run scandisk

[cshajkur]

I am unable to run scandisk. Everytime I attempt to run scandisk windows locks up. I have to reboot in order to unlock windows. I tried to run windows in the safe mode and scandisk will run until it begins to search for the allocation tables then stop.

I able to restart by using the cntl+alt+delete keys. Defrag works but it takes a couple of hours. I have a 13.6GB Hard Drive with 2GB of free space remaining. Windows 98SE runs great with the exception of missing the 'Show Desktop.scf' file and quick launch.

Does anyone have any suggestions for correcting this problem?

 

[jrbarnett]

Have you run the DOS scandisk first?
Do a shutdown and restart in MS-DOS mode then type at the command prompt:

SCANDISK C:

when it has finished, press ctrl alt del to reboot and load windows, then try getting Windows scandisk to run.

John

 

[Jontmke]

Good advice!
But, you might want to try some switches.
Like these: /autofix (so you don't have to say yes every time it finds an error)

/nosave (so it deletes the .chk files. I have never been abel to figure out how to reincorporate them anyhow.)

/surface (it will do a surface scan to determine bad sectors. It will take a looong time on a big hard drive.)

There are more but those are the most important.

So, your command could look like this:

SCANDISK C: /AUTOFIX/NOSAVE


Jon

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

 

[cshajkur]

Thanks Guys, I ran scandisk as instructed in the DOS mode using the /autofix switches given to me. I was able to complete the scandisk and defrag in six hours total. Immediately afterwards, I ran scandisk again in the normal mode. Within seconds after it started "checking the file allocation tables" it stop. To restart it, used ctrl+alt+ delete and it completely shut off.

It appears than scandisk is unable to find the allocation tables before it runs scandisk but will run in the Dos mode. I have no idea what allocation tables are. Any ideas?

 

[Jontmke]

Scandisk is working correctly, its just that if something writes to the hard drive, scandisk will restart. It could be your firewall,or any number of things which keeps a log file.

FYI: File allocation tables or FAT are computer lingo for the table of contents. It is the list of all the files and the info about them. The original FAT was only able to go to 2 gigabyte because it was an 8 bit system. 2 to the 8th power is 2 billion, see? FAT32 has (I think) a 160 GB limit and NTFS (NT\2000\XP) has a very large limit, in the terrabyte range.

Jon

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

 

[cdogg]

cshajkur,
Have you tried all the basics to get scandisk to run in Normal Mode? There are a ton of articles out on the net and in the FAQ areas of this site. Here's a short list of what to try:

Before running scandisk, do the following:
1) Disable power management (Start->Settings->Control Panel->"Power Options&quot. Be sure to turn off all sleep modes for the monitor and PC
2) Disable your screen saver
3) Close all programs including your antivirus and other utilities running in your system tray (lower-right)
4) Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and end task on everything except explorer

Like Jon said, something running in the background is writing to the hard drive. Every write causes scandisk to restart (which perhaps is why it's freezing). If that still doesn't help, you can also try running it in safe mode (hit F8 during bootup).


Jon,
Your report of FAT16 is just a little off!

It is a 16-bit system, hence the 16 in FAT16. It is capable of 65,526 clusters, which is 2 to the 16th power. 2 to the 8th is only 256! The largest partition on FAT16 is 2,048MB or 2,147,123,200 bytes. FAT32, on the other hand, can get as large as 2 Terabytes in theory, although there are other limitations in the IDE interface.



__________________________________________________

~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[cshajkur]

Thank you Jon. I apologize for taking so long to reply. I ran a complete diagnostic check on all of my components to rule out any component failure. The test itself took twelve hours to complete. All of the components checked out OK. I also transferred 4GB of data to CD-R disk for backup.

Now I'm going to run another scandisk and defrag according to the instructions you have provided. I'll return with the results when completed.

 

[Jontmke]

cdogg, thanks for the correction. I knew something was not quite right when I was typing it, but could think what it was.

Jon

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

 

[cshajkur]

I found this link on hard disk repair but need the advice of someone more experience with this issue. read here:

http://www.brienposey.com/kb/hard_disk_failure_2.asp

I have remove 5GB of date from my hard disk, ran a complete scandisk operation then completely defrag the hard drive, then ran sure delete over the entire 5GB to completely clean the empty space and ran defrag again. I also ran a complete virus scan to ensure no virus was present.

If I removed and reinstall IE6 SP1 and reinstall it, will I be able to restore to the missing files which incorporate active desktop?
I'm doing everything possible to avoid reinstalling windows 98SE and destroying the active programs and data I wish to keep. Can someone advice me?