So, only recently has my XP Windows suddenly decided to Check Disk every time I turn it on, but only my little Maxtor external hard drive is being checked, and re-checked every single time. If I don’t hit a key on my keyboard when it boots, it insists on checking that external hard drive and it takes quite some time to do so.
Needless to say, more than annoying.
Up until recently, this has never been a problem.
Should I not keep an external drive constantly hooked up to my computer?
Did I do something that caused the XP to suddenly decide to do this every time I boot up?
Is there anyway to tell my computer to just stop doing this before it drives me crazy?
As usual, I am sure this is probably some quick, simple fix - but whenever stuff like this happens, I can never find that quick simple fix and usually wind up doing what I just did - I restored my computer to a month ago (when this didn’t happen) but that didn’t help an iota.
Thanks in advance for whatever tips you may have - short of buying a new computer (which I can’t afford) or getting a new external hard drive (same money issues).
Hmm…never had to do that before, but will give it a try later when I log off and shut down. At this point, I will try voodoo if I thought it would work.
I’ll let you know when I re-boot in about an hour or so.
Assuming it uses the same drive letter every time, and you never use another drive that might need checked, you can do the following at a command prompt:
chkntfs /x c:
where c is the letter of your drive. This will disable automatic checking. You’ll want to do as mentioned above and always eject your drive before you shutdown, to make sure there aren’t any errors. It’s possible to automate ejecting the drive, but I’m not really feeling like explaining it. My head hurts.
Yeah, but then where do I store all that info if I reformat the disc? It is more than I have room to move to my computer, and I believe re-formatting is a bad thing for data that is currently on the disc, isn’t it?
Actually, I left out a lot in my haste earlier. The command I gave is a last resort after trying a few others.
[ol]
[li]First off, you’ve got to get all the way into Windows. So you’ll either have to stop chkdsk early (if you can) or wait until it finishes. [/li]
[li]Next, you need to start an elevated command prompt. Since this is Windows XP, all you’ll need is to be logged in as an Administrator. You can use Start > Run, type CMD, and press ENTER.[/li]
[li]Now type the following command: [/li]
fsutil dirty query d:
where d: is your drive letter. This will tell you if your drive has its “dirty” bit set, which is what tells Windows to run chkdsk on it.
[li]There are two likely responses. If your drive is not NTFS, you’ll get an error. If it is NTFS, you’ve likely got a dirty bit set. With either of these responses, you’ll need to run chkdsk manually one last time to make sure the drive is clean. Run the following (again, d: is your drive):[/li]
Chkdsk /f /r d:
[li]If you had an NTFS drive, run the first command (in this post) again to make sure the drive is no longer dirty. If it isn’t, or you don’t have an NTFS drive, eject the drive from Windows, and wait for it to say you can remove it. Don’t actually remove it, just restart the computer. If it doesn’t check the drive again, you’re good. [/li]
[li]If it does, you’ll have to resort to the command from the earlier post. This will tell Windows to never automatically check this drive again (by setting an option in the registry). Eject and reboot, and make sure it works. If not, reformatting* is your next option, followed by getting a new drive.[/li][/ol]
In a bit I’ll try to figure out exactly how to eject the drive automatically before Windows shuts down.
*I can tell you how to reformat without losing all your data, if you can store at least say 10% of the files somewhere else. But it’s risky, and borrowing someone else’s drive that has enough space for everything would be a lot safer.
Well, it is clicking away. This is what I have so far:
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>fsutil dirty query e:
Volume - e: is Dirty
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>Chkdsk /f /r e:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first.
ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID.
Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N) y
Volume dismounted. All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Volume label is OneTouch4 Mini.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)…
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)…
Deleting index entry bootex.log in index $I30 of file 5.
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
Recovering orphaned file RP1153 (122366) into directory file 239.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)…
Deleting an index entry with Id 282 from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.
Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)…
0 percent completed.
However, it is staying at “0 percent completed…” for quite some time now…then again, there is a lot of info, but just wanted to let you know what is happening. I guess, so far so good?
Will follow up if, and when, it is complete.
Thanks!
But it has never done so in about, what, maybe five months of being hooked up to my computer full time? I used to plug the external hard drive in only when needed it, but then I needed the space and so have left it in there constantly. I store photos, files and other things on it now that I need on a regular basis. This Check Disk stuff never happened before, but just recently (past two weeks) started this nonsense with checking every time I boot up my computer.
You’ve asked it to check every sector. This is going to take a LONG while. Leave it until this evening or even tomorrow.
That’s because it’s NTFS, not FAT32. From your report, Chkdsk has picked up some corruption.
You might want to look in the Event Viewer and check the System Log. Pay particular attention to entries with red icons with a source of Disk or ATAPI.
Well, I did what you said and - so far so good! Booted up today and it didn’t immediately go into Check Disk mode. Plus, I am able to access all of my files on my external hard drive! Yippee!
Thanks, BigT!
At some point I hope to get a larger external drive and will then be able to re-format my current external drive as a back up to my back up. But at least for the time being, all seems well!
Thanks also for everyone else’s hints/tips/suggestions.
If you guys ever get to Vegas, first beer is on me.