CHKDSK causing drives to appear as "unformatted"

[ontariotech]

A quick observation about CHKDSK on Windows XP

When working with failing drives that are still in situ on Windows XP systems

CHKDSK, if it automatically starts on Windows boot-up, in about 40-50% of cases it will cause some drives to appear as "unformatted" after it has completed scanning the drive...why is this?

[jono-ats]

1. The drives may have bad sectors, and CHKDSK exacerbates the problem;

2. IMHO, Microsoft doesn't write decent repair utilities. CHKDSK is at best a crap shoot; some drives may be improved; others may be damaged further.

3. If I run CHKDSK, it is never on a failing drive - only on an image. And only with caution. The best idea is to make a copy of the image in case it mucks it up.

Jono

[ontariotech]

CHKDSK is at best a crap shoot; some drives may be improved; others may be damaged further.

Exactly.

[BlackST]

If drive is ok physically - I mean R/W elements, surface, SMART ATT, Chkdsk will fix filesystem issues. Your problem is MISSED INITIAL DIAGNOSE.

[ontariotech]

If drive is ok physically - I mean R/W elements, surface, SMART ATT, Chkdsk will fix filesystem issues. Your problem is MISSED INITIAL DIAGNOSE.

Blackst, so chkdsk will only damage drives that are physically failing?

[drc]

Anything that writes to a failing drive is bad. (See Spinrite, HDD Regenerator, defragmenting, etc)

[BlackST]

Ditto.

[littlendian]

CHKDSK only cares about the file system being healthy, it doesn't care about data and it may reallocate data or even truncate the Master File Table if it needs to (thus making a lot of data unavailable via the OS).

[bnice]

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

82. Disable or Enable Check Disk Upon Boot


Had to search for it, who knows it may help others from causing further hdd damage with CHKDSK.

[BlackST]

You can always abandon CHKDSK / SCANDISK execution at atartup when prompted. What's worst ? work on damaged / unstable filesystem or make CHKDSK / SCANDISK make some more damage ?

[bnice]

Its the countdown i think for some thats the problem. That screen when it appears initiated before many people ahve had the chance to read it or decide.

Maybe then is a need for a longer countdown, anybody a registry fix for that. Set for 2mins or indefinate should give people time to read and decide. Anyone have a registry fix so people can use that instead.

[BlackST]

The problem is not the countdown :

1) If CHKDSK / SCANDISK has triggered only because NTFS has not been flushed, it's no problem, but you still don't know.
2) If there are serious problems, would you allow the OS to continue loading normally and eventually make more damage to FS ?
3) If there are serious problems, what else can you do when you see the countdown ? Switch off ?

[shahij]

counted already... need to check RAW on image n several header including partial data lost.