[jaymuzii]

Hey guys, this isn't an urgent problem.. but annoyance is starting to build
So here is the problem: one day, after connecting my laptop to a TV, and optimized the monitor settings a bit to watch a movie, it crashed. Since then, every reboot results in a system disk check for errors, and it gets stuck at 0% and then jumps to 4% and then finally, frozen. I've tried booting onto safe mode, and best last known settings and all that, but I cant even load onto safe mode, the computer freezes in DOS. I've also tried reinstalling my video drive, just to check if something was wrong with it, but no luck. I can load onto windows by skipping the disk check, but I'm really getting frustrated with this.

If theres any suggetions you can provide, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advanced.

[Advertisements]

Hello jaymuzii...

Click Start, then Run, type cmd, and click "Ok". At the prompt in the command window that opens, type fsutil dirty query c: and press "Enter".

Does the result of this indicate the drive is "Dirty"?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hello jaymuzii...

Click Start, then Run, type cmd, and click "Ok". At the prompt in the command window that opens, type fsutil dirty query c: and press "Enter".

Does the result of this indicate the drive is "Dirty"?

wannabe1

[jaymuzii]

Hey wannabe1, thanks for the reply.
Yes it says my drive C is dirty! How can i clean it?

[Retired Tech]

type CHKNTFS /X C: The X tells Windows not to check that particular drive on the next reboot.

Reboot, it should load to the desktop

Once Windows has loaded bring up another CMD prompt and type Chkdsk /f /r c:

This should take you through the 5 stages of the scan and will unset the dirty bit.

At a command prompt, type fsutil dirty query c and Windows will confirm that the dirty bit is not set on that drive.

[wannabe1]

This is called a dirty bit.

• If you have Spyware Doctor installed, uninstall it.
• If you have ZoneAlarm installed, open it, click the "Overview" tab, then select "Preferences", and UNcheck the "Protect ZA Client" check box.

Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the prompt in the Command window, type the following commands, pressing "Enter" after each one:

Please note the spaces in the following commands.

• chkntfs /d ..... (This will reset autocheck options to default...will come back invalid on some installations)
• chkntfs /c c: ..... (This will allow checking the specified drive )
• chkntfs /x c: ..... (The x switch tells Windows to NOT check the specified drive on the next boot)

At this point, restart your computer, it will not do a chkdsk and will boot directly to Windows.

This next step is important as this is where the Dirty Bit will be unset.

Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the command prompt, type the following, pressing "Enter" after each one: (Again, note the spaces.)

• chkdsk /f /r c: ..... (To manually run a full chkdsk operation on the specified drive)
• Y ..... (To accept having it run on the next boot)

This should take you through 5 stages of the scan and will unset the Dirty Bit. Be patient...this is a very thorough check and will take quite a while.

Finally, when the chkdsk operation has completed, type fsutil dirty query c:, press "Enter", and Windows will confirm that the Dirty Bit is not set on that drive.

Reboot again and see if chkdsk still runs on startup.

Oops...Keith beat me with a short version...

Edited by wannabe1, 12 December 2006 - 12:43 PM.

[jaymuzii]

It worked!
Thank you wannabe1 and Keith!!

Edited by jaymuzii, 12 December 2006 - 02:25 PM.

[wannabe1]

Glad we could help!

[jaymuzii]

Hey sorry to bring this up again but... now I'm getting a new error after every restart (I know ... I'll format soon as I have my backup drive)
It's saying 'SMART failure on hard drive 0:' something like that and it's warning me to back up my stuff IMMEDIATELY! I'm scared.

I've done a active SMART scan and everything seems to be ok but "Reallocated Sectors Count" is bad
It says my disk health is low and in critical condition... do i have to replace my hard drive?

Edited by jaymuzii, 12 December 2006 - 11:46 PM.

[wannabe1]

Yes...it needs to be replaced...and sooner rather than later. If you have important files on the machine, now is the time to get them onto removable media or flash drives. Don't use it at all if you can help it. You may be able to recover the files using the new hard drive, so long as it still spins up and the file system is intact.

The Reallocated Sectors Count being bad means that you are getting way too many bad clusters...this indicates read/write errors, which is indicative of a HDD headed south. Your hard drive starting to fail is probably what flagged the drive as dirty and started the chkdsk running at boot in the first place.

[jaymuzii]

ok thanks again