[criticman]

Two problems, here, and I will be brief.

The first, I just installed a DVD-RAM combo drive. I did have a DVD-ROM and CD-RW drive installed, but I removed the CD-RW because it seemed less useful to have than the other. Upon reboot, my system is seeing the DVD-ROM drive now, as a SCSI drive (which it isn't) and hasn't assigned it a letter, although it powers up. I realize that XP is using the same drivers for both drives and this is causing a conflict. The new combo drive is working just fine. How do I fix this?

The second problem- I recently installed Diskeeper 2007, which defrags and checks the drive, supposedly upon reboot. I didn't like it, because it didn't work as it should have.
One thing it did, was ask if I would like CHKDSK to run a diagnostic upon reboot. I thought, "Sure, what the heck?". Except that upon reboot, CHKDSK started up, went easily through the first phase (of 3) then stalled before beginning phase 2; froze right up.
The system just stands there looking at me.
Naturally, Diskeeper, having created the situation, is taking no responsibility for it. I uninstalled the program, but the damage has already been done.
Can any of you good people tell me how to either unplug this messed up CHKDSK function or get it to complete the cycle and go about it's business?
Yes, I HAVE tried everything, by the way. Thank you in advance.

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Hi criticman!

Can you boot into Safe Mode and get to the desktop?

Fenor

[Fenor]

Hi criticman!

Can you boot into Safe Mode and get to the desktop?

Fenor

[criticman]

I just tried to boot into it, the screen froze up.

[Fenor]

Okay. One thing I don't get. You say you can't boot up your computer at all, but yet you said the following:

Naturally, Diskeeper, having created the situation, is taking no responsibility for it. I uninstalled the program, but the damage has already been done.

You obviously must somehow be able to boot your computer up to get to get to the desktop. Boot up normally and cancel the chkdsk before it has time to start. Are you able to get to the desktop that way?

Fenor

[criticman]

You misunderstood. I can get in, but to do so, I need to stop CHKDSK before it runs. That involves hitting any key on the keyboard. I've tried running CHKDSK from the command prompt within XP and it still stalls. I just want the process to finish or end.

[Fenor]

Check and see if the hard drive is dirty. Please click on START-->RUN and type cmd. In the new window that appears, type fsutil dirty query c: and hit ENTER. If what appears on the screen says Volume - c: IS Dirty, then please do the following:

Please check the following before proceeding:

• 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:

Substitute the drive letter for the drive your want to check for the ? in the following commands. Please note the spaces.

• chkntfs /d ..... (This will reset autocheck options to default...will come back invalid on some installations)
• chkntfs /c ?: ..... (This will allow checking the specified drive )
• chkntfs /x ?: ..... (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.

Substitute the drive letter for the drive your want to check for the ? in the following commands.

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 ?: ..... (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 ?:, 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. If the machine boots back up to the command prompt, type exit and press "Enter"...it should boot to Windows.

Fenor