[Yeoman]

I cannot defragment because of a popup which reads, "Disk Defragmenter has detected that Chkdsk is scheduled to run on the volume (C:). Please run Chkdsk /f. If I try to run Chkdsk it comes up and says, "Cannot check this volume (NTFS) because it is use by another process. (fsutil tells me that the C disc is dirty.)

My first submission posted to Geeks was in March 2006 and was exactly this, and after much help from Wannabe1 and others I finally managed to fix it via a local third party. On this occasion however that local fix is not working. I have gone through all the instructions from the old thread again today, including Scannow (all clear) but still cannot run a Chkdsk on bootup.

If I post a CMD in dos and say "Y" to run a Chkdsk - when it boots it says, "Cannot open the volume for direct access - Windows has finished checking the disk."

Co-incidentally, a member by the name of Aquarius picked up the thread from my old posting today, thus it appears on the front page of the XP Forum.

The one thing that was not tried by Wannabe1 last time was to try to run Chkdsk from the Recovery Console. A process I know nothing about.

Would some kind person please render me further assistance on this matter if possible. If you read through the previous thread which was posted on March 13 2006 at 0518 PM, you can assume that I have repeated all the instructions from Wannabe1, to no avail.

Regards Yeoman

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to run chkdsk from the recovery console

• Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
  Note:Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
• When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
  Note:If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
• When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
• At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following then press Enter:
  

  chkdsk /r

• Allow this to run UNDISTURBED until completed (45 min or so)
• Report any errors

[dsenette]

to run chkdsk from the recovery console

• Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
  Note:Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
• When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
  Note:If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
• When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
• At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following then press Enter:
  

  chkdsk /r

• Allow this to run UNDISTURBED until completed (45 min or so)
• Report any errors

[Yeoman]

Thanks for that, but ...

The setup screen gives a number of options, and says, "What do you want to do?" The first option is "Install Windows XP" the other options do not seem to fit at all. I clicked the first option, and it said that it cannot do it, because the disc version is older than whats on my computer. I guess it means that the disc version has only got SP1a, and I have since downloaded SP2 online.

I could not see any option to click "R"

The disc does not seem to mirror your instructions. Maybe I am doing something wrong.

I bought the computer (Dell) with the software already installed by the factory, and the disc I have is called,
Reinstallation CD "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"

Can you advise me further please

[dsenette]

ah...that's a recovery disk not a windows disk...

• Download RC.ISO from Here.
• Now burn this ISO image to a CD and boot your computer with it.
  NOTE: Keep in mind that this is different than burning a file to a CD-ROM. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download CDBurnerXP Pro to another Windows machine and install it. Then go Here for instructions for burning the ISO image
• Once the CD is created, place it in the defunct computer
• Then reboot your broken PC with that CD in the CD-ROM drive.
• Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device.
  NOTE: You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• When the PC boots, it will boot from the CD...after the first several screens load, you will be given a choice to choose R for Recovery Console. You will be asked to log in.
  NOTE: For Windows XP Home, there is not password, just hit ENTER. For Windows XP pro, ask whomever set up the machine what password they used.

Running "ChkDsk"

• At the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt, type
  

  chkdsk /r

• Press ENTER
• Let this scan run UNINTERUPTED untill completed (30 min or so depending on the drive)
• Report any errors in your next reply
• Once the scan is complete, Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console.
• Your computer will now restart, boot from the CD again and continue with the next steps.

[Yeoman]

Thanks for your clear instructions. However as I have not burned an ISO image before, I would have to follow the download instructions you provided.

Unfortunately I only have access to the one computer. Is there any reason why I cant print the instructions off, and then burn the disc on this PC?

Also had a thought. Is it possible to run Chkdsk in safe mode, and would that work?

Regards

[dsenette]

Unfortunately I only have access to the one computer. Is there any reason why I cant print the instructions off, and then burn the disc on this PC?

makes no difference where you burn the cd

Also had a thought. Is it possible to run Chkdsk in safe mode, and would that work?

you can try it

[Yeoman]

G'day dsenette

I downloaded the recovery console and followed all your instructions re-booting from the CD. It ran the chkdsk /r successfully, and at the end it told me, "Chkdsk found and fixed 1 or more errors on the volume".

For some reason typing EXIT caused the RC to freeze, and did not reboot automatically. I had to force close and reboot manually, but using the CD to reboot from. It then asked me whether I wanted to install XP, so I hit ENTER I think was the instruction if I did not want to install. It showed a message at the bottom of the screen which said, "Restarting the computer ..." but nothing happened for some minutes, so I had to force close again.

Any way, I typed fsutil dirty query c: and the disk is now NOT dirty. Thank you for that.

The defrag is working again, but I noticed that if I tried to chkdsk /f again, it still comes up with the same message, about "not able to do so because the volume is in use by another process". Is there anything else I should do.

Regards

[Metahuman]

See, you are trying to check your disk for errors in the normal mode, when the Operating System has a lock on you Hard Disk for writing purposes. When you type in chkdsk /f, the application tries to fix errors on the disk. It it can not do it right away, it sets itself to run on the next system re-boot.

Here is some text from 'Help & Support' - /f
Fixes errors on the disk. The disk must be locked. If chkdsk cannot lock the drive, a message appears that asks you if you want to check the drive the next time you restart the computer.

You need to press 'y' after you see this message about the drive lock, which should start the chkdsk on your next system re-boot.