[otieatkins]

Morning Geeks,

I was hoping we could just stay friends but I now have to bother you for advice.

I am constantly getting a "write delayed" message. Usually it's from my backup but every now and again
it'll just pop up (I must be doing other stuff I guess).

I've got one drive just sitting here - I can see what's on it but can't get to it - due to write delayed messages
that I didn't pay any attention to before (If anyone knows how I can save the stuff on this drive, please tell me)
so I don't want it to happen again.

So, now I need you to "show off", "strut your stuff", "just do it", etc.... In all seriousness, I need your help
and hope you can help me.

Thank You so much,
Otieatkins

ps I didn't send any info because I'm not sure what you need - I'm pretty dumb at this computer stuff...

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Let's start with a few questions:

Where do you see this error message. Is that all that the error message window says?
What kind of drive is this? Internal (inside the case) or External?
Is it an IDE or a SATA drive?

[usasma]

Let's start with a few questions:

Where do you see this error message. Is that all that the error message window says?
What kind of drive is this? Internal (inside the case) or External?
Is it an IDE or a SATA drive?

[otieatkins]

Thanks for replying! It's a 1.5 TB drive that I have partitioned into a 1055 and a 348. It is in a NexStar MX Dual 3.5" SATA HDD Enclosure. (There's only 1 drive in it currently).
The message comes up in a little box from the bottom task bar. It has more than what I gave you but I've not been able to get the entire thing. It usually specifies some temp file that it's trying to write.
When I look in my Admin/Computer Management it says that they are NTFS and healthy.
Aside from trying to get the entire message down, what can I do to help you so you can help me?

[rshaffer61]

Getting the entire message will help alot as it could contain the information usasma could need to fix the problem.

[usasma]

Try running a diagnostic that's available from the website of the manufacturer of the hard drive. In general this will rule out the hard drive and the cabling/enclosure stuff.

You can also run chkdsk /r on the drive. Go to Start...Run...and type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
In the black window that opens up type "chkdsk X: /r" (without the quotes - and where X: is the name of the drive letter(s) for the attached drive) Do this for both the partitions and let us know what Windows shows.

If all that comes out good, then we'll have to move onto more OS/driver related troubleshooting.

[otieatkins]

Hi.

I ran the chkdsk against the 2 drives and got errors. I've attached a document that I copied the errors to.

Uh oh - looks like I have some kind of problem...  chkdisk_error.doc   11.5KB   24 downloads

[rshaffer61]

Ok maybe the root of the problem has been found
Go to
Start>My Computer>Rightclick on C drive>Properties
What does it say for total drive space and free drive space

[otieatkins]

My C Drive total space is 58.5 GB Free space is 5.21 GB. I have that partitioned also with my H Drive.
My H Drive total space is 90.4 GB Free space is 45.2 GB.

[usasma]

Chkdsk /r died in Stage 2 of 5, then in Stage 4 of 5.
Although the free space on the C: drive is low, there's enough left that it shouldn't (IMO) impact chkdsk in this way.

You can try freeing up some space on the C: drive (maybe move about 4 gB of stuff to the H: drive?) and then running chkdsk /r again.

Beyond that, all of the errors continue to point to issues with your hard drive. If chkdsk /r can't fix them it's either an unrepairable problem with the file system on the hard disk (less likely) or a physical problem with your hard drive (more likely). To rule this out you'll have to run a hard drive diagnostic. The diagnostics run without loading Windows, so it's not a problem if Windows doesn't boot. Here's a link to a "how-to" that I wrote on my blog: http://usasma.vox.co...iagnostics.html

Another possibility here is memory (RAM) issues - but we'll move onto that if the hard drive passes the diagnostics.

Edited by usasma, 14 April 2009 - 06:41 AM.