[blossom777]

I don't know where to start, I looked this up in the search of your site, and got some helpful tips, but I'm stuck on the same screen for a while and want to know if I should just wait longer or if there is more I need to do. I went thru the steps of chkdsk, putting in cmd and all that then restarted my comptuer and put cmd back in and typed chkdsk /f /r c: then it said chkdsk cannot run because teh volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volum to be checked the next time the system restarts y/n I input Y and now it says this volume will be checked the next time the system restarts. Now it's just the same prompt as to where I typed the chkdsk the first time. will or should it show some kind of progress of the 5 stages you mentioned in another post? I don't know much about what kind of computer it is, but I do know it's a Dell windows xp and we've had it several years. I can't run a disc because the place where the disc goes, won't open. I am planning on buying a new one of those as soon as I can afford it. Thanks for any help you may give me.

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What it means is the next time you reboot the system the chkdsk will run before windows starts.

[rshaffer61]

What it means is the next time you reboot the system the chkdsk will run before windows starts.

[blossom777]

I just restarted it, it's still the same as it was before What do you think I am doing wrong?

[blossom777]

we have the computer set up for different users, and it goes to the screen and wants me to select one. Would that have anything to do with the problem? also, on when I put the first cmd in when I type chkntfs /x c: it says after that the type of the file system is NTFS. I didn't know it that was normal or not. thanks for replying so quickly! I am not able to connect to the internet with it like this. I am on a laptop.

Edited by blossom777, 01 December 2009 - 09:36 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Let's see what you have done. Is this the steps you took to run chkdsk?

Go to
Start and then to Run
Type in Chkdsk /r Note the space between k and /
Click Enter ...It will probably ask if you want to do this on the next reboot...click Y
If the window doesn't shutdown on its own then reboot the system manually. On reboot the system will start the chkdsk operation
This one will take longer then chkdsk /f

Note... there are 5 stages...
It may appear to hang at a certain percent for a hour or more or even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...
DO NOT SHUT YOUR COMPUTER DOWN WHILE CHKDSK IS RUNNING OR YOU CAN HAVE SEVERE PROBLEMS
This can take several hours to complete.
When completed it will boot the system back into windows.

[blossom777]

yes i have put y and manually restarted my computer, is that what I do, you are using the term reboot, so I want to make sure that I'm doing what I need to do? now I restarted it, it is wanting me to pick my name, so do I don that then go to the cmd again and put just chkdsk /f ? I was putting chkdsk /f /r c: Is that wrong?

[rshaffer61]

chkdsk /r

This is all you need. Then it will say that it will start on the next reboot. You click Y for ok.
Then you click on start and then restart the system.
It should run the program then before windows ever shows up. When it is done it will reboot the system back into windows. Depending on the size of your hard drive this could take 30 minutes to a couple of hours

[blossom777]

ok, just did what you said, and thought it was going to work because the screen went dark for about a minute and now it has returned to windows. Should I input the info and see if the it still says it's dirty?

[rshaffer61]

Wait dirty huh?
Where did that come from? Are you trying to determine if you have a dirty bit on your system?
That is a different set of steps.

[blossom777]

It says C: is dirty
Then I put in chkdsk /f
the it says The type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive

Chkdsk connot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts y/n that is when I did what you had told me and it came back to windows. Just telling you this, so you will know exactly what it says. I really appreciate your help!

[blossom777]

I had already tried those steps that determined it was dirty. but then I went back and did exactly what you told me to do, and it went to windows.

[rshaffer61]

Ok I'm going to include the steps for all this. I know you said you have done the part that determines if it is dirty but follow the rest of the steps from there.


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.

[blossom777]

ok, one question, sorry. Where the red question mark is, what do I put in it's place? do I need to find out what is dirty? and if so, how do I do that?

[rshaffer61]

The question mark would be C if the main drive is what you are checking.
So this chkntfs /c ?:
Would be this chkntfs /c c:

[blossom777]

ok, I did it exactly as you said, now it has went back to windows.