[Hiker09]

Forgive me if this is a repeat of a topic that appears to be addressed elsewhere - but my problems are different.
I am running Window XP SP3.

I get the usual notification that the defag operation cannot execute because chkdsk /f has been scheduled.

However when I go to the command line and run chkdsk /f (Y or N) nothing happens when either is selected. Chkdsk does not run on reboot (startup) when Y is entered, and still stays "scheduled" when N is entered.

Following advice from another thread I entered fsutil dirty query c: and the system returned notification that the C drive is 'dirty'.

When I enter chkdsk /f/r/ c: The system returns
The type of file system is NTFS
Cannot lock current drive
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be check the next time the system restarts (Y/N).

Again it does not matter which option is selected. Chkdsk does not start on reboot, and I cannot run disk defrag.

I also turned off my Antivirus software but that did not help.

I have an application called Uniblue RegistryBooster2009 - which I am willing to un-install if that would be of any help.

Any help would be appreciated

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OK first get rid of the registry booster.
A registry cleaner will not increase your system's speed or performance, and has the potential to break your registry to the point that your PC is no longer bootable.
We strongly advise that people stay away from any of the registry cleaners out there.
Go HERE to get more information about why registry cleaners aren't needed.


Thanks to Sari for the explanation

Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply


Next try doing the following and see if it will help you with your chkdsk problem.


Please follow the next steps in order:

Click Start, then Run (Search In Vista)
Type cmd, and click Ok
At the prompt in the command window that opens, type fsutil dirty query ?: and press Enter (Where ? is the letter of the drive to queried)

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

To unset the 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:

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.

[rshaffer61]

OK first get rid of the registry booster.
A registry cleaner will not increase your system's speed or performance, and has the potential to break your registry to the point that your PC is no longer bootable.
We strongly advise that people stay away from any of the registry cleaners out there.
Go HERE to get more information about why registry cleaners aren't needed.


Thanks to Sari for the explanation

Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply


Next try doing the following and see if it will help you with your chkdsk problem.


Please follow the next steps in order:

Click Start, then Run (Search In Vista)
Type cmd, and click Ok
At the prompt in the command window that opens, type fsutil dirty query ?: and press Enter (Where ? is the letter of the drive to queried)

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

To unset the 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:

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.

[Hiker09]

Hi Rshaffer61

thank you for the reply - attached is a screen shot of the disk management data.

Unfortunately the instructions did not work. But I did get further than ever before

I was able to get the system to "reply" that the disk would be checked upon reboot (after entereing chkdsk /f/r c:), Previously when I entered Y - there was NO acknowledgement.
However when the system rebooted, I got a message that said the disk was NTFS formatted, and then a message flashed that said the disk could not be locked and the operation failed.

BTW - I also did the following - clicked on my computer,clicked on c drive then rt clicked to properties, selected "tools", then checked disk Local Disk (c:)
when I clicked "automatically fix file system error" the process fails to start - citing the "another process is in place". When I clicked "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" only 4 of 5 phases were performed. Unfortunately I still cannot run defrag.

Again - any insight would be most appreciated.

thanks

Hiker09

Attached Thumbnails

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[rshaffer61]

What happens if you try it this way?


How To Run Chkdsk /r from Recovery Console:


How to run checkdisk from recovery console (Windows xp). (Courtesy dsenette)

• 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

[Hiker09]

Hi Rshaffer61

Thanks again

I need to generate an XP installation disk - since my dell workstation came with everything pre-installed. Fortunately this is not problematic - just more time consuming.

However I was reading another thread which kind of suggest the same thing expect that the person giving advice indicated that if you let the system "repair itself" (re-install the code that was corrupted?" you will not lose any applications or data files. Is this another way (safer way?) to get the defrag to work? The title of the thread was "Need a painless way to re-install XP"

Anyway will get around to trying your suggestion tomorrow. Will keep you posted.

Thanks

hiker09

[rshaffer61]

A repair installation is always a option. Being a name brand system though that option has to be performed with a borrowed disk as in your case no OS disk was supplied. It has to be the same type as what is installed on your system. Home, Media or Pro

[Hiker09]

Hi Rshaffer61

I made a XP SP3 disk using my technet account from microsoft. Installed the CD and pressed F12 during startup. Selected boot from CD, then selected recovery console. The process then asked for the admin password - so I just pressed "enter" they system returned "incorrect password, please enter admin password". So I used the admin password I use for log on. That did not work, So I tried single space then "enter". The system responded you have tried three incorrect passwords press enter to restart the system

So I pressed enter and the recovery process stopped. So I am pretty much back to square 1. Is there an actual default password that I should use?

thanks again

Hiker09

[rshaffer61]

OK what about data on your system...is there a lot that needs to be protected?

[Hiker09]

I have a SCSI external drive - which I use to back up all data files from my C drive.

I can also backup by .pst file from exchange. I am concerned that I will lose some applications that I downloaded directly from vendors like PGP, and WinRAR, if I re-install XP, but this is a relatively minor concern.

So should I just re-install XP SP3. Are there any other precautions I should take?

[rshaffer61]

Winrar is easy to get and there are other free programs you can sue instead.
PGP I'm not sure if that is.
I hate telling someone to format and start over as I understand what a pain in the tail that is.
Do you download from P2P?
It would seem from your Computer Management post you may have a recovery partition on your hd.
Try this and let em know if it takes you to the recovery partition and what options it gives you.
The key combination is CRTL + F11 pushing the keys at the same time at the the dell screen during post. Once you push them then you want to release them.
It should go into the recovery partition so you can do a system restore.

[Hiker09]

Just wanted to let you know how this finally ended.
I used by registry cleaner tool to re-install a version from a year ago. That eliminated the ChkDsk bit problem - but of course caused other issues. Most notable is that HP printer stopped working. When I reinstalled the drivers the USB port stopped working - it would not even recognize a connection. However the LAN port was operational so I connected the Printer to the router and things are back to "normal". However the bootup time is still slow even with the disk defragged and all. I was told that IE is just bloatware and go with firefox - but that is another day.

Thanks for your help

[rshaffer61]

let me know and I will help with Firefox installation. You shouldn't lose any contacts or email with installing Firefox either.