[Andrew6.0]

Before I begin I'm not quite sure if this is the right thread for my question. I just figured since my question relates to chkdsk I might as well post here.

I've been having some issues with my usb external hard drive it's a Toshiba 350 GB about a little over a year old and up to this month it had no issues that I noticed.

I was about to do a backup of my regular hard drive onto it but first I wanted to free up some space. I attempted to do an online backup and started getting read errors after about 10 percent through a small test folder. Puzzled I tried running a scan disk f. For some reason it ran twice the first completing after some time finding a lot of unreadable files and the second failing to move after several hours at 2 percent in verifying folders and files. The same thing happened with chkdsk /r Figuring something was up I then attempted to rescue my files off the external. I could not get everything off as I got several crc redundancy errors but I got everything I basically wanted.

I then attempted to do deep reformat through windows which failed after hanging for several hours at 54 percent. A quick reformat however quicky purged the drive in under half a minute. (since the full one checks for errors I'm not surprised)

I then attempted again to do a chkdsk /r after the quick reformat. I didn't restart the computer however I went to the run box typed in cmd /chkdsk /r and chose to dismount before running. For what seemed like 2 hours it froze at 54 percent of stage 5 then 59 and after a few minutes 69. It stayed at 69 for about 2 to 3 hours before ratcheting up to 74 around the time I considered calling it quits. I'm not sure what to do at this point (besides considering buying a replacement drive) I've heard that it's not good to stop a chkdsk but its been at 74 percent since 3 am! I'm currently going to be away for 2 to 3 days and am wondering if I should leave the thing on and pull the plug if it hasn't budged by the time I come back. I'm leaning towards the notion that the drive is finished but because it's no longer covered by warranty I want to see if by some miracle chkdsk actually finishes. Should I bother? Should I connect the drive to another machine to run the chkdsk? I've had a suspicion my RAM is going bad and I heard somewhere that can somehow effect how efficient chkdsk is.

One other quick question I was searching in eventviewer for the original chkdsk f log which i think should be under winnit but I could not find such an entry. Might it be elsewhere? Seeing whether or not there were bad clusters would make this decision much easier. Thanks!

Edited by Andrew6.0, 03 April 2010 - 10:19 AM.

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Hi Andrew6.0

It does seem that the drive is on its way out.
There are a couple things to look at to be sure.

You can use Dban from my signature to wipe the drive with 1 and 0's. This will security wipe it.
Just be sure that you get the correct drive when you do this.

You can run the manufacturers diagnostics. (see note below)

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use Burncdcc Link is in my signature below

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start


NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool. If you are unsure of the drive manufacturer then you can try seagate diagnostics It sometimes works on other manufacturers.

123runner

[123Runner]

Hi Andrew6.0

It does seem that the drive is on its way out.
There are a couple things to look at to be sure.

You can use Dban from my signature to wipe the drive with 1 and 0's. This will security wipe it.
Just be sure that you get the correct drive when you do this.

You can run the manufacturers diagnostics. (see note below)

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use Burncdcc Link is in my signature below

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start


NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool. If you are unsure of the drive manufacturer then you can try seagate diagnostics It sometimes works on other manufacturers.

123runner

[Andrew6.0]

Thanks 123runner for the links! Sadly it's a Toshiba so there are no utilities that I'm aware of for it. Had some issues trying to get Nuke it to work but I think with some more time I can figure it out. In any event it will serve me well going forward.

I let chkdsk /r continue to run while I was gone and for some reason my system was powered off when I returned (no outages as far as I know and the power settings didn't specify it ever shutting down or sleeping)

Anyway I booted it up and tried checking event log for anything like winlogon or winnit. Didn't see anything recent apart from several services entering the stopped state a few hours ago before I returned. I ran a quick chkdsk without the r on the disk and it turned up NO bad sectors. No idea if the actual chkdsk /r actually completed while I was gone or not. Wish I had some way of knowing. Since I'm not seeing an event log aside from some stopped services notes are there any locations I might find a report generated in? Should I be satisfied with a clean regular chkdsk? Could something still be wrong? Something else besides nuke or a drive utility I could run?

Edited by Andrew6.0, 05 April 2010 - 01:46 PM.

[123Runner]

Did you try the Seagate diagnostics? It sometimes works on other drives.

You can find the chkdsk report in the event viewer, look at the Winlogon entry.
Just to clarify, winlogon shows up in the Application section of the event viewer. Start -> Run -> type "eventvwr.msc" (no quotes) -> ENTER. Click on Application and select the most recent winlogon entry.

[Andrew6.0]

Doesn't seem to be anything recent with winlogon. Something about the shell stopping and explorer restarting but that was a day before I ran chkdsk. Nothing I might find in the system 32 folder?

[123Runner]

Nothing that I am aware of.
The winlogon location is from other users and a google search.

How is the computer performing?

[Andrew6.0]

Thanks 123Runner. Given that I loaded C with all the junk from the external... not too bad surprisingly. If the backup fails I'm going to attempt Seagate diagnostics. Also considering running a memtest. The system itself is about 4-5 years old. Dream of the day when I have enough money to build. But I need to backup first!

I've got one of those feelings and I'm going to be running a backup of c with partition imaging software (Acronis) onto the external at the very least if anything funny happens I'll know there's a problem.

I split C into two (well it's in 3 partitions it came from Gateway) C (Windows XP, D (An OEM restore for Win XP that I've been tempted to delete but never have) and E (Where my Windows 7 installation is hiding out) Odd thing here is initially this project involved backing up all the partitions before I swapped the partitions XP and 7 inhabit. 7 currently has only about 13 gigs of breathing room while I allotted XP about 132, D has around 4. Once I backed up everything I was going to switch things around until my external (M) started being uncooperative) (I also wanted to purge ALL the partitions after a Malware issue forced several installations of Windows over Windows)Oddly enough I can make changes to the external on M and everything in XP but I can't even access it in 7 it just tells me access denied (for another thread I know, though I've always wondered if there's something I need to do in XP to open it up for access in 7) Time will tell!