[Boingram]

My Dell laptop running Windows XP has what I believe a to be called a "dirty bit." Every time I boot the system, a Windows screen appears saying that it will do a disk check. The process appears to start, but then a few seconds later, it says the disk check has been canceled. I have looked at a few posts here and have come to the conclusion that is is probably a "dirty bit" problem. When I open the command prompt from Windows and type in the command "fsutil dirty query c:", the system responds by telling me that the volume is indeed dirty. I have tried running the command "chkdsk /f /r c:." I respond "y" to have it do the chkdsk operation on the next reboot, however this has not been successful. Upon rebooting, the system begins the disk check but then cancels. It however, says underneath that the Disk check is complete and of course when Windows starts, the "fsutil dirty query c:" command again tells me that the drive is still dirty. What should I do next? Thanks for your help.

Boingram

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You are missing some steps in your resolution. Try the following and lets see if it will resolve.


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.

[rshaffer61]

You are missing some steps in your resolution. Try the following and lets see if it will resolve.


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.

[Boingram]

I tried the sequence of commands as listed. When I rebooted the system to unset the dirty bit, the Disk check was canceled. Windows then resumed. What should I try next? Thanks.

I should also mention that I don't have Spyware Doctor or ZoneAlarm installed. I do however, have Norton Internet Security 2010 installed. Could that be a problem?

Edited by Boingram, 06 May 2010 - 04:39 PM.

[rshaffer61]

OK does it log into windows then or still nothing?
If you are in windows then do the following.
Go Start and then to Run ("Start Search" in Vista),
Type in: sfc /scannow
Click OK (Enter in Vista).
Have Windows CD/DVD handy.
If System File Checker (sfc) finds any errors, it may ask you for the CD/DVD.
If sfc does not find any errors in Windows XP, it will simply quit, without any message.
In Vista you will receive the following message: "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations".

For Vista users ONLY: Navigate to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS folder. You'll see CBS.log file.
Usually, it's pretty big file, so upload it to Flyupload, and post download link.


If you don't have Windows CD....
This applies mostly to Windows XP, since Vista rarely requires use of its DVD while running "sfc"
Note This method will not necessarily work as well, as when using Windows CD, because not always ALL system files are backed up on your hard drive. Also, backed up files may be corrupted as well.

Go Start and then Run
type in regedit and click OK


Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

You will see various entries Values on the right hand side.

The one we want is called: SourcePath

It probably has an entry pointing to your CD-ROM drive, usually D and that is why it is asking for the XP CD.
All we need to do is change it to: C:
Now, double click the SourcePatch setting and a new box will pop up.
Change the drive letter from your CD drive to your root drive, usually C:
Close Registry Editor.

Now restart your computer and try sfc /scannow again!


Thanks to Broni for the instructions

[Boingram]

I can access windows after the disk check fails. When I ran the system file checker, i did need to insert my windows xp CD rom. The checker finished though and closed without reporting any errors. How shall I proceed? Thanks for your time.

[Boingram]

I have a little more background to provide regarding this issue...
When this problem began, I started getting a message when Windows first launched at startup. It would say "The file or directory C:\Documents and Settings\All users\Application Data\Norton\{0C55C096-OF1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\Norton\SRTSP\LightningSand.CFD is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility."

I thought the problem may have been with the Norton Internet Security 2009 that was installed on the system. Therefore, I upgraded the software to the 2010 version. The error message stopped appearing when I booted up after installing the new NOrton, but the disk check still runs and cancels at each bootup.

I still think that Norton may be involved. This is why...

If I just type in the command Chkdsk in the command prompt, it says The type of the file system is NTFS.

Warning! F Parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Deleting index entry tmp.edb in index $I30 of file 9696.
Deleting index entry LightningSand.CFD in index $I30 of file 30095.
Deleting index entry LIGHTN~1.CFD in index $I30 of file 30095.
Index verification completed.

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.

Is this information helpful?

[rshaffer61]

Yep rerun chkdsk /r to see if it still finds errors.
If it does we will check the hd and the memory. We may need to do a repair installation by the time this is all done but there are other steps before we get to that point.

[Boingram]

When I ran the chkdsk /r command from the command prompt, I responded Y to run after rebooting. Again, the disk check was canceled. Windows then loaded normally as before.

[rshaffer61]

Does it do this everytime it boots now or just when you try to run chkdsk /r?
Being a Dell laptop I'm sure you do not have a XP installation disk correct?
I would suggest uninstalling Norton and using one of the free alternatives like Avast or Avira.

[Boingram]

When I enter the command sequence recommended earlier:

chkntfs /d
chkntfs /c c:
chkntfs /x C:

the disk check does not start when rebooting. The disk check also does not occur on subsequent boots. The system also shuts down much faster than before.

When I run a command such as chkdsk /r, a disk check is initiated at the boot but then cancels as described before. Is is bad to use the chkntfs /x C: command and prevent the PC from doing the disk check on every startup and leaving the system in that condition?

As far as OS software is concerned, I have a Reinstallation CD of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

I can try to uninstall Norton.

[rshaffer61]

Go HERE and use the appropriate uninstaller for your version of Nortons to make sure it is completely uninstalled.

Edited by rshaffer61, 07 May 2010 - 05:29 AM.

[diabillic]

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.

This means you need to run a boot up chkdsk scan. Try this from a command prompt

chkdsk /f

It will try and scan but fail again, then will ask you if you want to scan at startup. Hit Y. Reboot. It will continue to check at startup after every reboot, just cancel it the next time and will not do it again.

Also, you can boot to the recovery console and run chkdsk /r from there as well. The choice is yours.