chkdsk 'problem found' won't go away, common?

Question

I stumbled across this while trying to help someone else figure out if their HDD had troubles. I'll quote myself from a reply:

something peculiar about chkdsk. You might notice it, too. I keep getting a "Windows found a problem with the file system." remark that I hadn't been seeing during the brief moment it reports those statistics before continuing to start the computer. I seldom ever run chkdsk command without /f so I don't know how long this has gone on.

Searching for answers on the internet only made matters worse. Seems to be a very prevalent thing and the few potential solutions don't seem to apply in reality. To sum it all up, people have said they've reinstalled Windows after a reformat and it didn't prevent chkdsk from reporting a problem. Someone said they were able to stop the 'error' by turning off System Restore. I tried that and it didn't work. In fact, I had a new problem appear after disabling Norton's Antivirus! Showed a MFT (Master File Table) error was corrected!

Here's what it showed after I disabled NAV and then ran chkdsk from a command prompt.

Security descriptor verification completed.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT).
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct.

Subsequent (and prior) runs of the command show only the 'Volume Bitmap' and 'file system' as still having trouble.

I have done the chkdsk /f and it didn't "fix" these things.

Anybody got an idea what might be going on? Search of the internet is futile so far, lots of people with same problem occuring going back a few years. Someone noticed disabling System Restore allowed the chkdsk to be error free-- but not for me. Index Service is off, too. Surprised to find out about this so late in the game.

Thanks in advance (and later on too?) for your replies.

msil217 · Answer

Yes, even if I run Chkdsk, it will always say "windows has found problem with the file system upom subsequent checking.(On the drive that has Windows installed) (rechecking after running chkdsk at reboot)

If you are worried, maybe you can post in the Hard-Drive Forum.

You could run diagnostics on your Hard-Drive to see if there is potential problem.

(Dell Diagnostics, or a diagnostic program from the manufacturer of the Hard Drive).

iKlaatu · Answer

Thanks for the response. Not too worried about the HDD since it is merely about one month old so far; even if just wishful thinking. It seems to check out fine besides the erroneous chkdsk reports.   Having read numerous messages posted all over the internet concerning this same thing, I'm thinking there must be more to this than what the chkdsk command can tell us. Obviously, no apparent problems are actually encountered-- none I could be sure of. I need to sift through XP's error log and see if I can figure something out. I don't usually get into these inner workings, so I'm basically flying blind into the murkiness that is Windows. :smileyindifferent:

jwatt · Answer

iKlaatu, I wonder if something could have altered the default settings for autochk. They can be displayed and modified using the Microsoft 'chkntfs' command-line utility, described here. Jim

iKlaatu · Answer

Hiya Jim, well I've been through the chkntfs only to find there doesn't seem to be any trouble with a 'dirty' disk, and the defaults were never changed. Fresh start as of a month ago when I replaced my notebook HDD. I didn't move a previous install over to it or anything, just disabled Indexing and set up some other personal preferences is all.   Thought I'd locate one of these exhaustive discussions, going back years and up to the present, and let others out there in the DELL Forums see this stuff for themselves. Very long web page, so prepare to scroll and read a lot. Near the very end a person named Greg suggests caching might be the root of this problem. I'll be trying to find that out for myself... as it has been a real mystery to me I want to solve (partly, anyway) so I can tell others about it.   http://mike.steinbaugh.com/journal/2002/08/28/ntfs-file-system-glitch.html   Hope this helps people, like me, in some way.

iKlaatu · Answer

Okay... this is interesting, so thought you might like to know.

I disabled the Windows XP Prefetch, which is something that monitors files as they are used and can then help speed up access to them (program starts, too).

This is something I've never looked into before on my own computer(s), although I've heard (read) of it.

Why do I mention it here? Because after disabling it I got an error/problem-free check disk report, when running the chkdsk command.

Involves editing the system registry so this isn't something people should jump into without serious thought first. Might help just to delete the files found within the Windows\Prefetch folder, not sure, since I didn't try only that and running the chkdsk. Probably should have just to find out if those files themselves were causing trouble. Apparently this is something many people do to "clean" things up.

Instructions are at: http://home.earthlink.net/~lreynol929/ruXP/Misc/cleanout.htm

This web page tells about both the folder and registry entry. CurrentControlSet is the folder that is active, ignore the other numbered ControlSet folders.

Usual disclaimer: Please don't go messing around with these things unless you are certain of yourself.

Be aware that it takes three reboots for Prefetch to begin complete optimization once again if you do disable and later reenable it!

Windows General

chkdsk "problem found" won't go away, common?

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