My Win Server 2003 boot HD is reporting bad sectors

Published by: mike 2008-11-29

My Win Server 2003 boot HD is reporting bad sectors I went to backup my boot drive today, using TrueImage server (ver 6, and then tried ver 7) and it would not work anymore. It is reporting bad sectors. It has always worked in the past. I even tried booting off the TrueImage CD and got the same messages I tried to find ScanDisk, but could not find it. Where is ScanDisk kept these days? Will it fix my problems? If not, What should I use? thanxs in advnce

Hi There, I am currently experiencing exactly the same problems on two brand new Dell servers. I have Dell investigating the problem as we speak, they thought it may be down to my Anti-Virus software but I'm not convinced. I will let you know if I know anything. Regards, MF

ok. i'll do it. thanks so much for your continued help. i'll report back soon.

Ok. i did the /R and then a /F, and after the 2 reboots, I run it again and here is what the checkout files says: Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790] (C) 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp. C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator>chkdsk c: >checkout7.txt C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator>more checkout7.txt The type of the file system is NTFS. The volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk might report errors when no corruption is present. Volume label is 2003 Boot. 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)... Index verification completed. CHKDSK is recovering lost files. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)... completed. CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table (MFT) bitmap. Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap. Windows found problems with the file system. Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these. 78140128 KB total disk space. 7107240 KB in 32588 files. 12124 KB in 3175 indexes. 36 KB in bad sectors. 107500 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 70913228 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 19535032 total allocation units on disk. 17728307 allocation units available on disk. C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator> Then I ran the memory test you mentioned. Here are the results. The memory test froze on one of the tests. Here is an approximation of the screen: ======================================================== Test name: LRAND Pass: 1 Test: 3 of 6 pass progress: about 25% pass progress: about 65% pass progress: about 15% ======================================================== Pass Test Cache ------------------------------ 1 MATS+ On Failed (in red letters) 1 INVC On Failed (in red letters) 1 LRAND On Failed (in blue letters) ======================================================== Results Pass Test Cache Address Expected Actual 13 1 LRAND On 27ffdc80 48585cf3 00006257 14 (same type thing as above) 15 (same type thing as above) 16 (same type thing as above) ======================================================== I ran it again, and it failed even earlier, but still said Failed (in red letters). So what does this all mean? What to do? the things seems to run,but truImage Server wont let me image it. thanx in advnce,

Problem Fixed! It was the drive. After repeatedly running the /R and /F thing, and then using the fix sectors (I think it was sectors, maybe fix disk) option on my imaging software (not sure if it was TrueImage or V2i boot cd that had this tool), I was able to get the thing to image properly using trueimage. I then put in a new boot HD, imaged back to that Boot HD and booted off it. I got rid of the old boot HD, and now everything works great. I'm going to take the extra RAM i bought and put in in a new workstaion I have. The server runs much better with the gig of new RAM. I am so happy about how everything worked out. Thanks so much to denco-ga and all that helped. One thing is strange through, it seems like some of the posts in this thread are gone. Maybe it is my imagination. My last question is this, who should i award the answer to?

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Howdy sherpaj-ga, I think we are making progress and I greatly appreciate your patience with this. It looks like you have some bad RAM, so you will want to change it out for some good memory, and see if that clears up your problem. Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

I did a "chkdsk d: /f". It said that programs were open and would I like to do it upon reboot. I entered "y" and then rebooted. It did the checkdisk, but didn't pause to show the results. Then it booted into windows, but I still have the problem and can't use TrueImage server to backup the boot drive. Did it leave a log somewhere? What should I do now?

Howdy sherpaj-ga, OK, to the next steps. Follow the usual Start, Run, command steps, then run chkdsk with this flag: chkdsk c: /R If that doesn't work, try defragmenting the drive, and then run chkdsk with the /F flag again: chkdsk c: /F If none of the above work, then try checking your RAM. Believe it or not, sometimes bad RAM (memory) can cause problems like this. Please go to the following Microsoft web page and then follow their directions to check your computer's RAM. Windows Memory Diagnostic http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp I know that this kind of diagnostics can be trying and I appreciate your patience. Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Howdy sherpaj-ga/jimwest-ga, I don't think it is your imagination; it does appear that some of the thread is not here anymore. I don't know why though. Regardless, the question has now expired, but if you think that some of the information I provided was of value, you can, at your option, post a question (with the caveat of "for denco-ga please") and price it however you wish. I will then be happy to summarize the information above as an Answer. Very glad it worked out! denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

how can i get a report and a fix ?

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just to be clear. i did run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option, it wanted to reboot first, I let it. i guess it didn't fix things. This is the second time I have run the /F (fix) option.

I ran the /f one, let it reboot and run it and fix hings, then I logged in, ran it again wo the /f and here is what the report says: Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790] (C) 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp. C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator>chkdsk c: >plswork.txt C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator>more plswork.txt The type of the file system is NTFS. The volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk might report errors when no corruption is present. Volume label is 2003 Boot. 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)... Index verification completed. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)... completed. CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap. Windows found problems with the file system. Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these. 78140128 KB total disk space. 7106436 KB in 32569 files. 12120 KB in 3172 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 107496 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 70914076 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 19535032 total allocation units on disk. 17728519 allocation units available on disk. C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator> So what does this mean?? What should I do now? (thanks in advance...)

Howdy sherpaj-ga, To get a report, try the following: - Go to Start - Click on Run... - Type in the word: command - Click on OK This should open a window and you should have a command prompt. - Type in the following command and hit enter. chkdsk c: >checkout.txt It might take some time to run. When chkdsk is done, the command prompt will appear once again. Type in the following command and hit enter. more checkout.txt As the file is displayed, you can hit the space bar to display the next part of the report. If there are problems showing in the report, then type in the following and hit enter. chkdsk c: /f Allow that to run all the way through, and see that fixes things. After that runs, or if the initial run of chkdsk does not report any problems, then type exit at the command prompt to exit the command line window. Greatly appreciate your patience with this diagnostic process. Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Howdy sherpaj-ga , You can get chkdsk to save a report by doing the command: chkdsk c: report Replace [c:] with the drive letter and [report] with whatever you want the report name to be. Note that this will produce a report, but no repairs will result from that run. Please post results of that if you would please. Thanks! denco-ga

Howdy sherpaj-ga, These days chkdsk is used by Microsoft operating systems to do the ScanDisk job. Even though this page is from the Microsoft XP section, it shows how to operate chkdsk. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/chkdsk.asp "Creates and displays a status report for a disk based on the file system. ... chkdsk [volume:][[path] filename] [/f] [/v] [/r] [/x] [/i] [/c] [/l[:size]] ... If you want to check the disk in drive D and have Windows fix errors, type: chkdsk d: /f If it encounters errors, chkdsk pauses and displays messages." Make sure you read the whole page above for all the chkdsk flags and caveats. Will it fix the problem? Maybe, maybe not. If your boot drive just started reporting bad sectors, you might have caught the problem early. If it just started reporting lots of bad sectors, try running chkdsk, and if it works, back up the drive and then replace it as soon as possible. Do not even think about "limping along" until gets worse. Drives are cheap, but data is not. If it is just a few bad sectors, monitor your system carefully. You should run chkdsk on your system on a regular (weekly) basis anyway, but you might run it daily for the next week or so just to play it safe. If you get ever increasing reports of bad sectors, back up and replace the drive. If the above fixes your problem, please post so, and I can report the above (and more) as an Answer. If it doesn't, post so as well, and I will then give you some alternatives. Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher