chkdsk problems

[nellanayrb]

Anyone have any solutions they have found? Looks like alot of people here have had the same problem and it's been quite a while so I'd assume they've either fixed it or formatted by now.

[shadow049]

Guess what folks- I have the same problem! Except this is even more frustrating cause im trying to dual boot PCLinuxOS and its telling me there are issues with the hard drive.... and to run chkdsk.

[Radoman]

Hi all,
New to the forum. Found you guys by this problem. I am a fairly experienced tech and I have dug very deeply into this problem. I would love to hear if anyone knows anything new about this one.

This appears to be some type of virus or rootkit to me. I lean towards rootkit because the machine that was affected had significant antivirus running and was updated. Subsequent virus scans have shown nothing.

Bios was set to stay off after power failure, came back and the machine sat at the logon screen like it had reset. It never ran the same after that. This leads me to suspect some type of malware/rootkit as that kind of thing often resets the machine after it's done.

The symptoms: You run CHKDSK on your system drive from Dos, and it reports errors. You run it at next boot with the /f parameter set and it completes OK, but when you run it from dos again, you still get errors. Ad infineum.

This is NOT a hardware issue. I have imaged the system to a completely different hard drive, and it still exhibits the same behavior. Hook the drive up as slave, zero CHKDSK errors. Hook the drive up as master, and permanent Dos CHKDSK errors.

Specifically the malware seems to target disc operations of just about any kind. Nero in particular is suddenly buggy, but even floppy access seems affected with read/write errors. File copys are also hampered. They will "complete", but the timer never stops, and will freeze at ten seconds remaining, even though I can see the file has completed.

Multiple scans with hard drive manufacturers software shows no physical defects, but errors continue. Alternate disk utilities also show no defects, but CHKDSK errors continue. As I've said, I have even copied the drive to another and STILL get the same errors, so this is a Windows problem, not a hardware issue.

It must hide itself well within the system volume information, or some place equally inaccessible/undeleteable. No antivirus software that I have tried can see any problem.

The only other possible solution I can think of is that Acronis may have screwed something up somehow, but I only saw one other person in the thread mention that program. Anybody else having this problem use Acronis stuff too? I mean it is suspect, as it's a disk utility that has access to alot of this stuff. However everybody uses it so it's not necessarily such a big coincidence for two of us in the thread to use it. If you use it too and are having these type of problems, please say so.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

The solution? Unknown so far......

[Radoman]

I re-imaged the original hard disk from an old backup using Acronis. The CHKDSK problem disappeared. (doesn't look like Acronis' fault) So, it looks to me like a reinstall might be the final solution for folks who experience this issue.

I have back ups at the ready, so I figure what the heck, I install a copy of the "suspect" hard drive as a secondary and boot. (I want to know what's happening here to be able to stop it in the future.) Surprise, the CHKDSK errors have reappeared in Dos on the system drive.

My old back up image had Norton Antivirus 2005 installed. (yes I know it's bad, it's an old back up) I initiate a scan of the "suspect" drive with Norton. I look away for a second, and the scan window disappears. I try again. Scan window comes up for less than a second this time. Looks like pretty classic malware behavior. Target Norton. I try scanning with updated NOD32 and AVG. Both programs see no problems.

There it sits. Mocking me. Step 2 of 3, "checking indexes" hangs obviously at 25% on this particular drive when the problem is active. Then I get mixed error messages relating to random file numbers, (always different) but there is a common "index $I30 of file ****" message listed.

This sure looks hostile and undiscovered to me. Nod32 is supposed to be great for "in the wild" virii, but doesn't see a thing. I wonder how widespread it is? Anyone else still getting permanent errors when running CHKDSK from a command prompt?

[shinigami7th]

I also have the same problem..... It was first appear a few days after I installed O&O defrag, so I suspected it might cause the error. I have a NOD32 v2.79 in my com.

[shinigami7th]

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\stealth>chkdsk /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is MAIN.

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.
Detected minor inconsistencies on the drive. This is not a corruption.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

5952050 KB total disk space.
5152120 KB in 28360 files.
9212 KB in 2889 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
98162 KB in use by the system.
31824 KB occupied by the log file.
692556 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
1488012 total allocation units on disk.
173139 allocation units available on disk.


I keep getting this same result everytime I run chkdsk........ NOD32 shows no virus detected. I think the error only appears when windows is active, that is why startup scandisk won't show anything. I agree with Radoman, it might be a rootkit. But so far, there is no visible effect in my com, so I hope it is only a proof-of-concept malware and does nothing.

PS: There is just one complain about my com. About a week ago, I just upgraded my ram from 256mb to 1gb, bringing a significant increase in the performance. But sometimes, it gets quite slow for 1-2 minutes, then it goes back to normal again..... This happens about twice so far ever since I added the ram....... Note that I also partitioned my drive into 3 parts. The other 2 partitions are ok....

[frnorth]

Well this does not look too good for the good guys,

I have the same problem when I try to defrag, I get the message that defrag won’t run because chkdsk is scheduled,

Chkdsk won’t run because it cannot access the volume at startup.

I am hoping someone can come up with something there is really too much on this HD for me to want to reformat it.

[hooker13]

I hate to add yet another cry for help. I'm having a similar issue, although it doesn't seem to be exactly the same. It started with a defrag attempt which prompted the "can't run b/c chkdsk is scheduled to run on volume c: Please run chkdsk /f". When I attempt to run error checking from the system tools and select "automatically fix errors" and "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors", I get the "can't run it because other things are using the volume. do you want to schedule it on start-up?" When I hit "y" and restart, the screen comes up that says it is highly recommended to check my disk, press any key to cancel. HOWEVER, it cancels itself without my pressing a key. I tried running chkdsk /f from the command prompt. I tried chkdsk /d and restarting. I tried running chkdsk /f in safe mode. No dice on all of them. The only thing that gets any reaction other than "can't do it" is chkdsk /i which gets through step 1 of 3 and says that it found errors and can't continue. It claims to have deleted corrupt attibute records and list entries (all from file record segment 159499). But everytime I run it, it claims to delete the same files. A lot of the entries I've read on other sites seem to point to a bad hard drive, but most of what I've read here says virus. Any progress by anyone on how to fix? Does my problem seem the same as others?

[garberfc]

I'm experiencing the same problem Radoman describes on my two home computers and my work laptop. I'm assuming it's from something I've installed in the past.

I'm hoping someone can find a solution b/c it would be a HUGE effort to format / reinstall the software on any one of the computers!

I have Acronis installed on all three computers. I like the program and am NOT placing any blame on it, just mentioning that I, like others, have it installed.

If anyone has any more suggestions or links to promising solutions, please post the information here...

TIA,
Frank

[garberfc]

Maybe we should be looking into rootkit detectors. Does anyone have experience with any?

I use BitDefender Antivirus 2008 http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-2...irus-2008.html that claims:

Detects and removes the newest breed of hidden threats known as rootkits

It shows my system as clean!

[gonefishing]

Well I found you guys from looking for a clue to a problem I had that is almost exactly like the starter of this thread. My pc wouldn't go through the boot up process and kept rebooting itself halfway through boot up. I ran chkdsk and got the same message, did everything under the sun without luck. Out of curiousity, I switched the ram stick and voila.........I spend all day scratching my head for something so simple. This might not be your guys problem but I thought it would worth a shot....