How to force CHKDSK fix index on NTFS drive?

trodas · Post by **trodas** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:40 pm

At first I made the mistake using Partition Magic v8.00 to setup a drive (2G FAT32 for OS, 184G NTFS for data). PM v8.00 is faulty and screw up the drive, mainly the NTFS partition. Usually the results are not as dramatic as I experience (mostly only windows is slow in powering off), however on VIA chipset, as this old machine use, it is hell. New files are corrupted and gone missing after reboot, etc. Bad.
(results of using PM 8.00 on VIA chipsets from Symatec page are not exaggerated at all)
In PM v8.02 or v8.05 it should be fixed, however even the v8.02 is not going to allow me to fix ANY error. It finding twice
Error 1611 bad system file name
...and about hundred times...
Error 1527 bad update sequence number
...and button FIX is still grayed out.

So I tried a workaround - used the recommended Acronis Partition Expert v8 and I downsized the D drive a bit and then get it back to former status and quess what - most of the errors and problems are gone now! No more bit table troubles with MFT, but the new file corruption and files gone missing behaviour sadly continue...

So the first thing one do is to run chkdsk, right? So I run it with parameters /x /f and it always says "Fixing error in index $I30 file 5. Checking of index finished." - that it should be translated to english... However when I run it imediatelly again, it report the very same thing!
So the error is NOT fixed.

So I get the idea that I just find the file no. 5 using MFT table and kill it. Using DiskEdit utility (from Win2k SP4 CD by M$ itself, grab it there: http://rapidshare.com/files/189278835/DiskEdit.zip ) I opened the NTFS D drive and - sadly instead of the path and file I saw only couple of empty boxes... I can check other files fine, so, what now? It is a system file or hidden something then...?

I tried threat that as it is a deleted file fragment or something like that. I tried the Recuva utility from Sysinternals, because it can safely erase the deleted files, based on the MFT infos... If you did not know, well, then MFT store and keep information about every files you ever had on your HDD, so... (MFT on my drive have 57MB currently) Recuva found like 16k of deleted files, so I check them all and say - delete them right away!
But things went wrong, as some of the files are "resident" in the MFT table, so, they are not deleted. Also Recuva cannot delete the infos MFT keep about files long time gone from HDD. So I tried the recovering utility Restoration v3.2.13, because it know not only erase files, but also erase the infos about them in MFT! Then in Recuva you see only 16k of empty lost file infos, hehe.
But that did not help me either.
Then I tried Winhex v15.1, witch offer fantastic things, and among others - erasing the unnecessary MFT infos. However it again only erase the missing files infos, not remove them from MFT - it probably did not know how to rebuild the MFT then... So, no improve in the chkdsk error and HDD behaviour done...

Hence - anyone have any ideas how to fix this index problem? Chkdsk /x /d /r D: run way too long and at the end, no change at all.

Also I tried chkdsk from the Windows repair console, however no difference. It says that he find something, but then again - it did not fix it. And only report that find and fixed errors the first time I run it. Each next run it make there pauses (hence 3 errors, I presume) but not report them anymore!
Much less to fix them...

So when I get back in win, it way agaion like that:

Program CHKDSK ovÄ›Å™uje soubory (fÃ¡ze 1 z 3)...
OvÄ›Å™enÃ souboru dokonÄ

lm · Post by lm » Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:31 pm

Woah, you really are making simple things look way complicated there...

Maybe your hardware is just broken?

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:59 pm

Pretty much the easiest thing you can do is to have a look at the SMART data (very useful if SMART is turned on, sometimes completely useless if its turned off).

Look at the BIOS setting to see if SMART is turned on/off, it may not even have it listed, then download and install HDTune, and have a look at its SMART info.

If SMART is turned off and HDTune says your drive is fine and healthy, then start looking at other faulty hardware (BTW the SMART info being clean does NOT mean that your drive is fine, it is the majority of the time, and is not invasive unlike a full HDD check using the manufacturers utility).

Get back to us with your finding.

Andy

PS: Back up everything thats important, if you havent already done so.

trodas · Post by **trodas** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:01 am

lm - my HW is fine, thank you. And I wish any checking utility can SIMPLY repair the filesystem problem on my HDD, that it is. M$ by making such bad chkdsk.

andyb -

Pretty much the easiest thing you can do is to have a look at the SMART data...

I'm sorry, I did that yesterday and the day before. What does that is supposed to fix? I know the HDD is perfectly OK by HW side, just the filesystem is... f*cked up by the cursed PM.

then start looking at other faulty hardware

My HW is fine, thanks for minding it. Witch is why there is no errors on C drive, part of the very same HDD, for example

Just FAT32 and not unrepairable NTFS crap...

full HDD check using the manufacturers utility

Done there times already. I refuse to do it 4th time.

Basicaly, I just looking for chkdsk replacement, or something that CAN FIX NTFS filesystem. chkdsk obviously can't.

|Romeo| · Post by **|Romeo|** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:02 am

Let's recap for a minute.

You used software known to screw up the MFT on a partition and it screwed it up badly enough that chkdsk can't do anything with it.

You've used a number of other tools including a hex editor on the MFT. Fairly unsurprisingly, none of the tools were able to easily deal with resident files in a corrupted MFT. Using the hex editor manually could fix your problems, but unless you understand NTFS very well that's a fools game.

Assuming you are as confident as you say that the hardware is not faulty, then the tool of choice is format (although personally I would recover from the last backup and then use fdisk to do the partition resizing -who knows what else PM screwed up). Your chances of finding a tool that will work better than chkdsk are very slim.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:21 am

Format the thing with ultimate boot cd and reinstall.
Even if you 'fix' it, in my experience, problems in the OS will always continue to pop up.

(ahem)

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Thanks much, some of us are on dialup, or worse satellite.(gasp)
Every byte saved helps.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:58 am

I would also abandon the use of FAT32 completely, its far less reliable than NTFS, and once you have re-installed your OS and apps, create an image of the drive and store it on a suitable medium on that basis that its easier to re-image than to re-install.

Andy

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:11 pm

I would also ditch FAT32 over NTFS. I know you're using an nLited install, but there's still no reason to use FAT32 in this day and age. NTFS has considerably faster performance for small files (since they reside within the MFT itself) nad has improved stability and security.

Also, if you're using the OS as anything more than just a file storage machine, give the OS drive more than 2GB (preferably 5 or more).

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:35 am

I tried Partition Magic myself a long time ago. It also screwed up my partitions.
The only thing what finally did remove the errors was:
delete all partitions, powercycle, create new partitions, full format, and try again. Just reformatting a partition wasn't enough. I had to delete all partitions to get rid of the errors.
If your partition table is "touched" by partition magic, and the magic goes wrong, there is really nothing what can fix it again.
Since that day I never ever used that program again.
Also partition magic 8 is rather old, and vista has a new version of NTFS which wasn't made when partition magic 8 was made. That also creates problems when those two are combined.

Seen from your screenshot and situation, I would really wipe the disk, remove all partitions from it and start over again without partition magic.

The next time you are going to play with partitions I would advise to use gparted, the gnome partition manager. This is freeware, and has a nice livecd, and works more reliable than partition magic.

trodas · Post by **trodas** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:35 pm

I get feed up with constantly losing files and stuff, so I did managed to back up the data, reformat, and no chkdsk error ever since.

But it is really sad that NTFS can show errors chkdsk cannot repair. Not any other tool... Makes me wonder if a better filesystem should not be used.

I also very much dislike the MFT table, the saving small files directly into the MFT, fragmenting it, storing names of files FOREVER in MFT... things like that make me puke from NTFS. Time to check if Winblows can't work with other more advanced filesystem.

lm · Post by lm » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:42 am

Trodas: Do you happen to also use linux by any chance? Several filesystems to choose on on that side of the fence (not that you'd have to, as the defaults are nice too).