SOLVED Chkdsk has run for 2 days

Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
I have a Western Digital 1 TB disk that was running very slow under Vista. I upgraded to Windows 7. It ran ok for a few weeks but then started running slowly. I was out of town for 3 weeks with system powered off. On return system would not boot. I did the Windows Repair and recovery and I think it was running chkdsk which appeared to get hung up. I then selected the Command Mode from Repair and Recovery and ran chkdsk c: /r /i

It did start displaying what it was doing so I let it run. It did index fixes for a day in Stage 1 and 2. Stage 3 went pretty fast. After 3 days it is now in Stage 4 and says that it is "Verifying file data" approx 94600 of 430000 files processed. At this rate it should take 3 more days to finish Stage 4. Fortunately I have a laptop and files backed up and warranty is good on WD drive. So, I'm going to let it go till it either freezes or finishes.

I'm hoping to set a record for a chkdsk run !!!

Let me know if anyone has any insights or suggestions.

thanks,
Ed
 

TrainableMan

^ The World's First ^
Moderator
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
9,353
Reaction score
1,587
Hiker, I moved this to its' own thread.

Suggestion? Try formatting the drive (unfortunately you will loose everything) and then from the W7 DVD go to command prompt and run chkdsk. From the sounds of it, there is a good possibility your hard drive is going bad and needs replaced.
 

Core

all ball, no chain
Moderator
Joined
Feb 13, 2009
Messages
1,175
Reaction score
272
How did you gauge that the drive was "running slowly", as opposed to it being the operating system?

Check SMART data, and I'd run a check for malware/virus infections, and scannow /sfc while you're at it.
 
Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
"Slow drive"

The system worked reasonably fast when I had a smaller drive running Vista. When the old drive falled I decided to upgrade to the 1TB drive. The same Vista ran "slower." Then there were some odd things happening, like the Control Panel stopped displaying the LIST version and only displayed icons. So, I decided to update to Windows 7. All functionality was restored but it still seemed to run slow. Upon doing some investigation, it seemed like the file indexing was screwed up, which seemed right because the drive would grind away when trying to find files. So, I re-indexed the drive. It seemd to start working faster. Until this week, when it failed. Before failing I did run scannow and started using the Microsoft Security sofware. I also ran MalewareBytes frequently.

If the chkdsk ever completes and boots into Windows, I'll let you know. Since it is still ticking off a file count, I'll just let it ride fart a couple of days.
 

TrainableMan

^ The World's First ^
Moderator
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
9,353
Reaction score
1,587
Some drives ARE slower than other drives: they spin at slower rates, they have longer read/write times, and smaller cache buffers. These are often sold as "economy" drives.
 

TrainableMan

^ The World's First ^
Moderator
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
9,353
Reaction score
1,587
If that's the new drive, then unless you went down from an SSD or a 10000RPM velociraptor then you shouldn't see a speed loss.
 

Digerati

Post Quinquagenarian
Microsoft MVP
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
1,094
Reaction score
277
ran chkdsk c: /r /i
Why did you use the /i switch? Note the /i switch causes chkdsk to perform a less vigorous check on index entries. I recommend sticking to chkdsk /r (no need for /f as that is included in /r).

That said, I recommend you run WD's own diagnostics on the drive, Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. If any errors are noted by its own diagnostics, WD will not give you any grief replacing it.
I'll just let it ride fart a couple of days.
That stinks. :D
 
Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Ran "faster" version of Chkdsk

I ran faster option for CHKDSK because it was really running slow. The "faster"option is into the 4th day now. Stage 4...verifying @ 190000 out of 420000 files. It's still counting files, so I can't wait till Tuesday to see what happens in stage 5. If it gets back to Windows I'll run the WD tools, which I have run before.
 

Digerati

Post Quinquagenarian
Microsoft MVP
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
1,094
Reaction score
277
I have had chkdsk run on large (>1Tb) drives for over 48 hours, but never 4 days. I am not sure I would have enough confidence in that drive to store my precious data even it eventually does complete and appears to be good to go.

Drives are too cheap and my data (and my time to restore it) is too valuable to risk it.
 
Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Fini

So, once when I went in to check the status of CHKDSK I found that the system had rebooted and went into the Recovery program, asking me what language to use.

Fortunately I found an older Vista drive. I removed the 1TB drive and hooked up the Vista drive and booted in Vista just fine. Then I powered down and added the 1TB drive so I could test it and lo and behold the Vista drive wouldn't even boot up...until I disconnected the 1TB drive from the system! Bye Bye 1TB drive! I am going to clone the Vista drive for a backup and then install Windows 7 on it. I can restore all of my files.

Case closed!....... looks like the 4 day run of CHKDSK did indicate a severe problem with the drive.

thanks for listening.
 

Digerati

Post Quinquagenarian
Microsoft MVP
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
1,094
Reaction score
277
thanks for listening.
Hey - I like a good story! ;) I am glad you got it sorted out and thanks for posting the follow up!
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads


Top