Check disk vanishes!!

[Tipton]

XP pro SP2 machine here. When I go to Start> Run, and type in "chkdsk".....it pops up and runs, but then vanishes off the screen when it is completed. Can't even see what was found because of this. If I run chkdsk from the command prompt, it works fine.

Any ideas why it doesn't stay up on the screen?

Thanks

Tipton

[igor]

What if you first start cmd and then run chkdsk from there?

[Tipton]

What if you first start cmd and then run chkdsk from there?

CMD??  You mean run from a command prompt?  Yes it works fine then. I added that to my first post. I was just curious why it vanishes if I run from the "run" window.

Tipton

[Lisandro]

I was just curious why it vanishes if I run from the "run" window.

Tipton, isn't it normal? The run command will finish the cmd window when it comes back to cmd.
Only if you open a new cmd window you'll able to keep it open and the command prompt blinking...

[Tipton]

I was just curious why it vanishes if I run from the "run" window.

Tipton, isn't it normal? The run command will finish the cmd window when it comes back to cmd.
Only if you open a new cmd window you'll able to keep it open and the command prompt blinking...

I think you are right.

The reason I even asked this, was I am fixing my hard drive MP3 player.  It landed in a river this last summer while on vacation.  It hasn't worked since, even after drying it out. Well the other night, I checked it, and it fired up, but was acting all weird. I ran chkdsk on it, and windows fixed a bunch of bad sectors, and it has worked beautifully ever since.

Tipton

[Lisandro]

windows fixed a bunch of bad sectors

Sure? Bad sectors or errors?
Bad sectors could come back, mess everything if the registry files are saved into one of them, etc.
You need extra caution if you have them... I can guide you to cure but it`s very time consuming...
I saved two or three HDD with bad sectors and they work until today without errors or problems...

[Tipton]

windows fixed a bunch of bad sectors

Sure? Bad sectors or errors?

Nope, wasn't errors. It's no big deal, all that is on the player is MP3's. I keep the originals on a second hard drive.

[XtremeKirby]

Hm... my main harddrive had 200KB of bad sectors ever since a year ago when I used ckkdsk, and till now, it still has the same 200KB of bad sectors. I read somewhere that if you have bad sectors it somehow spreads and in a few days or weeks, the harddrive could be damaged beyond repair. But, I have used this disk for a year already with that 200KB of bad sectors, and nothing bad seemed to have happened yet.

You need extra caution if you have them... I can guide you to cure but it`s very time consuming...

Does the cure really work? I am very interested to see the procedure if you have the time, Tech.

Thanks,
XKirby

[Lisandro]

Does the cure really work? I am very interested to see the procedure if you have the time, Tech.

I've done it at least three times... worked on three.
But I'm really ashamed to post here 
Well, it's not a pretty solution, it's a hard one, but works
Maybe we can talk by IM... if it works for you, then we post the solution 

[Lisandro]

I'm ressurrecting this topic just to all of you know that after being 4 to 5 hours helping... finally, XtremeKirby could have his HDD free of blad clusters...
Unfortunatelly, maybe, he didn't have time to post the solution here or to keep this thread alive.
So, I've decided to post again to let you know.

[XtremeKirby]

I'm ressurrecting this topic just to all of you know that after being 4 to 5 hours helping... finally, XtremeKirby could have his HDD free of blad clusters...

Indeed yes. I just would like to say sorry to Tech for having to delay on telling everyone what we have done to get the HD free of  bad clusters. Since I do have some time right now, I should get on to it:

As Tech said, bad clusters can be recovered on a HD by formatting and reformatting with different file systems and resizing the partitions between the format.

At first we tried the Linux Rescue CD and the Partition Magic clone included with it.

-->First, we deleted all the partions on the HD leaving it blank.

-->Then, we create a new partition and format with NTFS 4 to 5 times. We must format the HD more than once because that changes the partition geometry: positions, tracks, numbers, clusters, etc.

-->After that, we delete the partition, create a new one, resize the partion by at least 10% of the total HD space follow with more formatting with ext2 (Linux file system) and then delete, create, and resize by another 10% and continue formatting with ext3 (another Linux file system), and then do the same for FAT32.

We tried those steps with the Linux Rescue CD and then scanned the HD for bad clusters with a Cluster Verifying tool (I kind of forgot the name of it) in a boot floppy. At first it gave me a lot of bad clusters, so we tried again with a free version of Partition Magic (not the clone) that loads in two boot floppies. We did the same thing as above, and scanned the HD again with HDD Regenerator which lasted the whole night, for about 6 hours to scan my HD.

-->At last, when the scanning was done, it showed up as 0-bad clusters. Then later after I reinstalled my OS, I checked my HD with CHDSK using the >Scan and attempt recovery of bad clusters, and it showed up as 0-bad clusters too. We concluded that formatting with the Linux file systems, and resizing the partition helps cure the bad sectors in NTFS or FAT32 file system.

So, I hope these information can help anyone experiencing bad sectors or a possible HD failure. But, remember when doing this, make sure all data is backed up. Then, you can do whatever you want to the HD. Anything goes.

Big thanks to Tech for his wonderful help.