Windows 7 CHKDSK scan report.. should I replace drives ASAP?

[Corin Segar]

Hi,

my system is:
Dell XPS 420
Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
8GB RAM @ 667MHz
Bios A07
Windows 7 home premium 64 (SP 1)
2 x 256GB hitatchi drives in RAID 0

this system was purchased in 2009 and has not been upgraded with new hardware (apart from RAM immediately after purchase).


I have recently experienced alot of system freezes (forcing manual restart) and my HDD RAID 0 set up now registers drive errors on start up (red error text after post).

I have just run a CHKDSK scan (as suggested by Mike from these forums on youtube - Repair and Fix Hard Drive and Disk Errors - YouTube )

The results of the scan did not reveal any bad sectors, but have made corrections to the file system. The drives still register errors on start up.

I have not 'backed up' my drive yet but have manually copied every file to an external 2TB drive, so at least my CG work is safe.

Do I need to replace the drives ASAP or did the CHKDSK function repair the problem?

below are the results from the CHKDSK scan, any advice would be greatly appreciated.





Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.


CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
561920 file records processed. File verification completed.
2389 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed.


0 EA records processed. 136 reparse records processed.


CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
716086 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered.


CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
561920 file SDs/SIDs processed. Security descriptor verification completed.
77084 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
36665416 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
561904 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
24476502 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.


488218623 KB total disk space.
389352468 KB in 475111 files.
279660 KB in 77085 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
680483 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
97906012 KB available on disk.


4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
122054655 total allocation units on disk.
24476503 allocation units available on disk.


Internal Info:
00 93 08 00 09 6d 08 00 20 81 0f 00 00 00 00 00 .....m.. .......
03 08 01 00 88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................


Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[Trouble]

Do I need to replace the drives ASAP or did the CHKDSK function repair the problem?

Not a question that is easily answered.
You do not say how you have accomplished the Raid0 (hardware or software). I see on page 30 of the owner's manual (Link Removed due to 404 Error) that some XPS 420s come with an integrated Intel Raid controller, although I'm not sure if that is the case in every instance.
In either case, as you probably know already, Raid0 (striped set) provides no redundancy and the failure of either drive will almost surely result in the loss of all data on the volume, likewise a faulty or failing drive controller (raid or not) can cause data corruption.
So the bottom line is probably going to be a known good, current, verifiable backup of all your critical data and then, depending on how mission critical the computer is a wait and see if the Check Disk utility has in fact actually repaired an existing issue. If you cannot afford to be without the system for a prolonged period, then purchasing new hard drives and having them standing by might be prudent (although new drives won't help if the problem is with the drive controller). You mention something about

my HDD RAID 0 set up now registers drive errors on start up (red error text after post)

but I didn't see anything further on that topic, so.... what is the source of that error and is it still present after chkdsk?

 

[Drew]

Run sfc /scannow and Malwarebytes.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Corin Segar]

Hi Trouble,

On boot up I pressed Ctrl+I and was given options to create/ delete RAID volumes. This menu was titled 'Intel (R) Matrix Storage Manager option ROM v7.6.1.1001 ICH9R' so I believe the RAID array is created with this software. It is as it came from the Dell factory.

My machine is currently mission critical as I work from it all day every day.

The CHKDSK utility did not fix the errors which are still displayed on startup as 'Error Occurred (0)' in red letters. I am not sure what you mean by the source of the error as there is no further information available on the start up screen.

Drew, I will look into malwarebytes and sfc/scannow.. what could these programs do that CHKDSK could not?

 

[Drew]

Well, Corin, I don't know what security you are using but, making sure there are no infections, malware, & such causing any issues would be wise.

It is sfc /scannow (space between the c & the /) Will find & (try to) fix problems.

Oh & I, also, suggest you run the Microsoft Fix-it Tool
Link Removed

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Adamsappleone]

I will look into malwarebytes and sfc/scannow.. what could these programs do that CHKDSK could not?

SFC checks your system files and replaces certain ones if they are corrupt or missing by copying correct versions from either your Link Removed - Invalid URLinstall CD some more current source, as is determined by the system version.

Chkdsk checks your hard drive to verify that all files referenced by thLink Removed - Invalid URLe file allocations table are intact and located where they are supposed to be. It cannot "Fix" any files that are corrupt or missing but can truncate any references to what is determined to be invalid file information.

Malwarebytes checks for and removes malware/spyware, excellent tool.

 

[Trouble]

The CHKDSK utility did not fix the errors which are still displayed on startup as 'Error Occurred (0)' in red letters. I am not sure what you mean by the source of the error as there is no further information available on the start up screen.

I am not familiar with anything actually called a "start up screen" so if you could maybe provide some information as to when this information becomes available to you is it during the POST process (Power On Self Test) perhaps being produced by the Intel Raid controller, or S.M.A.R.T (Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology), or when the Motherboard Logo loads, of when the Windows Logo Loads, or at the Login Screen, or when your Desktop has loaded. Is it a typical Windows Message box (msgBox) does it have a title bar?
Is there any information contain in the Event Viewer, or perhaps a log file referenced in the message (error). Does the message (error) stay on your screen until you close it?

 

[Corin Segar]

Link Removed

My apologies for being vague. Here is a photo of the screen, it is directly after post, and if I do not press Ctrl+I to enter the configuration utility then the next event is windows booting up. As you can see there is no information available about the errors from post to windows loading, I ran the 'preboot system assessment build 4510' memory and drive tests and there were no errors found there.

Where the red text is saying 'Error Occurred (0)' it used to say 'RAID member' or something like that in green text.

I have installed the malwarebytes trial and it seemed to clean up some files that tuneup utilities and AVG missed so that was helpful, thankyou. I do not think this is a problem caused by a virus/ trojan/ something downloaded etc, the HDDs have been making alot of noise recently as if one was struggling to keep up with the other - they would both spin up loudly for a period of 10 seconds or so. This was during image rendering from Maya and node based compositing in Nuke being performed at the same time, so both the CPU and drives were under load, but this has previously never happened.

 

[Trouble]

The information that they (the drives) are generating unusual levels of noise currently is a bit disconcerting, so again a backup of critical data is extremely important.
If you use Ctrl + I at the error do you see any additional or perhaps specific data regarding the errors associated with those two drives?
Is there any means by which you can reset the individual status of the drives back to whatever it was before (Normal / Array Member) from within that utility, perhaps a menu or a right click option? I assume that the (0) is an ordinal number for the actual drive on that port and not an actual error ID.
Since the Array status is indicating Normal, perhaps what you are seeing is historical and needs to be cleared or reset. Just a guess.

 

[Corin Segar]

When I press Ctrl+I this is the next screen..
Link Removed

As you can see there are no options here for error analysis.

There is the option to reset the drives back to non-RAID, but wont this mean I will lose my data? There is not enough storage space left to create a new RAID volume on these drives.

Last night I backed up my internal RAID drives onto an external 2TB USB HDD, so if the worst happens all is not lost. Does the back up save the entire state of the drive, or just the windows files with updates and settings?

If I order new drives, set them up in RAID0 and install windows 7, can the backup files restore everything from the old drives to the new drives? This might be the best option as I am spending too much time trying to research and fix this problem.

 

[Mike]

Drew is right about checking the system file integrity for Windows. While you haven't picked up on bad sectors using RAID-0, it is not uncommon for some minor problem to take place that throws a RAID-0 completely offline. I would highly suggest using this method to check and see if Windows system files were damaged. The chkdsk indicates very clearly that while no bad sectors were detected (this would mean parts of the drives are unusable), a system crash, power failure, or some other I/O error created problems with the file system itself. (Remember, that the file system is an artificial construct that simply existed on the physical hardware).

Any weird noises coming from the drives must be viewed as a sign of potential failure. Verify the image backups and make sure that if the system goes down nothing will be lost. While the array status is still good, you are seeing data indicating to you that at one point an error did occur with both drives. However, out of some luck, the RAID-0 is still in tact. How long that remains that way is unknown. You need to consider carefully the next steps you take.

I would immediately backup everything using an image backup utility.
I would run sfc /scannow in the command prompt.
I would check the S.M.A.R.T status on each drive before replacing unless they are making unusual noises.

On the type of Intel RAID array you have, it is possible to preserve the array back and forth between motherboards on occasion. I have accomplished this by moving a few drives over from one Gigabyte board with a ICH controller to a different model and it picked up on the RAID-0. This primarily because you are striping the drives and not really creating a redundancy, as far as I can tell. Still I would not count on it, and if you replace both drives, you should be prepared to fully restore a complete image backup of the system.

Image backups can be created with Windows Backup (although somewhat unreliably), but are certain to be created properly with Acronis True Image Home or Paragon products.

The noise and the error state seem to be the major problems here. How the RAID is still functioning when the drives posted errors is unusual, and likely the result of a lot of luck in this situation. With RAID-0 there is no redundancy to save a drive that has an error. If the error occurred simultaneously on both drives that could explain why there is no significant data loss or loss of the RAID stripe. Remember that in order for RAID-0 striping to exist properly, both drives must be in constant operation to split the data as it is written and one can not afford to be disconnected off the ICH for even a second when these writes are taking place.

I would also look at moving away from RAID at this time, if an upgrade is to be performed. Consider VelociRaptor 10,000RPM drives, hybrid SSDs, or pure SSD drives. Do not run them in RAID and avoid the problem of lost parity altogether. The need for constant high speed performance will be negated when you start to see how good the newer drives are at performance. At this point in time the VelociRaptor drives are overpriced in comparison to their counterparts (Hybrid SSD and pure SSD drives). For a replacement you may want to avoid the headache of RAID unless you are willing to make image backups all the time.

The installation of Windows 7 to restore your files will not take place as you think. You should have a recovery disc and external media to store a complete image of your data and run this disc to bring your data back onto the new hardware. Installing Windows itself and then trying to bring programs and files back will not work entirely: you'd be able to get files off the backup but you would lose software and licensing and that stuff would need to be re-installed. This is why image backup is usually the best way of handling the situation, or a clean install.

If you've had the noise since you bought the drives, its quite possible the acoustics are just bad on the drives. But it looks like something happened that disconnected both of the drives briefly, perhaps even for a millisecond, which caused error detection on the RAID post screen. This should prompt an immediate full image backup. Remember: FULL IMAGE BACKUP and not just a backup of critical files or folders.

 

[Corin Segar]

thanks for your message mike, it was very useful.. i bought a single SATA3 7200RPM terrabyte drive (£65) to have on standby, and made regular backups of my 'C:' drive (the RAID drives) until they crashed the system so much i could no longer progress with my work.

i have now disabled the RAID only function in the BIOS and have used the system image to restore my computer to the previous state on the TB HDD and everything seems to be working perfectly (all programs, serials, files etc present with no errors), of course being a little slower, but there is one main issue i am now faced with..

the system image has decided that the new TB HDD is the same size as the previous RAID drives (465 GB). How do i 'refresh' the system so it recognises the new drive is a terrabyte?

Many thanks.