Windows 7 Filesystem problem after full partition

[tomvkiil]

I recently fixed an Acer laptop for a friend of mine. The disk was almost full, and the registry was corrupted - this laptop was running VISTA - so this problem may be a part of both vista and 7.

The registry was no hope for, so I used a Linux live CD to copy some files (backup) to an external harddrive. Some of the files was not possible to copy even.. corrupted. the filesystem was NTFS. I then tried to use the built in recovery partition from acer, and it started as normally, but then it hang. it was not able to copy all the files. I supposed the reason to this was some kind of virus, or hardware error.

Temporary solution due to little time - I installed win7 RC, after formatting the main partition, and it worked well.

Yesterday I had the same problem occur to my own acer laptop. My registry was not corrupted, but somehow my filesystem were. By accident my win7 partition was filled up (I wanted only to test win7 so I gave it 16gig of my 160gig, but facts are that I got hooked, and stopped using XP... Dualsystem with XP and Win7) / What happened was that my computer was acting slower and slower and slower, and finally stopped. I had to do a real hard reset.. When I then tried to restart it was extremely slow. the disk-lamp were lighting all the time. I broke off after 20 min, and decided to try in safe mode.. same problem.. Each driver took about 20 sek to load.

Lucky for me I also had Windows XP installed.. YEAH RIGHT!

Winxp were just the same. Windows XP I actually got to work after a while even slow. It took me
ONE HOUR AND TWENTYTHREE fck@@ing MINUTES from I pushed the button till xp was ready. AND its really a slim xp that used to be quick. I tried to move some files, and ended up with Blue screen of death.. ( dumping memory took 15 minutes!!) XP was not starting after because of corrupted registry..

ALL file operations are extremely slow. I have deleted a lot of files, so I got about 20gig free for XP and 3gig free for Win7, but the problem is still there. Even on MY computer some files were corrupted, but I have backup of most of it.

I have not yet tried my recovery option for XP because I'm on holiday. But the strangest thing is:

1. My windows 7 partition is NTFS
2. My xp partition is FAT32
3. BOTH BROKEN!

I would consider a Harddisk Issue. YES. But I tested the drive using some tools from CD that I always bring with me. NOTHING WRONG! several software tools got the same result. And on the other PC i mentioned everything was fine after formatting the drive. I believe the same would be here.

My hardware spec are
Acer Travelmate 4230
1gig RAM
160gig HDD
dual 1,6ghz processor

PLEASE do not fill your Windows 7 or Windows Vista partition. I still had about 500meg left, but that was not enough because the swapfile was supposed to be 1gig, (and is not counted i believe)

If anyone got a tip for fixing this, I would be happy, because the problem is still there even after deleting a lot of files.

Tom

 

[Tepid]

Yeah ummm,, you were out of drive space.

You need 15% FREE space to run a defrag alone. What makes you think you don't need any free space for the OS?

Even if you set the Page File static, you need free space available. It's just the way it is. You can not completely fill the drive space of the OS Drive. It will choke your system. Just because you free up space doesn't mean that whatever damage was done will be undone.

Plus, it's an Acer Travlemate, sorry, but they suck.

Also, run Windows Memory Diags , hit "t" when it starts to run extended tests, for no less than 4 hours or more
Bad memory or memory controller can cause file and OS corruption

****************

Here is yet another example of blaming Windows for problems that from what is posted clearly is not a Windows problem. And I am sorry to say and call you out on this, but you clearly don't know what you are doing when you have a full OS drive that blows up on you and your first reaction is "It's a Windows Problem!". ,,,,,, STOP IT!

PLEASE do not fill your Windows 7 or Windows Vista partition.

As Noted,,,, Maybe I am coming off a bit harsh, i will apologize but not retract my statement. If you drop below 20% free space, you are pushing your luck with what happens next, as I think you have clearly learned the hard way.

 

[SIW2]

You could try running checkdisk. Boot the 7 dvd , go to system recovery options command prompt.

Type chkdsk C: /f then press enter.

Obviously replace C with letter of the drive you want to run it on.

 

[tomvkiil]

Yeah ummm,, you were out of drive space.

You need 15% FREE space to run a defrag alone. What makes you think you don't need any free space for the OS?

Even if you set the Page File static, you need free space available. It's just the way it is. You can not completely fill the drive space of the OS Drive. It will choke your system. Just because you free up space doesn't mean that whatever damage was done will be undone.

My point exactly. This happened a few times in the future for me - I have been running EVERY Windows version from Microsoft (OK not every - got in the system at windows 3.0, and been running every version since (including NT from version 3.51)). I keep free space for the OS - but sometimes accidents happens. The problem is really that it in the newer versions (after XP) this kind of accidents can cause fatal errors to your filesystem. That is - and should be considered - a bug in the system. PERIOD!

Also, run Windows Memory Diags , hit "t" when it starts to run extended tests, for no less than 4 hours or more
Bad memory or memory controller can cause file and OS corruption

Was already done - no errors discovered. Also a overheated disk or Processor may cause write-errors on the disk. Neither do these things apply to the systems I'm talking about.

Here is yet another example of blaming Windows for problems that from what is posted clearly is not a Windows problem. And I am sorry to say and call you out on this, but you clearly don't know what you are doing when you have a full OS drive that blows up on you and your first reaction is "It's a Windows Problem!". ,,,,,, STOP IT!

Are you stupid? How in the galaxy can you tell that this is clearly not a windows problem? OK - if the system was supposed to act this way - I would fold on this one. But when this problem is given birth in Vista and Windows 7, and do not apply to older versions of the OS, AND when no notice from Microsoft (as far as I can see) is given that it is supposed to destroy your filesystem if you get less than 10% free space - then I believe it's a bug that is NOT intended from Microsoft. If you think otherwise - Please fill me in.

As Noted,,,, Maybe I am coming off a bit harsh, i will apologize but not retract my statement. If you drop below 20% free space, you are pushing your luck with what happens next, as I think you have clearly learned the hard way.

I have my documents, movies and images backed up on external disks, but this accident forces me to reinstall both XP and 7. So this is really one thing that cant be told enough. BACKUP BACKUP. And yes - you did not actually sound nice.. But I dont care. The thing is that there is a lot of people out there having about no clue about these things. I used to work in this business(service - software/hardware) for 10 years - I quit 7 years ago, So I believe I have a minimum of experience. I blame Microsoft on this one - but read me correct: NOT WINDOWS 7. Vista was a disaster from MS - Windows 7 is a fresh system that seems to run very good even before the release. And that I have not seen since Windows2000RC. Windows 7 seems to be a system with few visible bugs - but ones like this I'm sure they would fix in SP1 if they get noticed. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY.

Have a nice day.

 

[tomvkiil]

Sorry - double post

 

[Tepid]

My point was that you let the free space drop to practically nothing. Less than 500M on 7 (only) after deleting some files. And yes, I have seen this happen in XP, more than a few times.

Yes, you can be within tollerance at about 5% to 8% free space. But that is really pushing it and should never be allowed. Yes accidents happen, but if you take notice and fix them ASAP, you can avoid these situations.
But windows alone should not be the first reaction.

Should it be normal that a maxed out OS drive corrupt data on that drive? No.
But it happens.

No, this should not have (in my opinion) affected the other partition unless you were accessing it through 7.

Ok, so I will concede that, MAybe it can also be a result of how Windows handles data on a maxed out drive, but you should know this, it happens in XP also.

And no where in your previous post did you mention running Hardware Diags of any kind.

Also Note,,,, The reason it was running so incredibly slow was due to lack of adequate free space.
If you had been in the biz that long, you should also know this. But by this.....

It took me ONE HOUR AND TWENTYTHREE fck@@ing MINUTES from I pushed the button till xp was ready.

Was that before or after the full drive and corruption?
Once the registry is corrupted, forget about it.
Backup, Nuke and Reload.

***************
Also, the Page File is counted in the total space used/available.

 

[Tepid]

It may not seem like it. But I am not trying to start a war here.
But the problems you are experiencing are long known issues.
And not always a fault of Windows, directly, or alone.
In this case, it is user error.

It is just becoming very cliche to always blame windows for every little thing that goes wrong with a system.

The only thing I can say is that if you ignored any low disk space warnings, then it is the fault of the user, totally.
If it did not warn you, then it was a glitch in the system, not a bug.

Because I use my system for DVR and I get warned all the time.

 

[tomvkiil]

My point was that you let the free space drop to practically nothing. Less than 500M on 7 (only) after deleting some files. And yes, I have seen this happen in XP, more than a few times.

It was 500M free before deleting files (at the point of minimum free space). after it was about 3 gig..

My reaction in the beginning was not for windows running slow, or windows crashing when the disk was getting closer to full - it was about the fact that the filesystem ended up corrupted. Running slow after was just a result of corrupted filesystem. The fact that even XP was acting the same way, and was broken did set me out for a while..( I used win7 repair function to delete files - cmd.. )But notice - data all over the disk is corrupted. Not all data, just pieces here and there, and this includes:
1. My win7 ntfs partition
2. my xp fat32 partition
3. my data fat32 partition
4. Acer hidden recovery partition - not visible in windows.
So really the whole disk is messed up, I did not access any other partitions during the trouble before it hang, I just started deleting a file from my win7 partition - and then it hang. Looks like windows 7 somehow is able to write beyond the filesystem.
About the slow disk read-write operations after, I really was thinking if it somehow was possible for windows to turn off dma by setting special bits on the disk.. even by accident. After formatting, and my disk functional again - we will probably never know..

And no where in your previous post did you mention running Hardware Diags of any kind.

I did not mention no.. sorry..

Also Note,,,, The reason it was running so incredibly slow was due to lack of adequate free space.
If you had been in the biz that long, you should also know this. But by this.....
Was that before or after the full drive and corruption?
Once the registry is corrupted, forget about it.
Backup, Nuke and Reload.

Forgive me if it is told before - but windows 7 and Windows xp were both exceptional slow After the crash, and After deleting files..
Yes I know I know.. the reason for running slow in the first place.. the filling really happened fast. A linux iso torrent put on the wrong partition by accident - left me with 500meg left. My xp-partition was never filled up like win7. the registry of xp died after a while, and was never seen alive again.. But the problem is still the corruption of the filesystem, not the hang.

Also, the Page File is counted in the total space used/available.

My reason for thinking it's not was the fact that there still were about 500Meg left. But thanks, I'm not really SERVICE UP TO DATE on the new systems..

So - my system is nuked and reloaded already - but this is no easy go for REAL amateurs. Specially if you consider the fact that also the recovery partition has been affected and is nonfunctional. and this not only on My PC..

PEACE!