Please Help 1

[Andy]

Thanks but no joy I already have and use spybot Any other
ideas ?



Hi I'm having probs with a corrupted file that seems to
be having some knock on effects to other areas of my
laptop such as Vitual Memory. The file is C:\$Mft which i
have tried to run scan disk and disk chq, have run
current anti virus. Now doing my head in !!! Anybody any
ideas would be greatly appreciated

[Sharon F]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 11:25:43 -0800, Andy wrote:

> Thanks but no joy I already have and use spybot Any other
> ideas ?
>
>
>
> Hi I'm having probs with a corrupted file that seems to
> be having some knock on effects to other areas of my
> laptop such as Vitual Memory. The file is C:\$Mft which i
> have tried to run scan disk and disk chq, have run
> current anti virus. Now doing my head in !!! Anybody any
> ideas would be greatly appreciated

What leads you to believe this is corrupt?

MFT stands for Master File Table and is the lookup table used by the NTFS
file system. It is designated as $MFT in some disk tools such as disk
defragmenter (BTW, some fragmentation in this area is normal and can be
safely ignored). MFT getting corrupted is as bad as the FAT getting
corrupted with FAT32.

Possible causes include faulty RAM, a crash or repeated crashes that damage
the file system, power failure during write operations, a virus.

Check the health of the hard drive using diagnostic tools provided by the
hard drive manufacturer.

Check your RAM for stability. A software tool that can do this for you can
be found here: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Check your power supply and review your shutdown and restart procedures.
Always use Start> Shutdown or Start> Log Off> Shutdown to turn off a WinXP
system.

Check the system for viruses by running a full system scan with an up to
date antivirus program.

--
Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User

[Andy]

>-----Original Message-----
>On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 11:25:43 -0800, Andy wrote:
>
>> Thanks but no joy I already have and use spybot Any
other
>> ideas ?
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi I'm having probs with a corrupted file that seems
to
>> be having some knock on effects to other areas of my
>> laptop such as Vitual Memory. The file is C:\$Mft
which i
>> have tried to run scan disk and disk chq, have run
>> current anti virus. Now doing my head in !!! Anybody
any
>> ideas would be greatly appreciated
>
>What leads you to believe this is corrupt?
>
>MFT stands for Master File Table and is the lookup table
used by the NTFS
>file system. It is designated as $MFT in some disk tools
such as disk
>defragmenter (BTW, some fragmentation in this area is
normal and can be
>safely ignored). MFT getting corrupted is as bad as the
FAT getting
>corrupted with FAT32.
>
>Possible causes include faulty RAM, a crash or repeated
crashes that damage
>the file system, power failure during write operations,
a virus.
>
>Check the health of the hard drive using diagnostic
tools provided by the
>hard drive manufacturer.
>
>Check your RAM for stability. A software tool that can
do this for you can
>be found here: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
>
>Check your power supply and review your shutdown and
restart procedures.
>Always use Start> Shutdown or Start> Log Off> Shutdown
to turn off a WinXP
>system.
>
>Check the system for viruses by running a full system
scan with an up to
>date antivirus program.
>
>--
>Sharon F
>MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
>.
>Thanks Sharon Info starting to make sence.

My system runs scandisk every time i boot saying it is
looking for this corupt file and for consistancy and that
I have a paging file problem with not enough space or
size. I have gone in and adjusted the min and max sizes
and asked it to set but it still tells me when starting
and closing and on certain applications that it is set
too low i.e. on 0.
It now will not let me run defrag saying that chkdsk is
schedule to run do I want to run it, I say yes and run
and it then says the same thing and I'm in a loop.
How much do i hate these little boxes ?
I run an up to date antivirus and spybot every other day
Many Thanks
Andy

[Sharon F]

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 03:11:20 -0800, Andy wrote:

>>-----Original Message-----
>>On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 11:25:43 -0800, Andy wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks but no joy I already have and use spybot Any
> other
>>> ideas ?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi I'm having probs with a corrupted file that seems
> to
>>> be having some knock on effects to other areas of my
>>> laptop such as Vitual Memory. The file is C:\$Mft
> which i
>>> have tried to run scan disk and disk chq, have run
>>> current anti virus. Now doing my head in !!! Anybody
> any
>>> ideas would be greatly appreciated
>>
>>What leads you to believe this is corrupt?
>>
>>MFT stands for Master File Table and is the lookup table
> used by the NTFS
>>file system. It is designated as $MFT in some disk tools
> such as disk
>>defragmenter (BTW, some fragmentation in this area is
> normal and can be
>>safely ignored). MFT getting corrupted is as bad as the
> FAT getting
>>corrupted with FAT32.
>>
>>Possible causes include faulty RAM, a crash or repeated
> crashes that damage
>>the file system, power failure during write operations,
> a virus.
>>
>>Check the health of the hard drive using diagnostic
> tools provided by the
>>hard drive manufacturer.
>>
>>Check your RAM for stability. A software tool that can
> do this for you can
>>be found here: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
>>
>>Check your power supply and review your shutdown and
> restart procedures.
>>Always use Start> Shutdown or Start> Log Off> Shutdown
> to turn off a WinXP
>>system.
>>
>>Check the system for viruses by running a full system
> scan with an up to
>>date antivirus program.
>>
>>--
>>Sharon F
>>MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
>>.
>>Thanks Sharon Info starting to make sence.
>
> My system runs scandisk every time i boot saying it is
> looking for this corupt file and for consistancy and that
> I have a paging file problem with not enough space or
> size. I have gone in and adjusted the min and max sizes
> and asked it to set but it still tells me when starting
> and closing and on certain applications that it is set
> too low i.e. on 0.
> It now will not let me run defrag saying that chkdsk is
> schedule to run do I want to run it, I say yes and run
> and it then says the same thing and I'm in a loop.
> How much do i hate these little boxes ?
> I run an up to date antivirus and spybot every other day
> Many Thanks
> Andy

Andy, there's not much hope for a hard drive with a corrupt MFT. Usually
the best medicine is to start over: repartition, format, install operating
system and programs. The page file problem may be related since it's not
unusual for a corrupted file system to misreport the amount of free space.
Allocating free space to the page file that cannot be seen by the troubled
file system will fail.

Quote from this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315688&Product=winxp

NTFS File System Corruption
In very rare circumstances, the NTFS $MFT or $BITMAP metafiles may become
corrupted and result in lost disk space. To identify and fix this issue,
run the chkdsk /F command against the volume in question. Toward the end of
chkdsk process, you receive the following message if the $BITMAP metafile
needs to be adjusted:
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute. CHKDSK
discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap. Windows has
made corrections to the file system.


Since you are stuck in a loop with chkdsk, I suggest you run this tool from
the Recovery Console as described in Method 2 of the following article. The
topic of the article is about troubleshooting Windows Setup but Method 2 is
a good standard way to deal with sticky file system problems:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811150&Product=winxp

Method 2: Run Chkdsk /r from the Recovery Console
To run chkdsk /r from the recovery console, follow these steps:
Restart the computer.

When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery
Console.

If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, choose the installation
that you need to access from the Recovery Console.

When you are prompted to do so, type the administrator password. If the
administrator password is blank, press ENTER.

At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r, and then press ENTER.

When Chkdsk has finished running, read the results, and then take any
necessary steps to complete the process. For example, you may be prompted
to run chkdsk /f to fix certain problems.

Restart the computer, and then try to run Setup again.
--
Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User