Regular NTFS errors and file corruption

[Rowan]

I seem to be having an unusually high amount of NTFS
errors and corrupted files. I have checked the hard drive
with ActiveSmart and the drive seems to be healthy. I have
scanned for viruses with upto date software and the system
is clean. The last chkdsk deleted corrupt attribute record
(48") on D:/ and deleted corrupt file record segment 4462
and corrupt index entry wmi2xml.dll - which didnt seem to
harm the system. The drive is definitely configured
correctly in BIOS using AutoDetect. Anyone know why I
might be getting regular NTFS errors and corrupt files?

[Rich Barry]

Rowan, check here for some good reading
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1033794134
"Rowan" > wrote in message
...
> I seem to be having an unusually high amount of NTFS
> errors and corrupted files. I have checked the hard drive
> with ActiveSmart and the drive seems to be healthy. I have
> scanned for viruses with upto date software and the system
> is clean. The last chkdsk deleted corrupt attribute record
> (48") on D:/ and deleted corrupt file record segment 4462
> and corrupt index entry wmi2xml.dll - which didnt seem to
> harm the system. The drive is definitely configured
> correctly in BIOS using AutoDetect. Anyone know why I
> might be getting regular NTFS errors and corrupt files?

[Tech Guy]

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I have been having the same problem with an older Dell Dimension (XPS T500). Here is what I have found:
The NTFS file structure was changed during a revision from NT 3.0 and this problem has occurred since on some machines. It apparently has something to do with the way Windows boots up. I have found that if you do a clean reload of XP and download all of the updates and run chkdsk on a regular basis you can keep the drive from corrupting too much. Apparently a "dirty bit" gets added to the registry. But who wants to he to go go through all that work to keep a machine working? If you really need to do that much work I suggust that you add command com as a shortcut to your desktop. run chkdsk (volume): /f. If it won't finish or if it comes up with disk locked you can try chkdsk (volume): /x to force a dismount. The up arrow and down arrow will display the last commands and if won't work the first time just keep running the command. If the command completes empty out the the trash bin. (this gives you the greatest possibility of tricking windows into getting rid of the "dirty bit". Shut down (don't restart) and give the computer at least 30 seconds to let the power supply capacitors bleed off to eliminate any information in the RAM.

Boot up the computer and watch closely the boot up process. If the computer boots up without checking the volume then you may have the problem licked. If you want to make sure boot the computer two more times as described above. Windows XP looks at the registry each time it boots. If it is not sure of the status of something like a drive it will look further back in the registry log and it can put that "dirty bit" back in.

Although I have not gotten confirmation on this I suspect the dirty bit gets placed into the registry when the computer reboots after some incident (power loss, computer freeze, browser attack etc.)

Keep your Windows updates current get a good antivirus and a good software firewall and keep them up to date. If that doesn't work convert the drive to Fat 32, partition the drive if you need to. This will eliminate the problem but you loose all the "advantages" of NTFS. Write Microsoft to fix the problem one and for all.

I hope this helps.

I seem to be having an unusually high amount of NTFS
errors and corrupted files. I have checked the hard drive
with ActiveSmart and the drive seems to be healthy. I have
scanned for viruses with upto date software and the system
is clean. The last chkdsk deleted corrupt attribute record
(48") on D:/ and deleted corrupt file record segment 4462
and corrupt index entry wmi2xml.dll - which didnt seem to
harm the system. The drive is definitely configured
correctly in BIOS using AutoDetect. Anyone know why I
might be getting regular NTFS errors and corrupt files?