1394 error: "$mft mirror corrupted"

This is the 3rd time it has happened and on three different systems and the
drive must be reformatted to recover. All systems have 48bit addressing
enabled, two have latest XP PRO SP2 one is WIN2K SP4 with latest patches. I
had earlier upgraded the firmware on the prolific chipset firewire
controller 3507C to "September 7, 2004" and no other firewire devices are
connected other than the western digital 250gb hard drive in an external
case. There have been no "delayed write" errors since I upgraded the
firmware and stopped chaining additional firewire devices as suggested he
http://www.bustrace.com/products/delayedwrite.htm On the most recent
corruption, there was no "delayed write" error message, only that $mft fatal
one.
I took the drive home, attached it to a new computer with XP SP2, 48bit
enabled, and copied about 50gb of material to the new computer. The copy
operation worked fine. I then selected the "Unplug or eject hardware" and
issued a stop command to your 250gb disk which was on the firewire
controller so I could remove the external drive. This normally works fine.
Instead I got that microsoft error message "$mft mirror corrupted please run
chkdsk". It was not possible to run chkdsk, or any other diagnostic like
scandisk. The drive was corrupted totally. The recovery program "File
Scavenger" shows extensive damage. I have a copy on another computer as
this is the 3rd time it has happened and I kept a copy of everything after
the first time. I cannot account for why this is happening. I did not
attempt to write anything to the hard drive, only copied stuff from it to a
new computer. From what I read it would appear this is a problem with
Microsoft drivers and the firewire vendor product but I am guessing. If I
disable "write buffering" on the drive using XP PRO, does it stay disabled
when I take the drive home and attach it to another computer? What about
disabling indexing? Does that stay disabled when moving the external device
to another computer? When I connected the drive to the home computer,
autoplay starts up and the XP PRO system attempted to scan the 250gb drive.
I stop it as I didn't want that to happen. Indexing and write buffering
seem to be turned on the instant the drive is connected. I do not know how
to disable either the indexing or the autoscan or the buffering as that
stuff starts up the instant the drive is connected via the firewire or usb.
A suggestion at western digital was to disable indexing and prevent
antivirus from scanning the disk as they think that will interfere with the
"Unplug or eject hardware" app. However, I did not get the message "unable
to disconnect device", rather I got that $mft corrupted error which is
fatal.

On another thread in this NG: "1394 delayed write" the discussion lists
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;885464
but I do not have the yellow bang, nor any messages about "delayed write"

Chipsets where I got this problem: VIA VT6306, also a TI chipset, and the
most recent problem was on an intel motherboard D865PERL with intel firewire
chipset (??) builtin and lastest bios and chipset drivers.


--
================================================== =====================
Beemer Biker
Seti WU 62K Seti Years 61 Ask about my 99'R1100RT
New Boneher V-Twin his/hers... http://tinyurl.com/42tdq
================================================== =====================

Some time ago there was a message in microsoft.public.development.device.drivers
that firewire storage driver of WinXP is seriously flawed and may cause data loss.
I haven't verified this, just FYI.
--PA

"Beemer Biker" wrote in message ...
This is the 3rd time it has happened and on three different systems and the
drive must be reformatted to recover. All systems have 48bit addressing
enabled, two have latest XP PRO SP2 one is WIN2K SP4 with latest patches. I
had earlier upgraded the firmware on the prolific chipset firewire
controller 3507C to "September 7, 2004" and no other firewire devices are
connected other than the western digital 250gb hard drive in an external
case. There have been no "delayed write" errors since I upgraded the
firmware and stopped chaining additional firewire devices as suggested he
http://www.bustrace.com/products/delayedwrite.htm On the most recent
corruption, there was no "delayed write" error message, only that $mft fatal
one.
I took the drive home, attached it to a new computer with XP SP2, 48bit
enabled, and copied about 50gb of material to the new computer. The copy
operation worked fine. I then selected the "Unplug or eject hardware" and
issued a stop command to your 250gb disk which was on the firewire
controller so I could remove the external drive. This normally works fine.
Instead I got that microsoft error message "$mft mirror corrupted please run
chkdsk". It was not possible to run chkdsk, or any other diagnostic like
scandisk. The drive was corrupted totally. The recovery program "File
Scavenger" shows extensive damage. I have a copy on another computer as
this is the 3rd time it has happened and I kept a copy of everything after
the first time. I cannot account for why this is happening. I did not
attempt to write anything to the hard drive, only copied stuff from it to a
new computer. From what I read it would appear this is a problem with
Microsoft drivers and the firewire vendor product but I am guessing. If I
disable "write buffering" on the drive using XP PRO, does it stay disabled
when I take the drive home and attach it to another computer? What about
disabling indexing? Does that stay disabled when moving the external device
to another computer? When I connected the drive to the home computer,
autoplay starts up and the XP PRO system attempted to scan the 250gb drive.
I stop it as I didn't want that to happen. Indexing and write buffering
seem to be turned on the instant the drive is connected. I do not know how
to disable either the indexing or the autoscan or the buffering as that
stuff starts up the instant the drive is connected via the firewire or usb.
A suggestion at western digital was to disable indexing and prevent
antivirus from scanning the disk as they think that will interfere with the
"Unplug or eject hardware" app. However, I did not get the message "unable
to disconnect device", rather I got that $mft corrupted error which is
fatal.

On another thread in this NG: "1394 delayed write" the discussion lists
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;885464
but I do not have the yellow bang, nor any messages about "delayed write"

Chipsets where I got this problem: VIA VT6306, also a TI chipset, and the
most recent problem was on an intel motherboard D865PERL with intel firewire
chipset (??) builtin and lastest bios and chipset drivers.


--
================================================== =====================
Beemer Biker
Seti WU 62K Seti Years 61 Ask about my 99'R1100RT
New Boneher V-Twin his/hers... http://tinyurl.com/42tdq
================================================== =====================

"Pavel A." wrote in message
...
Some time ago there was a message in
microsoft.public.development.device.drivers
that firewire storage driver of WinXP is seriously flawed and may cause
data loss.
I haven't verified this, just FYI.
--PA

"Beemer Biker" wrote in message
...
This is the 3rd time it has happened and on three different systems and
the
drive must be reformatted to recover. All systems have 48bit addressing

snip

Unbelievable, I received a patch from microsoft that solved the problem, at
least for XP SP2. The patch would not install on a WIN2K SP4 system. Got
it within 12 hours of submitting it and verified it fixed the problem.


From: xxxxx
To: xxxxxx
Subject: Regarding Case Number SRZ041228001746

Dear Joseph,

Thank you for choosing Online Support for your Microsoft Technical Support
offering. My name is Laurence and I will be assisting you with this service
request. For your reference, the Case ID of this service request is
SRZ041228001746.

In the case log, you've indicated that you receive an error message when
disconnecting a 1394 device from the computer. If I have misunderstood your
concern, please feel free to let me know. Since you have submitted an SP2
issue, let's focus on the Windows XP SP2-based computer.

You may experience the symptoms described in Microsoft Knowledge Base
Article 887170.

You experience problems when you disconnect a single IEEE 1394 device from a
computer that is running Windows XP SP2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887170

I have ordered the hotfix through our internal channel.

Package:
-----------------------------------------------------------
KB Article Number(s): 887170
Language: English
Platform: i386
Location:
(http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Window.../free/205626_E
NU_i386_zip.exe)