Storage Solutions Unable To Defragment Primary OS Partition ( C Drive )

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XTerminator

Skilled
Hi,

I am facing a weird problem off late.....will start the story from the beginning....

Some facts before I begin...
AMD 3000+,
1 GB RAM DDR (512*2 MB),
Asus A8N-VM Motherboard,
Seagate 80 GB (7200) SATA (2 Partitions, 20 GB(Primary,NTFS), Rest in D: again NTFS),
Powersafe 400 W PSU.
I opened my cabinet for the regular clean up of my PC. After cleaning all the fans etc, I closed the side panel and started up my comp...here my problems started....

Although my HDD was detected by BIOS and the POST happened properly, the Windows XP Boot screen didnt show up. (Yes, my first boot device was HDD and there was no CD in my DVD Writer which was also detected properly.)

I waited for 2 mins and I had a blank screen in front with just a blinking cursor. There was nothing, not even a message of disk boot failure or anything.

I restarted my computer, and tried again, got stuck at the same place.

I had a spare SATA cable around, so thought of just changing the cable and seeing if there was any difference. Nope...no difference.

Meanwhile, my comp was on for about 10 mins....when suddenly, from that state of trance of blinking cursor, Windows Boot Up Screen showed up and the blue scroll bar was visible. I could boot into windows.

So, I thought maybe I should defragment??

Closed all running programs like anti-virus etc, I tried to defragment. My primary partition (C:\ with an NTFS system), wasnt being defragmented:S

However, my D drive got defragmented without a problem.
So I thought maybe there is an error on the disk...and scheduled the Scan disk to run...

Heres the log of scan disk...
scandisk log said:
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.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 401 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 401 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 401 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

20972825 KB total disk space.
5823768 KB in 35853 files.
12172 KB in 3371 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
213581 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
14923304 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
5243206 total allocation units on disk.
3730826 allocation units available on disk.
Click to expand...

So....there were minor inconsistancies!!!
Anyways, that was solved, the computer restarted and Windows booted up normally ( no wait required...those 10 mins etc...)

Next, again I tried to defragment C: after disabling some extra services and background tasks....no use...it got stuck again at the stage of "10% Compacting Files...."

Some screenies of the same are below...














Now, if you will note, you get the following message if defragmentation gets over without completing...
There are a few files which could not be defragmented. To see the list, click below
or something of the likes of the message above.

I got the message and the complete screenies of the information presented within are shown above.
Now, I would like some help as to how to go about completing the defragmentation of the primary OS partition...

Any help will be appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance.
 
Update...

Tried to run Defrag in Safe mode too...no difference, Gets stuck at the same place and quits. (Check the screenshots in above post for details).
A friend of mine... (TE Member Neurodrone) recommended I run a HDD utility like HD Tune...
Here are the results:





 
Might be a problem in your hdd, or could be widows acting up as usual. Get a bootable CD of acronis disk director, and run a complete scan on your hdd. If that doesn't work, reinstall XP.
 
Well I did tell you about the sound problems too

Anyways...i shall try to manage obtaining the acronis disk director...else...its the routine semester end HDD format and windows install:rofl:
 
Ok, so its been a while since I have been having trouble with my comp.

The same HDD with the above, conked off in a few days of my making the above post. It had bad sectors.

The interesting part is, none of the softwares, scandisk or anything located the bad sectors until the HDD just suddenly couldnt be accessed, not by windows, not by setup not by fdisk - yes I got a bootable RAM DOS cd too:bleh:

The only symptoms that there was something wrong with my comp were:
1. Not able to defragment.
2. The sound was choppy (ie, if I played some music on the comp, it would sound like the comp is making a lot of effort to play it, literally the music came in chunks. Small chunks and with noise to signify the end of each chunk.) This even happened with the startup sound of windows. However, this was happening only when I was multi-tasking. If I had only music playing on the comp, it would work flawlessly. - Damn puzzling:bleh:

I changed the cable etc. No difference. Reinstalled windows, no difference.
Format!! Yay!!! Did that, well, it worked for a few days before reaching the end of its life.

I went and purchased a new HDD 160 GB and gave this one for replacement. As I fell ill and couldnt go to collect the replacement, I got it collected and got it stored in a good friends place.
I went to his place yesterday to collect the HDD. He had not opened it and it was still sealed.
So we opened the seal, connected it to his comp, first, something went wrong in the initialization and format procedure and the disk ended up as a Dynamic disk, which is bad enough:bleh:

But the story doesnt end here. Unaware of this, I merrily went home. Stopping in between at Lamington Road to give one of my RAM sticks for replacement...why, well another story...it conked off 2 days back. How or why dont ask, as I dont know. However, out of the two matched pairs I had, one was working fine and the other was totally dead. Comp didnt boot with the stick inside.

Now, when I got home and connected the HDD, it took a bit long to start windows than usual, thinking its the new hdd etc, I waited. Later, on booting into windows, the drive didnt appear in My Computer. So I went to Disk Management.
And heres what I see:bleh:

Note that in the image, the disk that shows up second as "Disk 1" is the New Replaced HDD.

Ok, so one shock:rofl: I had no clue about Dynamic disks till then.
Tried to access the net, to google about it. Nada, no internet...only YIM and MSN messenger and GTalk were working. The only things I could gather was, to stay away from Dynamic Disks. And the only option was to convert the HDD into a Basic one. However, determined to prove otherwise, I explored a bit. Realizing that if I right click on the place showing the Disk Name, I got an option which read "Import Foreign Disk". I clicked on it. It did some processing and asked me to reboot the computer. I did so.

It took unusually long, longer than before, to boot. I thought maybe its the drive plugging etc which took time. No problem to that.
Once windows booted, I was happy to see the disk in My Computer. But I jumped too early. The disk access was very very very slow. Surely there was something wrong. I went and looked up. The drive was being accessed in PIO mode???:S I was trying to transfer some data and it took about 4 Hrs for 800 MB??

Restarted comp, went to BIOS, set the HDD access mode to UDMA - 6. No use, still crawling computer with slow access.
Fed up of it, I went off to sleep.

This morning when I got up, I noticed that it took even longer for the comp to boot up. Determined this time that I would format the disk and forget all the crap about dynamic disks and foreign disks etc, I waited patiently for Windows to load. After about a good 15 mins, I got the windows logon screen...YAY!!!

However, when I clicked on My Computer...it took about 15 mins for it to open:S With my comp freezing for a few secs. I tried to open Disk management simultaniously. It took 30 mins for it to open!!!!

Not giving up on it yet, hoping for the best, I tried a lot to format it but was unsuccessful.
So I thought I shall restart and try again...Bad bad decision. On restarting, I waited for 15 mins, when I got a scandisk request for the new HDD. Thinking its gonna be fine, just some missing free space or something, waited for it to finish.

Heres the log:
Checking file system on G:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Anshul.

One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You
may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended
that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

78148160 KB total disk space.
5956988 KB in 92 files.
44 KB in 15 indexes.
12 KB in bad sectors.
68468 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
72122648 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
19537040 total allocation units on disk.
18030662 allocation units available on disk.
Click to expand...

And boom!!!! It all crashed down on me!!!
It took some time for the shock to sink in that a new HDD, used for less than 12 Hrs, had bad sectors!!!

I tried a lot, to prove somehow that what I saw was wrong with false hope, Changed the cable :bleh: , tried installing windows using a bootable disk etc. The HDD was recognized in BIOS, however, there was no free space shown for me to install windows into it!!! Though it did detect the HDD.

Well, I tried to recover the data using Find and Mount. But no use, the comp would freeze each time it tried to access the HDD. When suddenly, I hear something!!! Some beeps...low beeps (or atleast what sounded like beeps). Wondering what it could be, (with my sidepanel open) I put my ear to it. And then it dawned on me...it was something from one of my HDDs!!!!

Then I could relate it to the HDD access light on the cabby. Ironically it sounded pretty sonorous. :bleh: Much like music.
Well, i managed to capture the sound on my cell. Guess what, it wasnt beeps anymore. It sounded more like hammers!!!:S - Damn...not good. The last ray of hope just evapourated.

Now I am stuck with a replaced HDD which has bad sectors???:S Weird!!!!
Anyways, I still have warranty on it. So, I shall be heading to the service center tomorrow.

Till then, I have enough time to mourn about my RAM and HDD.

Hope this doesnt happen to anyone else.
 
Test with other softwares to see whether it is really a bad sector... I mean logical / physical bad sector.... If physical then you have to RMA. If logical, use some tools, linux format, low level format.
 
iosoft said:
Test with other softwares to see whether it is really a bad sector... I mean logical / physical bad sector.... If physical then you have to RMA. If logical, use some tools, linux format, low level format.
Click to expand...

I cant access the disk at all. It takes ages and ages for anything to open.
So removed it from my comp and am going to the service center tomorrow, stating bad sectors again.
 
as i said earlier some body has his / her eyes on your bag of money. :p

anyways sorry for the endeavour but you have to deal with it.

best of luck for your replacement saga.
 
medpal said:
as i said earlier some body has his / her eyes on your bag of money. :p

anyways sorry for the endeavour but you have to deal with it.

best of luck for your replacement saga.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, I dont have any bag of money, the only small wallet I have is now empty. The only thing that stares out of it towards me are some coins.

I thought I should share this incase someone actually faced this sometime in the future:p

And lets see if I can post the "hammering" sound clip ;)

Thanks for the well wishes;)
 
Dude...yours is one wickedly bad story. Never mind if the HDD is bad but if it appears alright and it takes 15 mins to startup and another 15 mins to access explorer...anyone would have given up.
Very often, I find that having a backup component i.e. a spare RAM stick or HDD or PSU/proccy for that matter helps very much in debugging these things.

I wonder what would happen something like this happens to a newbie. Probably something like

:annoyed: :O :fear: :'( :help: :please: :sorry: :anyone: :help2: :boat: :down: :crazeyes: :crazy: :frusty: :boxed: :ill: :doctor: :crutch: :evil: :2guns: :gun2:
 
I am sorry I couldnt post this message yesterday.
In the evening I headed over to Eazy's house. He helped me out with the situation. I am greatful to him for his time and effort he spent as well as his help. :hap2:

So heres the deal, we ran KillDisk on the HDD and it worked, with no bad sectors, formatted it using the winxp bootable disk's recovery console to NTFS. Later we checked the disk using HDTune...all was fine.

Seems like this wasnt a problem with the drive. Its now shortlisted to either my power cables or to the SATA cables. I hope its the latter:bleh:

Either case, the HDD is fine with no problems at all.
Once again, many thanks to those who helped me out especially Eazy. :eek:hyeah:
 
So will it work?:S
That foxy cable worked fine here.:S

Check your psu rails- in BIOS and with Everest ultimate- maybe it's acting up just like the other stuff and maybe like the psu i sent with you for RMA.:(

EAZY Sir ROX.:eek:hyeah:
 
Holy ..

that sonorous sound was like lil cling cling cling sound .. wasnt it ...??

Happend wid me wid 2 HDDz... now i am scared to death .. i already got the HDD replaced abt 9 mnths back thinking that it was the HDD...

now if i dont respond soon .. pls keep a lookout on ur pm box.. the HDD mite die upon me ..

Backing up 100GB of data ??? .. I got 2 layers of Goose bumps already ..!!

U basically mean that running Killdisk .. showed no badsectors ... that was the confirmatory tests done..

and u basically formatted it so that even the Win XP dskchk command showed everything was fine as well ?? besides getting the HDD to normal functioning ofcource.. ??

i mean all in all i need to take the back up of the data and will HAVE TO FORMAT ????
 
spacescreamer said:
Holy ..
that sonorous sound was like lil cling cling cling sound .. wasnt it ...??
Click to expand...
Yes, something similar...i got it on my cell and made Eazy listen to it. Damn...on the cell it sounded like hammers:rofl:

Anyways, there are no bad sectors on my disk. It seems to be a power or bad cable issue. Havent been able to go to lammy yet. Will confirm if it works with new cables when I get them.
U basically mean that running Killdisk .. showed no badsectors ... that was the confirmatory tests done..
Click to expand...
Nope, killdisk as far as i gather either writes all 0's or all 1's to your HDD and even clears the MBR and partition records. Thus, if there are any bad sectors, either it will hang or will make the noise again. Both were absent @ Eazy's place.
and u basically formatted it so that even the Win XP dskchk command showed everything was fine as well ?? besides getting the HDD to normal functioning ofcource.. ??
Click to expand...
Format, well Yes, it was formatted too. And Win XP checkdisk showed everything fine.

i mean all in all i need to take the back up of the data and will HAVE TO FORMAT ????
Click to expand...
Nah, first take it to a friends place, check if it works there without the noise. If it does, then yours could be an issue similar to mine. In any case, backups are good.

And since it seems to me that many ppl are having similar problems at the same time, it could also be an issue of the weather conditions??? or faulty PSU's which also is possible due to the weather.
 
XTerminator said:
take it to a friends place, check if it works there without the noise. If it does, then yours could be an issue similar to mine. In any case, backups are good.
Click to expand...

Arey its working fine at the moment .. no delays or anything .. maybe a degraded version of the problem u faced.

Now if u mean plug it into my frnd;s comp .. wont the settings of his mobo be taken as default ..??

then this wd be another hassle..

XTerminator said:
And since it seems to me that many ppl are having similar problems at the same time, it could also be an issue of the weather conditions??? or faulty PSU's which also is possible due to the weather
Click to expand...

I been getting this "Not Booting HDD Scenario " with the Cling cling cling sound randomly since last 8 months now .. on and off on and off .. Only now the bad sectors have cropped up .

Boy .. all that (^^^) sounds so noobish .. :S
 
I have experienced problems of the HDD clinging, when it gets low power... Im pretty much sure its a power related issue... The HDD isnt getting enough power or its getting inconsistent power!!

PS: Was a pretty long story... mayb u should start script writing for Hindi movies!! :lol:
 
Ok Update time.

Just got back from coll sometime ago, stopped at lammy on my way back.
Got a few (4) SATA cables, and one Molex to SATA power converter as well as two Cabby Fans (China Make :bleh: ).

I changed the SATA cables as well as the power connectors. My Seagate HDD shows up just fine and as of now is working without any hitches. Will run some tests using HD Tune etc and post the update here.

PS: No extra noise or anything:bleh:
 
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