Problem FAT32 chkdsk problem

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I recently got a XP to boot again after running chkdsk (fat32), after i got it booting xp i found that i had to replace the MBR and boot sector to get safe mode running (safe mode would hang when starting, whilst normal would work.. err okay)

so all seems to be working .... so i thought

when i run chkdsk it finds a load of First allocation unit not valid errors and cross linked files.

so i run chkdsk a few times to remove them, fine all gone.

(and no bad sectors)

I then reboot a few time run chkdsk /F followed by another chkdsk and i then get a whole load more of the same errors (different files if i recall norton, some backuptool, prefetch).

Also I have used the following tools....

seagatetools - to check the laptops memory, controller, harddisk and , fat partitions ... no errors or problems

spinrite v6 - no problems in analysis mode, no errors to recover in recovery mode.

thought about converting to ntfs obviously cant really do that with a problematic FAT32 partition.

I cant seem to find the problem any ideas before i do a reformat and reinstall?

...i would like to fix without if i can!

 

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I'm not sure I'd be taking my chances on that harddisk. If you've got to fix bootsectors/mbr and chkdsk still finds lost files and errors after multiple runs, sounds like a hardware error to me.

What disk is it? Maybe you can run a firmware update or find other people with similar issues via a google check?

 

apparently the problem started after removing a web cam which caused the system to hang.

(all data has been recovered and backed up)

i am almost certain that its not a hardware issue and the disk is fine, rather a software issue.

if continuously running spinrite v6 doesn't show any issues i am happy

chkdsk /f doesn't find any problems , however chkdsk does, i know that often you have to use chdsk in several sweeps.

I have heard of file proctection tools causeing First allocation unit not valid errors on FAT, however there arnt any.
(if i recall on windows 2000 installing SP3 caused this error at first)

I am almost certain that a format and reinstall would fix the problem, but i wanted to find the culprit.

suppose if i only used it in safe mode and it didnt have this issue would point to a driver or app, i'll try that.

 

Not all disk or memory proggies find errors even after multiple runs... But I've seen some strange things happen with peculiar hardware drivers.

If you do a sector by sector copy of the data to another identical machine and try running it from there, would the same issues surface? Good luck in any case.

 

I tried another harddisk same issue index and size errors ,however, files themselves are never damaged.

I have tried a basic windows installation, bios updates, controller driver updates (none) etc... with no succes

I have used several tools to test the drives on the system they successfully read and write data without any issues or corruption on many runs. Same with memory.

as this is a laptop i don't think there is anything else i can do hardware wise, i dont have another identical machine or spares

At first i thought it was SP3 ,however, i have tried with SP2 as results

 

You could install the OS while the disk is in another machine (say, desktop), the once the disk is back in the laptop, see if you're able to get into Wibdows and try running Prime95 or something to stress the system to its max.

Maybe the motherboard, PSU/battery connectors or CPU is going bad. Maybe the disk connector/controller is going bad.

Have you reset the BIOS settings to default and cleaned (with an air duster) the CPU fan (if there is one)?

Are you able to set the disk to run at non-AHCI mode (like standard)?

 

sorry i am afraid i don't agree those issues would cause other noticeable problems eg full data loss, hangs, BSODS etc

they wouldn't single out ntfs indexes without doing other damage

PS (non-AHCI mode) its IDE