Hard Disk Error Checking

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

I have a small problem with one of my lab PC's when the desktop comes up a message about missing files displays untill I click ok. I have re installed Windows but the problem comes up again within a couple of days. I suspect a faulty hard disk so I have run an "Error Checking" scan but my back was turned when it finished and I misses the result! Can anyone tell me where the log file would be located as this info is not shown in the MS Press book!?

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Source: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/132863.html



did you run the chkdsk /f command? this should automaticaly fix any errors it encounters.

 

Well sort of, I ran the check disk utility from the GUI and had both the option boxes ticked so it was set to repair problems. However I suspect bad sectors and want to know if my drive needs throwing in the bin and replacing. Windows 95/98 had scandisk, which allowed you to perform a surface scan, and actually gave you statistical results when you finished which is sadly missing from Win XP.

 

Go to the CMD prompt and run it from there, when it is finished running it usually displays it's statisctics.

a chkdsk /? will allow you to see what variables you can configure when running the scan.

 

Thanks Simon I will try that tonight.

 

This sounds to me like the registry run or run once entry is trying to load a file that no longer exists on the system. This is quite common if you have run anti adware or anti-spyware apps recently. Quite often they don't remove the registry entry that calls them.

If this is the case, you can either chose to ignore the message or edit the registry and search for the filename mentioned and delete the value. That action has sorted these issues for me many times.

The usual don't edit the registry if you don't know what you are doing or the world will blow up caution, is taken as read

 

Some useful info here guys, thanks

 

The problem arrose when I was doing a fresh install of XP. During the install process a warning appeared saying "could not copy file" and prompted me to restart the computer and start the instalation again. And since that I have been geting this warning. So I think I can rule out a virus / addware scan having removed the file. It is an old hard disk so I suspect there are some bad sectors on it.

I may have a little play in the registry as if I muck it up I won't lose anything

 

If you had this error on install it sounds like something might have been on the drive which was naughty (virus) or the install disc is damaged.

 

I would say fixing the errors is the best option, in my opinion .

 

First of all give the CD a clean, then try copying the installation files from the CD to a folder on the hard drive, you can name the folder whatever you like (XPCD for example). You need to copy the entire contents of the i386 folder. If the CD is faulty you will get an error saying could not copy bla bla. If the CD is okay it will proceed without errors. Note that all the necessary installation files are in the i386 folder, the rest is extras.

Once you have the i386 folder contents on the hard drive. Double click on WINNT32.exe and re-install and chose the repair option.

here is a link that explains more...

http://www.easydesksoftware.com/I386.htm

 

Excellent link Pete, thank you!