HELP my P.C wont SCAN
- Thread starter Dumpling
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Bobmi357
Knit one, Perl two...
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Hmmm ok, let me take a stab at this.
Your system is failing to successfully run a scan disk.
There are a couple possibilities here, but I'm afraid none of them are really good news.
Depending on the version of windows you are running, and the system specs, you could be running a compressed drive, or on an uncompressed drive. In either case scan disk is a program that responds to only two things. Errors in the file formats, and errors on the hard disk.
Generally speaking, file format errors are called soft errors. They usually aren't really recoverable, but you can delete the files in question and restore them from your backups. The most common type of soft error is a crosslinked file, meaning that one or more files are pointing to the same region on the disk and claiming that they own that space. Scan disk claims to be capable of fixing the problem, but to be honest, I've never seen a crosslinked file that worked properly after being repaired. Most soft errors should not cause scan disk to abort, unless perhaps you have too many of them, or some key windows files are crosslinked.
Hard errors are another story entirely. When they manufacture a disk drive, the drive isn't 100% perfect. There are always inperfections on the disk. Scan disk usually can locate these inperfections and build a table of sectors on the disk upon which data cannot be written. Sometimes however new inperfections appear, due to usuage, or just wear and tear on the computer. Depending on where these new inperfections are, and how big they are, it can seriously interfere with the operation of your computer.
Now you're claiming that scan disk isn't running correctly, so that means your system IS booting up, and because you managed to post here, I'll say that your net software and Windows are probably intact and operational. Therefore scan disk has probably hit on a major bad sector, or worse, a bad sector in the lookup tables, and is unable to continue testing the disk.
Your options are pretty limited at this point. You can either continue running under this mode of operation and realize that sooner or later you are facing a possible catastrophic disk failure. You could also try a low level disk reformat and reinstallation. This might work as the bad sectors would be remapped.
My immediate suggestion is that you backup all your work and personal files to offline media, ie floppies or cds or zip disks. Then I'd suggest getting the machine serviced.
I wish I had better news for you, but disk failures are tricky to deal with. They are a key component in the system, without them, you have an expensive doorstop.
Your system is failing to successfully run a scan disk.
There are a couple possibilities here, but I'm afraid none of them are really good news.
Depending on the version of windows you are running, and the system specs, you could be running a compressed drive, or on an uncompressed drive. In either case scan disk is a program that responds to only two things. Errors in the file formats, and errors on the hard disk.
Generally speaking, file format errors are called soft errors. They usually aren't really recoverable, but you can delete the files in question and restore them from your backups. The most common type of soft error is a crosslinked file, meaning that one or more files are pointing to the same region on the disk and claiming that they own that space. Scan disk claims to be capable of fixing the problem, but to be honest, I've never seen a crosslinked file that worked properly after being repaired. Most soft errors should not cause scan disk to abort, unless perhaps you have too many of them, or some key windows files are crosslinked.
Hard errors are another story entirely. When they manufacture a disk drive, the drive isn't 100% perfect. There are always inperfections on the disk. Scan disk usually can locate these inperfections and build a table of sectors on the disk upon which data cannot be written. Sometimes however new inperfections appear, due to usuage, or just wear and tear on the computer. Depending on where these new inperfections are, and how big they are, it can seriously interfere with the operation of your computer.
Now you're claiming that scan disk isn't running correctly, so that means your system IS booting up, and because you managed to post here, I'll say that your net software and Windows are probably intact and operational. Therefore scan disk has probably hit on a major bad sector, or worse, a bad sector in the lookup tables, and is unable to continue testing the disk.
Your options are pretty limited at this point. You can either continue running under this mode of operation and realize that sooner or later you are facing a possible catastrophic disk failure. You could also try a low level disk reformat and reinstallation. This might work as the bad sectors would be remapped.
My immediate suggestion is that you backup all your work and personal files to offline media, ie floppies or cds or zip disks. Then I'd suggest getting the machine serviced.
I wish I had better news for you, but disk failures are tricky to deal with. They are a key component in the system, without them, you have an expensive doorstop.
Maiden-hunter
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2002
- Posts
- 144
this sounds like it might be very simple (hopefully)
if scandisk is stoping it might be to do with screen savers if any are on turn em off. same with virus checkers and fire walls
also some usb devices can kick out scandisk so un plug them.
try using scandisk in safe mode too
any thing which runs on the system which needs to acsess the hard drive will stop scandisk working
see if these points work
if scandisk is stoping it might be to do with screen savers if any are on turn em off. same with virus checkers and fire walls
also some usb devices can kick out scandisk so un plug them.
try using scandisk in safe mode too
any thing which runs on the system which needs to acsess the hard drive will stop scandisk working
see if these points work
Carnus
Reality, yours or mine?
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2002
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- 1,525
Also try restarting in safe mode to see if it will run, depending on the version of windows you are running you might be seeing the lovely 98 bug, if that works then you need to download all possible patches and updates and it MIGHT correct it, else you have to live with the limitations of 98
Carnus
Carnus
Weird Harold
Opinionated Old Fart
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- Mar 1, 2000
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- 23,768
Dumpling said:
WhenScandisk is run through the maintenance function, it runs in "auto-fix" mode. Try running Scandisk from the Start menu with it set to prompt for permission to attempt a fix when it finds something.
When in Auto-Fix mode, Scandisk aborts when it finds something that can't be automatically fixed.
You can also try Start/Run to run the DOS version of Scandisk (the one that runs when you improperly shut-down) Sometimes that version will run when the Full Wndows version won't.
If you still can't get Scandisk to run, get a copy of Norton's DiskDoctor -- or another disk diagnotstic utility and run that instead.
Dumpling
Cheeky-Canadian
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Re: Re: HELP my P.C wont SCAN
Thanks Harold
I might have to try that.
I had shut everything down but it still wouldnt scan
I never had to shut anything down before for scan or Maintenance! I will let you know when I got it scanning what worked .
Weird Harold said:
Thanks Harold
I might have to try that. I had shut everything down but it still wouldnt scan
I never had to shut anything down before for scan or Maintenance! I will let you know when I got it scanning what worked .
SexyGiggles
Really Experienced
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- Jan 4, 2003
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- 293
My computer was having the same problem a couple weeks ago...try restarting it in DOS, and run scandisk. It will automatically run surface scan while it's doing that, which is where my computer had all it's problems -- oodles of bad sectors, so many more than previously that I decided the hard drive was deeply possessed and I needed to fix something...rather than fix a bit here and a bit there any hope it all worked, I got a new computer, which fortunately arrived yesterday. 
Alas, I've gotten a bit off topic...run scandisk and surface scan in DOS, see what it does...hopefully your computer is in better shape than mine was!
*giggle*
PS: Is there an error message that pops up while you are doing all this? What is it? Is there an error code? Do a google search for the specific error code -- you'll get lots of info. (Also, post it here, we'll give you advice!)
Alas, I've gotten a bit off topic...run scandisk and surface scan in DOS, see what it does...hopefully your computer is in better shape than mine was!*giggle*
PS: Is there an error message that pops up while you are doing all this? What is it? Is there an error code? Do a google search for the specific error code -- you'll get lots of info. (Also, post it here, we'll give you advice!)
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