chkdsk /r failure

Win 10 ver 2004

When running a Windows Image it gave me a message that it detected bad clusters.

I opened a cmd prompt and ran chkdsk /r. It was in Stage 4 with 2 hours left when it rebooted on its own.

At the log in screen it showed the usual username, but would not accept the usual password.

I rebooted and then it went into Startup Repair. I am up to the 3rd repetition of startup repair with no luck.

Any ideas what might be the issue?

Thanks

WMIC is a command-line interface that lets you perform many administrative tasks, including checking hard disk health. It uses the S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) feature of hard disks to see status and provide a simple conclusion, like “OK” or “Pred Fail,” etc. It is still a very basic command that offers very little information, but it is quick and a built-in feature of Windows.

To check a hard disk S.M.A.R.T health report status please follow below instructions:

1. Open the Command Prompt from Windows Recovery Environment

2. Type following command and press Enter key.

wmic diskdrive get status



You will see the status of your hard disk after a short delay. Windows will report S.M.A.R.T health status for all connected hard disks, in my case i have three hard disk connected that is the reason i get three OK S.M.A.R.T health report status.


Following command will fixes errors on the disk and locates bad sectors and recovers readable information.

Code:

Chkdsk D: /r

Please replace partition letter D: with Windows installed partition letter. When computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1 and 10 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assign any other drive letter usually D: drive letter is assign to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit | find "osdevice" command can be use to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.

Vincenzo said:

When running a Windows Image it gave me a message that it detected bad clusters...

Paul Black said:

[2] It sounds like the HDD has started to Fail.
[3] Create a System Image immediately on an External HDD to at least have a way of retrieving your files if your HDD fails any time soon.

Agree with both points, it definitely sound like the HDD is dying.

Creating an image could be difficult. Vincenzo did not say what they used to try and make the first image. If it was Windows own system imaging then that is now impossible to use. You need to be able to boot to Windows to use it, and even then it can't make an image of a drive that has errors.

You'll need to boot from something else that can make system images, a Macrium recover USB for example. Even then it may complain about bad blocks. If you can't make an image, you could at least boot from something else then manually copy as many user files as are still readable to an external HDD.

Rescuing your important files before it's too late should be your top priority.

At a bare minimum, boot to a Command Prompt from a W10 install USB and copy files from the command line. It would be a lot easier with a windows-like graphical interface, but it can be done from a command prompt at a pinch.

There's a way to boot to a command prompt then use Notepad's 'Save as' dialog as a substitute 'File Explorer'.

How to Backup Personal Files from Windows Recovery Environment

The Macrium recovery USB also has its own built in Explorer.

Please consider the following:
a) testing the drive
b) if the drive has failed > backup files
c) if the drive has not failed > backup files > perform troubleshooting steps
d) for troubleshooting steps: find srttrail.txt > post results and turn off startup repair to view error message and code

If you choose to perform the above steps more information can be provided.

Thanks for the responses.
Berton, it did not tell me how many bad clusters. I was running Windows Image from File History, and when it completed it said it had found bad clusters, and said it did not include them in the image.

That's why I ran chkdsk /r (with reboot)

FreeBooter, I ran wmic and got OK OK

I am logged in remotely doing this work on a friend's computer so limited in what can be done.

Bree, I have backed up the user folders to a flash drive, and have a cloud backup with iDrive too.

She cannot afford an external hard drive, the Windows Image I was running was onto a partition on the internal drive, which is of course limited but the best I could do when set this up for her, without an external drive.

The Startup Repair was successful finally, and then the Windows password did work finally, so the computer is back up.
But running slowly even though I did a cleanup previously. It's an Intel i3 so should have reasonable speed, better than it is.

Does bad clusters always mean surface errors, or could it refer to software errors in the hard drive structure?
I'd like to try run chkdsk /r again, but afraid it might cause startup failure again.

Paul,
Linux is not an option for her to manage, and I have backups anyway.

Thanks

- - - Updated - - -

zbook,
what do you propose testing the drive with?
Thanks

1) Run HD Tune (free version) (all drives)
HD Tune website
Post images into the thread for results on these tabs:
a) Health
b) Benchmark
c) Full error scan

2) Run Sea Tools for Windows
long generic test
Post an image of the test result into the thread
SeaTools for Windows |
Seagate
How to use SeaTools for Windows | Seagate Support US

3) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
chkdsk /b /v
This may take hours to run so plan to run overnight.
Run on all drives using the syntax: chkdsk /b /v C: or chkdsk /b /v D: changing the drive letter to the applicable drive.

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /b /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type: Y
reboot


4) Use the information in this link to find the chkdsk report in the event viewer.
Copy and paste into notepad > save to desktop > post into the thread using a one drive, drop box, or google drive share link:
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10


5) These steps / tests can be performed overnight:
a) HD Tune full error scan
b) Sea Tools for Windows long generic test
c) Chkdsk /b /v



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