I want to run chkdsk /r on an unlabeled partition

This is a new problem this week on my home based HP Pavilion PC, after months of smooth operation. Windows 10, 64 bit, and generally dependable... almost as stable as Win 7 was

According to Macrium Reflect free, when I try to run an image, I have an error 10 and need to run chkdsk /r on a partiton that has no letter designation. The option to change the letter is grayed out.

I deleted all my scheduled imaging tasks and reprogrammed them, in hopes it was that simple, but no such luck.

The reason I think this partition is the one is because when I click "analyze" in the Macrium partition interface, it's the only one showing an error: "Unused cluster - Error code=10. Please run chkdsk /r"

I open the run command and select run as admin, but without a letter, I have no way to point it to that single partItion. I once tried specifying C:, and it stuck on 11% until it rebooted 2 hours later.

I've read a couple of posts and search results, but so far no love from Google. Any Ideas? Maybe a recent Win update?
Thanks,Rusty

Can you post a bigger photo of the partitions etc we cant see it looks like the efi parition which you boot from itf it boot ok dont touch it or it may not boot

Hey, thanks, Sam. I'll post a better pic later this evening and we can take a look.
Rusty

Here is a response from a Macrium moderator for error code 10 on an EFI unlabeled partition:

It looks like the error is coming from your EFI system partition, which will not show up inside Windows. To fix errors in this partition, please do the following:

- Boot into Windows PE rescue media.
- Open up a command prompt.
- run the following commands:

"diskpart"
"list disk"
"select disk N", where N is the number of the disk you're booting from
"list part"
"select part M", where M is the number of the System partition
"assign"
"exit"

- Open up PE Explorer to check which drive letter has been assigned to your EFI system partition.
- Now from the command line, run "chkdsk E: /r", for whichever drive letter has been assigned.
- Wait for it to complete, then reboot.

Please let us know if this fixes the Error 10 messages.

Okay, Railtech. I'll have to learn how to do that first. Tomorrow being our Thanksgiving holiday, it'll have to wait till I can get back and focus on this, so when I do, I will follow your instructions and report back with my results.
Meanwhile, I ran the Windows image backup from Control Panel, so I am somewhat prepared for an emergency
Thanks a lot,
Rusty

P.S. Meanwhile, click to enlarge, and here's a better picture for Samuria:

Railtech, sorry I took so long getting back to this. After you posted, I was reading up on Windows PE. Dosed off at the computer and awoke to see a scheduled backup running. So to be safe, the next day, I also ran a Windows image, and then just turned it off till after Thanksgiving weekend, only to have the computer fail to boot the next time I powered it up.

It took me a few tries to get the Mmacrium rescue media to boot from the flash drive, as I had no luck with the BIOS boot order. But I finally found "F9" gave me the boot option I needed to boot the Macrium interface. I restored a recent Macrium full image, and it still wouldn't re-boot, so I restored an older image of that suspect EFI partition and it's working fine now.

However I did copy the text of your post for future reference. Next time if I get the same situation, I'll run your fix first. Hopefully, my current fix will hold up.
Thanks,
Rusty

Railtech said:

Here is a response from a Macrium moderator for error code 10 on an EFI unlabeled partition:

It looks like the error is coming from your EFI system partition, which will not show up inside Windows. To fix errors in this partition, please do the following:

- Boot into Windows PE rescue media.
- Open up a command prompt.
- run the following commands:

"diskpart"
"list disk"
"select disk N", where N is the number of the disk you're booting from
"list part"
"select part M", where M is the number of the System partition
"assign"
"exit"

- Open up PE Explorer to check which drive letter has been assigned to your EFI system partition.
- Now from the command line, run "chkdsk E: /r", for whichever drive letter has been assigned.
- Wait for it to complete, then reboot.

Please let us know if this fixes the Error 10 messages.

Okay, now that I've run a successful restore with the USB Boot media, I decided to add a boot option so I can bypass the USB or DVD and go straight into Macrium 6.

In my defaults, I want to know the best answer to some of the options. First, I click the button to add a boot option at startup... simple enough, I select "PE 10.0 64 bit" as shown in the first picture.


Next, in the picture below, under defaults, it asks which Drive(partition) I want it installed on. C: and D: are partitions on my only internal system drive, so one of those should be my choice.

Z: is my Monday external backup USB drive, and Y: is my Thursday external backup USB drive. They stay unplugged except for one night each week. I obviously don't want to choose either of those.

I also have rescue media on a USB stick and a DVD. But as for the boot option that simplifies the process, which partition of my system drive should I choose to install the PE? The possible answers are C:, my main data partition, and D:, a factory installed recovery partition.

Which of those to would be the smart answer? C: is already chosen when I open this window, so I'm inclined to leave it like that.
Thanks,
Rusty

Hi,

C: is already chosen when I open this window, so I'm inclined to leave it like that.

That would be fine, MR will add it to the Windows boot menu. Default timing is 10seconds but you can change that if you like.

If you save your backups to a USB/eSATA connected external drive you can also make that bootable with MR's PE rescue media should you like to do so.

Cheers

fdegrove said:

Hi,



That would be fine, MR will add it to the Windows boot menu. Default timing is 10seconds but you can change that if you like.

If you save your backups to a USB/eSATA connected external drive you can also make that bootable with MR's PE rescue media should you like to do so.

Cheers

Thanks, Fdegrove. I will add a boot option to each of the external backup drives too. I can think of no reason not to do that.

I appreciate everyone's help. I'm always cautious to excess when setting up a new piece of software as critical as this. I'm happy to have successfully tested it and can now relax, knowing it is quite dependable.
Rusty

Hi,

Thanks, Fdegrove. I will add a boot option to each of the external backup drives too. I can think of no reason not to do that.

You're most welcome.
Should you need a how to then just me know.

Cheers,