Scan disc keeps running and running and running......

I am experiencing a probllem with scan disc. Lately after a lock up or
improper shutdown, Scan disc starts up and will keep running and running and
running. I get the scan disc has timed out message after the alloted time. It
never fully runs and would keep trying to run for days on end if I don't
cancel it out and stop it.

Any clues as to why?

Alias
Mon Dec 27 09:55:14 CST 2004

Try it in Safe Mode and follow it up with a defrag, also in Safe Mode.
--
Alias

Use the Reply to Sender function of your news reader program to email me.

"mj" <mj@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote

:I am experiencing a probllem with scan disc. Lately after a lock up or
: improper shutdown, Scan disc starts up and will keep running and running
and
: running. I get the scan disc has timed out message after the alloted time.
It
: never fully runs and would keep trying to run for days on end if I don't
: cancel it out and stop it.
:
: Any clues as to why?
:

John
Mon Dec 27 11:13:15 CST 2004


"mj" <mj@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1FA6176C-F974-4560-9D6D-AA90DD65C0B4@microsoft.com...
> I am experiencing a probllem with scan disc. Lately after a lock up or
> improper shutdown, Scan disc starts up and will keep running and running
and
> running. I get the scan disc has timed out message after the alloted time.
It
> never fully runs and would keep trying to run for days on end if I don't
> cancel it out and stop it.
>
> Any clues as to why?
>

Click start/run/type in msconfig /click ok.
Click on the advanced button on the general tab
in the window that opens.
Tick "Disable Scandisk After Bad Shutdown"
Click ok/apply.
You will have to restart your computer.
***DO NOT CHANGE ANY OTHER SETTINGS**

John

Noel
Mon Dec 27 11:21:16 CST 2004

...and if you do that, you can risk doing irreparable damage to your
filesystem, due to not being forewarned of shutdown problems!!!


If you stop the scan before it completes - every time Windows boots, it will
attempt to complete again.

If your HD has SMART - are you getting any other warnings on boot?
If not, it may be time to download an HD utility from the manufacturer of
the HD, and test the drive

As Alias says - try booting to Safe Mode - if that allows the scan to
complete, then you may have other problems.....
You may have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://download.nai.com/products/mcafee-avert/stinger.exe

- update your virus scanner and run a full system scan of all files.

download AdAware SE Personal Edition from www.lavasoftusa.com, install,
update, and run it to remove spyware, adware, and other such nasties from
your system.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj
A Happy Xmas, and a Merry New Year to everyone!

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"John..." <me@here.com> wrote in message
news:cqpfrd$d5b$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> "mj" <mj@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:1FA6176C-F974-4560-9D6D-AA90DD65C0B4@microsoft.com...
>> I am experiencing a probllem with scan disc. Lately after a lock up or
>> improper shutdown, Scan disc starts up and will keep running and running
> and
>> running. I get the scan disc has timed out message after the alloted
>> time.
> It
>> never fully runs and would keep trying to run for days on end if I don't
>> cancel it out and stop it.
>>
>> Any clues as to why?
>>
>
> Click start/run/type in msconfig /click ok.
> Click on the advanced button on the general tab
> in the window that opens.
> Tick "Disable Scandisk After Bad Shutdown"
> Click ok/apply.
> You will have to restart your computer.
> ***DO NOT CHANGE ANY OTHER SETTINGS**
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>

John
Mon Dec 27 13:38:34 CST 2004


"Noel Paton" <NoelDPspamless@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:ezFG6hD7EHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...


> ...and if you do that, you can risk doing irreparable damage to your
> filesystem, due to not being forewarned of shutdown problems!!!


Never had a problem doing this Noel,what damage can occur by disabling
scandisk at startup?
Had mine set like this for at least a couple years.

John

Andrew
Mon Dec 27 18:40:13 CST 2004

At a guess.... there are many programs in the background that may as part of
their processes write to the hard disk and this is disrupting the scan disk
process.

Try starting in safe mode and run scan disk from there.

Or there may be problems on your hdd that scandisk is trying to fix and is
having a hard time working through them. There is a way to disable scandisk on
startup (but I wouldn't recommend it, as it is a
diagnostic/troubleshooting/advanced user setting).


"mj" <mj@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1FA6176C-F974-4560-9D6D-AA90DD65C0B4@microsoft.com...
> I am experiencing a probllem with scan disc. Lately after a lock up or
> improper shutdown, Scan disc starts up and will keep running and running and
> running. I get the scan disc has timed out message after the alloted time. It
> never fully runs and would keep trying to run for days on end if I don't
> cancel it out and stop it.
>
> Any clues as to why?
>

cquirke
Tue Dec 28 06:20:38 CST 2004

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 08:40:13 +0800, "Andrew Murray"

>At a guess.... there are many programs in the background that may as part of
>their processes write to the hard disk and this is disrupting the scan disk
>process.

That's why it's best to do this OUT of Windows altogether, from DOS
mode. That's needlessly crippled in WinME, so you'd have to do the
boot diskette thing if you haven't already retro-fitted a DOS mode.

>Try starting in safe mode and run scan disk from there.

You can try that; sure It's often enough to work if you get frequent
restarts (as opposed to just a never-ending scan). If you still see
restarts, then do a formal virus scan, if you haven't done that yet.

>Or there may be problems on your hdd that scandisk is trying to fix and is
>having a hard time working through them. There is a way to disable scandisk on
>startup (but I wouldn't recommend it, as it is a
>diagnostic/troubleshooting/advanced user setting).

I *always* set it to prompt before repair, but I don't suppress it
altogether, as I do with AutoChk in XP.

>"mj" <mj@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>> I am experiencing a probllem with scan disc. Lately after a lock up or
>> improper shutdown, Scan disc starts up and will keep running and running

Now there are three possibilities here - and the advice I'd give will
vary on which possibility applies!

1) Scandisk keeps restarting

I think this is what Andrew assumes is the case here, as it's the most
common problem. Windows is constantly running stuff underfoot, which
writes to C:, which in turn makes disk mainenance of C: a PITA. In
Win9x GUI mode, anything that writes to the file system being
Scandisk'd or Defragged will cause those processes to start over.

Safe Mode cuts down the amount of junk running underfoot, as well as
knocking out network traffic that can have the same effect. If you
still have this problem in Safe Mode, then suspect malware that's
deeply rooted enough to be active even in "Safe" Mode.

2) Scandisk just keeps on grinding away, part 1

I have two PCs in here right now, where a DOS mode Scandisk of even a
small 8G C: partition is taking ages, because the "looking for more
crosslinked files" phase seems to loop indefinitely.

I've had to chop away broken trivia (web cache subtrees etc.) from
DiskEdit or using DelTree, before Scandisk would finish checking the
file system's logic. One of the PCs was full of commercial malware
(cm); the other hasn't got far enough to be checked yet. It may be
that a particularly badly-written cm is barfing the file system to
this extreme. It's not a problem I've sen before.

3) Scandisk just keeps on grinding away, part 2; Surface Scan

In addition to the normal file system logic check, Scandisk can also
check the volume's disk surface for physical errors. This is called
"surface scan" in DOS mode Scandisk, and "thourough test" in Windows
GUI Scandisk. The process takes a loooong time.

The automatic Scandisk that follows a bad exit does not do a surface
(or throrough) test automatically. But other circumstances -
specifically, disk access errors - can set a flag to cause this fuller
scan, even if there was no bad exit. This is serious, because it
nearly always means your HD has started to die.



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