What signifies this SCANDISK messge ?
(in Phase 1, I think, no later than Phase 2)
"Windows was unable to complete the task"

This is on a Dell-built WinXP(2SP) PC, running
as slow as molasses -- that did not get up to normal
speed when I removed several boot loads, e.g.
Norton and Dell Help Systems -- so I cleared off
junk files with a view to defragging. Then SCANDISK
would not complete.

DOS CHKDSK /F reports
1. Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
2. Cannot continue in read-only mode.

What does this mean? Is the OS stuck in what
Win98 would have called DOS compatibility mode?
I should be grateful for advice for
1. diagnosis
2. cure.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Re: Hard drive error by PaulM

PaulM
Thu Mar 20 13:25:07 PDT 2008

Are you running on fat32?

--
www.paulsxp.com
www.paulsxp.com/forum
"Don Phillipson" <e925@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:e9igoNsiIHA.5724@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> What signifies this SCANDISK messge ?
> (in Phase 1, I think, no later than Phase 2)
> "Windows was unable to complete the task"
>
> This is on a Dell-built WinXP(2SP) PC, running
> as slow as molasses -- that did not get up to normal
> speed when I removed several boot loads, e.g.
> Norton and Dell Help Systems -- so I cleared off
> junk files with a view to defragging. Then SCANDISK
> would not complete.
>
> DOS CHKDSK /F reports
> 1. Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
> 2. Cannot continue in read-only mode.
>
> What does this mean? Is the OS stuck in what
> Win98 would have called DOS compatibility mode?
> I should be grateful for advice for
> 1. diagnosis
> 2. cure.
> --
> Don Phillipson
> Carlsbad Springs
> (Ottawa, Canada)
>
>


Re: Hard drive error by Don

Don
Thu Mar 20 13:44:40 PDT 2008

> "Don Phillipson" <e925@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
> news:e9igoNsiIHA.5724@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> > What signifies this SCANDISK messge ?
> > (in Phase 1, I think, no later than Phase 2)
> > "Windows was unable to complete the task"
> >
> > This is on a Dell-built WinXP(2SP) PC, running
> > as slow as molasses -- that did not get up to normal
> > speed when I removed several boot loads, e.g.
> > Norton and Dell Help Systems -- so I cleared off
> > junk files with a view to defragging. Then SCANDISK
> > would not complete.
> >
> > DOS CHKDSK /F reports
> > 1. Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
> > 2. Cannot continue in read-only mode.
> >
> > What does this mean? Is the OS stuck in what
> > Win98 would have called DOS compatibility mode?
> > I should be grateful for advice for
> > 1. diagnosis
> > 2. cure.

"PaulM" <Paul@paulsxp.com> wrote in message
news:utkiEisiIHA.3448@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> Are you running on fat32?

Thanks for the reminder: I was surprised to see this
Dell PC appears to have two partitions:
one FAT (30 Mb I think) no drive letter, possibly hidden
one NTFS 36 Gb, drive C:\ apparently normal.

I don't see the function of (a) any second drive,
(b) any non-NTFS drive: but perhaps Dell had other
things in mind . . .

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)



Re: Hard drive error by Big

Big
Thu Mar 20 13:54:26 PDT 2008

Don Phillipson wrote:
>> "Don Phillipson" <e925@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
>> news:e9igoNsiIHA.5724@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> What signifies this SCANDISK messge ?
>>> (in Phase 1, I think, no later than Phase 2)
>>> "Windows was unable to complete the task"
>>>
>>> This is on a Dell-built WinXP(2SP) PC, running
>>> as slow as molasses -- that did not get up to normal
>>> speed when I removed several boot loads, e.g.
>>> Norton and Dell Help Systems -- so I cleared off
>>> junk files with a view to defragging. Then SCANDISK
>>> would not complete.
>>>
>>> DOS CHKDSK /F reports
>>> 1. Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
>>> 2. Cannot continue in read-only mode.
>>>
>>> What does this mean? Is the OS stuck in what
>>> Win98 would have called DOS compatibility mode?
>>> I should be grateful for advice for
>>> 1. diagnosis
>>> 2. cure.
>
> "PaulM" <Paul@paulsxp.com> wrote in message
> news:utkiEisiIHA.3448@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
>> Are you running on fat32?
>
> Thanks for the reminder: I was surprised to see this
> Dell PC appears to have two partitions:
> one FAT (30 Mb I think) no drive letter, possibly hidden
> one NTFS 36 Gb, drive C:\ apparently normal.
>
> I don't see the function of (a) any second drive,
> (b) any non-NTFS drive: but perhaps Dell had other
> things in mind . . .
>
I have a dell inspiron 6000. 2 years + old.
Dell shipped it with a restore utility and all the restore data on the
extra partition. I lost some space.
So I ordered the CD's etc and then reformatted / repartitioned and
claimed all the drive. My logic was that if the drive dies, what good
is the restore. And I only had 80 gig, I want 80 gig. Its bad enough
that format loses some in the overhead.

PS. The CD's dell sent me were the full OEM windows XP Pro SP2 with all
the Dell addon's etc. The nice part was I have the option to no load
some trialware. I like that.


Re: Hard drive error by Bill

Bill
Thu Mar 27 00:10:59 PDT 2008

Dell has two hidden FAT partitions, for its recovery and utility programs,
respectively. One of them is FAT32. The other (IIRC) is FAT.

Don Phillipson wrote:
>> "Don Phillipson" <e925@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
>> news:e9igoNsiIHA.5724@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> What signifies this SCANDISK messge ?
>>> (in Phase 1, I think, no later than Phase 2)
>>> "Windows was unable to complete the task"
>>>
>>> This is on a Dell-built WinXP(2SP) PC, running
>>> as slow as molasses -- that did not get up to normal
>>> speed when I removed several boot loads, e.g.
>>> Norton and Dell Help Systems -- so I cleared off
>>> junk files with a view to defragging. Then SCANDISK
>>> would not complete.
>>>
>>> DOS CHKDSK /F reports
>>> 1. Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
>>> 2. Cannot continue in read-only mode.
>>>
>>> What does this mean? Is the OS stuck in what
>>> Win98 would have called DOS compatibility mode?
>>> I should be grateful for advice for
>>> 1. diagnosis
>>> 2. cure.
>
> "PaulM" <Paul@paulsxp.com> wrote in message
> news:utkiEisiIHA.3448@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
>> Are you running on fat32?
>
> Thanks for the reminder: I was surprised to see this
> Dell PC appears to have two partitions:
> one FAT (30 Mb I think) no drive letter, possibly hidden
> one NTFS 36 Gb, drive C:\ apparently normal.
>
> I don't see the function of (a) any second drive,
> (b) any non-NTFS drive: but perhaps Dell had other
> things in mind . . .
>
> --
> Don Phillipson
> Carlsbad Springs
> (Ottawa, Canada)