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)