Question

Unable to run Disk Defragmenter, chkdsk /f error

Asked by: rjfhelp

I am trying to run a defrag on a Windows XP Pro, SP2. Each time I try to run it, I get the error message:

Disk Defragmenter has detected that Chkdsk is scheduled to run on the volume: (c:). Please run Chkdsk /f

I have told the computer to run chkdsk /f, and it does so on a restart.

Then it proceeded to continually insist on running chkdsk on every restart.

I searched on EE and found the registry edit to remove the autocheck flag.

I checked scheduled tasks and there is no chkdsk scheduled.

I have tried the chkntfs /d command as well, and the computer still tells me that chkdsk is scheduled to run.

How do I turn this off and defrag this hard drive?

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-03-31 at 10:09:01ID24281904
Tags

microsoft windows xp

,

defrag

Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
13

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. defrag
    can defrag tool in w2k or xp be used to defrag ntfs file system in nt4 without creating damage to the data?
  2. Disk Defragment
    Hi, I was going to do defragment on one of the machines. But it was hanging not doing anything. Is this normal? Thanks.
  3. chkdsk stops me from defragging!
    I have Dell Inspiron 8200 running WinXP Pro and am having the same problems. The HD is a Hitachi and I downloaded and ran the diagnoses software. After an advanced scan of the hard drive no problems were found and everything looked ok. I am having NO other problems with my...
  4. Defrag
    I try to defrag gets about 70% then restarts. Tryed safe mode same thing.

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: LightningTechPosted on 2009-03-31 at 10:12:51ID: 24031150

Are you letting it complete the CHKDSK?  Maybe run a CHKDSK /r off the OS disk?

 

by: dstewartjrPosted on 2009-03-31 at 10:16:13ID: 24031196

 

by: rjfhelpPosted on 2009-03-31 at 10:26:41ID: 24031323

Additional Information:

Clearing the registry entry, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\Session Manager, and rebooting the laptop does not prompt to run chkdsk.

However, clearing the registry entry, then attempting to defrag results in the error listed above. Then a reboot of the laptop does result in the running of chkdsk.

 

by: dstewartjrPosted on 2009-03-31 at 10:38:04ID: 24031452

Ok I would scrap windows defrag anyway, this one works quite well

http://www.defraggler.com/

 

by: rjfhelpPosted on 2009-03-31 at 10:46:38ID: 24031564

This is a corporate environment. We need to be able to use the tools provided within the OS.

Can anyone tell me why the defrag keeps setting the autocheck back?

I have tried repeated experiments, and it works like this:

  1. Edit the registry.  
  2. Reboot the laptop. 
  3. No chkdsk prompting. 
  4. Logon to Windows. 
  5. Play around in Windows. 
  6. Reboot the laptop. 
  7. No chkdsk prompting. 
  8. Logon to Windows. 
  9. Attempt to analyze or defrag and get the Disk Defragmenter has detected that Chkdsk is scheduled to run on the volume: (c:). Please run Chkdsk /f error 
  10. Reboot the laptop 
  11. Chkdsk prompts/runs. 

So, I can take it out of the registry and everything is fine until I attempt to defrag. Even if I run chkdsk /f, the error message pops up on the defrag.

 

by: rjfhelpPosted on 2009-03-31 at 10:47:35ID: 24031576

Lightining Tech:

I've allowed it to complete the chkdsk several times, which is why I am boggled by it's continual reappearance and insistence upon running.

 

by: aleinssPosted on 2009-03-31 at 12:00:54ID: 24032333

Yes, but did you do it from the XP disc (recovery console) like he suggested?  There could be a driver loading at startup blocking the successful operation of CHKDSK.

 

by: rjfhelpPosted on 2009-03-31 at 12:06:53ID: 24032404

Yes, I ran it from the recovery console. It reported that it found and fixed more than one error.

Upon reboot, it did not attempt to run chkdsk.

Upon attempting to do a defrag, it once again gave the error.

Should I let it perform a chkdsk /f (yet again)?

(Apologies if I sound testy, I'm a bit annoyed with this OS and hard drive)

 

by: aleinssPosted on 2009-03-31 at 14:08:08ID: 24033676

Sounds like the hard drive might be going.  Have you tried running the hard drive vendor diagnostics on the drive?

 

by: quixysPosted on 2009-03-31 at 17:24:15ID: 24035037

I would agree with aleinss.

Every time you attempt to defrag, it's probably encountering an error on the disc because it is failing so it prompts for a CHKDSK before defrag can begin.

That would explain why it comes back after editing the registry.

Open Device Manager to find out who the manufacturer is and as aleinss suggested, download their diagnostic utility. If there are failures outside of it's recommended range, that's most likely your culprit.

You are left with only two options, replacement of the drive or using a third party defragmenting software.

I have used O&O Defrag in a corporate/medical environment for some time now with fantastic results. It's available at: http://www.oo-software.com

If you have to replace the drive, at least you have the opportunity to backup a disc image or your individual data neatly.

 

by: rjfhelpPosted on 2009-04-01 at 11:21:10ID: 24042099

I have run three separate diagnostic utilities and none of them found errors or problems with the hard drive.

At this point in time, we are planning on replacing the system with a different one, but I'm still curious about this problem. Could it still be a hard drive problem? Or maybe a software issue?

 

by: dstewartjrPosted on 2009-04-01 at 11:47:30ID: 24042342

Have you tried Spinrite?

http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

 

by: rjfhelpPosted on 2009-04-13 at 06:43:23ID: 31564933

I solved the problem by replacing the hard drive. Points divided for the solution and aid received. Thank you!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...