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C:\$Secure is corrupt and unreadable

Whenever I start XP (SP2) I've recently been getting "File or Directory c:\$Secure is corrupt and unreadable. Run Chkdsk". I aslo get this message when working on my pc. I have run chkdsk /f and chkdsk /r and the problem recurrs. I regularly get pop ups whilst working and the system slows significantly. It does not stop responding though - you just have to wait, and wait.... I have also run sfc /purgecache and sfc /scannow which ran without problems but made no difference.

Chkdsk runs every reboot and the error appears before i get to a login, so I assume this is not user profile related (although the ALL USERS folder will not allow permission changes when I am in as admin, as it claims the changes can not be written as corrupt etc). I don't think this is hardware related either but could be wrong. I've had the problme about 4 days and it is worsening. I am on point of an "upgrade" install of XP or wiping and starting over... Urgent help requested. Many thanks.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Davis McCarn

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Davis McCarn

P.S. If the problem moves to the next level, you will lose all access to the drive and it will stop booting. Also, your system is currently wide open to any malware/virus/trojan.

In other words, you also can't just live with it. Sorry......

maxos64

ASKER

Thanks for your help. I formatted and started over. My disk was partitioned with all data on a separate partition so it's not been too traumatic...

Davis McCarn

I didn't see any other way to fix it; there seemed to be no way to recreate or repair the NTFS $SECURE database.

017087594

if it helps someone i have this issue only with ibm T61 after installation of IE7 removal of IE7 and even after i returned to IE6