[cptspanky]

I had a thread on here before, but it got deleted so I'm starting a new one with fresh new problem.

I set chkdsk /r to run on system startup, and it ran but took forever to scan file data (I left it running for 4 days) so I rebooted but it started chkdsk again! Theres obviously something telling it to run the scan on next startup because it never finished the first time. Now if I run it it just freezes at 0% for checking file data.

It I go into startup options and tell it to boot in safe mode, it shows it loading all the drivers and then pauses and says "Press Esc to cancel loading a347bus.sys" and whether I press Esc or not it freezes. If I do last known good configuration, it runs into the chkdsk problem again. Please help!

My PC:
XP Home SP2
P4 3.2ghz HT
1GB RAM
160GB SATA HD in AHCI configuration
cd/dvd rom drive, cd/dvd burner drive

[cptspanky]

bump

[flavallee]

I'm at a loss as to why you even want to run CHKDSK as part of your startup routine.

There's been more than one occasion where someone has allowed CHKDSK to run during startup, and it trashed their computer and required Windows XP to be reinstalled.

[Deathblow]

Boot up selectively where it prompts you for each thing, and when it tries to load the a347bus.sys, tell it no. Then do a search for that a347bus.sys on the net, there are known problems associated with it.

[cptspanky]

so is there any way to stop it from running chkdsk?

[Elvandil]

Try running chkdsk /f from Windows, or chkdsk /p from the Recovery Console. Stopping chkdsk from finishing probably caused even more problems than you had before.

The driver that you mentioned, a347bus.sys, is associated with Daemon Tools. It usually doesn't cause any problems (for me, at least) but has added an option to disable it if it does. That probably has little or nothing to do with your chkdsk problem, but either reinstall Daemon Tools, or uninstall it to be sure that the driver is present and working correctly.

[cptspanky]

I stopped chkdsk because it ran for 4 days without getting past 8 percent; it was obvious it wasn't doing anything.

I can't get into windows because chkdsk starts automatically, thats the whole problem.

I can't get into recovery console because it asks me to type in an administrator password and no matter what I type in it says it's invalid and won't let me access the recovery console.

I can't get into safe mode because of this a347bus.sys problem, and I researched it but the only solution seems to be to delete it and I can't do that because I can't get into recovery console!

This is the worst catch-22 of my life. If anyone has ANY solutions to ANY of these problems, PLEASE tell me asap.

[Elvandil]

Download this program and run it to create a floppy. Boot from the floppy and check the drive using the /f option. Be sure to note the drive letter assignment since they will be changed. Run it on all your drives.

http://users.adelphia.net/~abraxas/dl/NTFSchk.exe (bootable floppy)

Try to boot without the floppy. If you still can't boot, try pressing the space bar at the same time as chkdsk starts to boot without a check.

If that doesn't work, boot from the floppy again and run a check on your system drive with the /r option. Don't stop it this time until it finishes.

[cptspanky]

thanks a lot. but before I do this I just want to be absolutely clear--what will happen exactly with the drive letter changes?

[Elvandil]

The program will tell you what drive letters were assigned (temporarily) to your drives. They will be the same as always after you boot up again. The disk checking program just assigns temporary drive letters.

[cptspanky]

ok I'm running ntfschk and its coming up with tons of "File record segment XXXX is unreadable" and a couple of "Deleting corrupt attribute..." Something tells me thats bad. What should I do?

[Elvandil]

That is not good. If it is unable to repair the file system, you may need to repartition and reformat and reinstall XP.

If you have another computer, or another drive for this computer, you can try to recover files from that drive by hooking it up as a secondary.

Let the checker fix all it can and try to boot is about all I can recommend.

[cptspanky]

hey you're been a ton of help, but I have another question: How do you hook the drive up as a secondary? Not the physical part like plugging it in, but what other stuf you have to do. Do you mean install XP on another drive and then see if it can "see" my broken one? Either way I still don't know how to do it.

[Elvandil]

Yes. Hopefully, the file system is not so damaged that it is not accessible.
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If you have another drive handy, take out your bad drive and put in the spare. Note the position of the "jumper" on the drive and set it to "master". Install XP to it.

Then, change the jumper on the bad drive to "slave" and hook it to the other connector on the same cable that the first drive is connected to. Boot up and recover your files.

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If you have another XP machine, check the jumper on that system's main drive. If it is set to "master", then set your defective drive to "slave" and connect it (same cable--other connector). Boot up and recover your files.

If the other drive is set to "CS" (cable select), then set your defective drive to CS, connect it to the other connector on the same cable, and boot up to recover.

[cptspanky]

thanks a lot, you're the first person thats given me a straight simple answer. I guess I'm gonna have to do what I suspsected from the beginning, and thats start from scratch. that seems to be the end to all of the problems that I've had in past, why not this time, right?

The scans still running, but now its spewing out all this stuff with fixing indexes and recovering orphaned files and inserting data attributes and stuff, so it certainly appears to be doing more good that any other fix I've tried so far.

I'll put the damaged drive into this computer tomorrow and see if I can recover onto a 250GB usb drive that my brother can get access to at his work.

thanks again

MODS PLEASE DONT DELETE THIS POST LIKE YOU DID MY LAST ONE--i REALLY need this information until this problem is resolved, thanks