Do you run chkdsk on non-Windows partitions?

[Haole Boy]

Aloha. I recently had some issues with a failing hard drive and came up with a question that I have not seen an answer to. The hard drive was from a Dell and had the following partitions:

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------
Volume 1 C Partition 922 GB Healthy
Volume 2 ESP FAT32 Partition 500 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 WINRETOOLS NTFS Partition 490 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 450 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 PBR Image NTFS Partition 7961 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 8 DIAGS FAT32 Partition 40 MB Healthy Hidden

I was able to create an image of the bad hard drive and restore all of these partitions to a new hard drive, and ran chkdsk on the C: partition. Does anyone take the time to run chkdsk against any of these other partitions?

Mahalo!

Harry Z

 

[Markverhyden]

No. I have very little faith in M$ OS tools like that. If I run into a suspected bad disk it's backup and restore to a new disk.

 

[TurricanII]

Nah its probably gonna be fine with just C:. Client should keep their old drive as a potential emergency backup. Also now is the time to sell them a backup solution!!

 

[Diggs]

The only time I find myself running chkdsk is to reset the dirty bit on a drive. If the system asks for chkdsk of course I'll let it but that's about it.

 

[Markverhyden]

The only time I find myself running chkdsk is to reset the dirty bit on a drive. If the system asks for chkdsk of course I'll let it but that's about it.

Yep, the only reason I'll run it. Years ago I wanked around with hex editors but that was much riskier than chkdsk.

 

[GTP]

Years ago I wanked around

Hahaha! "Wanked" has a whole different meaning here, lol

 

[Markverhyden]

Hahaha! "Wanked" has a whole different meaning here, lol

Oh, I'm well aware of the other meaning. But this wanking was not, uh, very pleasurable. LOL!!!

 

[Moltuae]

Hahaha! "Wanked" has a whole different meaning here, lol

Haha.

I remember watching Married With Children, many years ago, when I first realised that this word must have a different or less offensive meaning in the US. Considering this was a prime-time family show, I was rather surprised to hear Al Bundy mention "Peggy's family, the Wankers". I was like, "What did he just say!?!"




Back to the topic: I do run chkdsk from time to time (and I find it useful for fixing certain file system issues) but I would never run it on a system that wasn't fully backed up, and I certainly wouldn't run it on a non-windows partition. In fact, I wouldn't even risk running chkdsk on a partition created by a different version of Windows.

 

[Big Jim]

ive lost count of the amount of times a pc has come in and checkdisk has fixed the issue without doing anything else

 

[GTP]

ive lost count of the amount of times a pc has come in and checkdisk has fixed the issue without doing anything else

This^^^

 

[Larry Sabo]

ive lost count of the amount of times a pc has come in and checkdisk has fixed the issue without doing anything else

I assume you always back up the user data/create a drive image first?. If so, no problem. If not, it's like playing Russian Roulette and one day chkdsk will send some of the data to the bit bucket. I've had it happen and it's no fun at all.

 

[johnrobert]

In the days of XP when it would not boot a chkdsk usually fixed it booting from CD.
it's not a good tool to use on a failing HD

I had one just last week slaved drive partition did not show up in Windows after reboot it asked to do a chkdsk then partition showed
I managed to get data using R-Studio.

 

[Metanis]

It pays to run chkdsk /i /c early in the repair cycle. It will merely report if there are errors and not fix them automatically. As NTFS got better at journaling the chance you'd get logical errors has decreased but it does still happen. I see this maybe 1 time in 25 but it's good to check and be thorough.

 

[frase]

Oh, I'm well aware of the other meaning. But this wanking was not, uh, very pleasurable. LOL!!!

Haha, as an aussie I fully understand the term, can mean many things not just pleasuring the palm
I only run chkdsk if there are boot errors.

 

[Big Jim]

I assume you always back up the user data/create a drive image first?. If so, no problem. If not, it's like playing Russian Roulette and one day chkdsk will send some of the data to the bit bucket. I've had it happen and it's no fun at all.

Not always.
But you are correct, it is good practice to do so.

 

[NviGate Systems]

Correct me if wrong, but Op mentioned Non Windows partition.

So this could be anything from data volumes, System partitions etc.

It could also mean non native Windows volumes in which case chkdsk won't support them.

As for system drives (EFI & Friends) I find it easier to boot to recovery, take a snapshot of the gpt/bios ID & Attributes, delete the partitions then recreate boot files. Boot files can cause lots of issues when corrupt and rebuilding them from scratch is not a hard thing, plus it guarantees a functioning boot.

It is wise though to ensure before you do this you have a backup. I've seen some systems that refuse to boot if they have a very unique partition layout. Not as common anymore but still a good precaution.

 

[johnrobert]

From what I have read chkdsk is the most destructive thing you can do and never do it for a failing drive

Many time I have used it for just that and it's made drive readable again

 

[Diggs]

While we're on the discussion, what else out there besides chkdsk will flip the dirty bit back again on a drive?

 

[Mick]

While we're on the discussion, what else out there besides chkdsk will flip the dirty bit back again on a drive?

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/manually-reset-or-clear-dirty-bit-in-windows-without-chkdsk/2/ Try at your own risk!

 

[cypress]

No I do not.