chckdsk

[epic]

How is it possible to run chckdsk for a drive that is not initialized (no drive letter, etc) in disk manager? The external drive had previously worked and suspect the MBR is corrupted. Otherwise I receive the message "virtual disk manager - incorrect function."

[jaclaz]

How is it possible to run chckdsk for a drive that is not initialized (no drive letter, etc) in disk manager? The external drive had previously worked and suspect the MBR is corrupted. Otherwise I receive the message "virtual disk manager - incorrect function."

YOU CANNOT.

CHKDSK checks the filesystem, NOT the partitioning.

If you have a MBR/partition table problem you may try using TESTDISK:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Make SURE you read and learn HOW to use it before actually using it.

More generally, instead of asking help for the actual problem you are having, you are currently asking help for the way you think your problem should be solved, which may or may not be the right one .

Compare with these:

http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollard/FGA/problem-report-standard-litany.html

http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollard/FGA/put-down-the-chocolate-covered-banana.html

jaclaz

[epic]

More generally, instead of asking help for the actual problem you are having, you are currently asking help for the way you think your problem should be solved, which may or may not be the right one .

Thanks for the suggestion with testdisk. Besides that... your opinion on what I stated is just that, YOUR opinion and flawed. Chkdsk does fix mbr issues as well bad drive sectors as does fdisk.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

How can chkdsk fix a bad drive sector?

It doesn't FIX them it tells windows and the hardrive to ignore and SKIP them.... (Thus keeping the damage to the bad sectors and not causing it to spread.)

Please if you are so sure jaclaz's (He is the resident hard drive authority afterall and provided links) opinion is flawed provide proof.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Kelsenellenelvian

[jaclaz]

Chkdsk does fix mbr issues as well bad drive sectors as does fdisk.

EXACTLY.

Since FDISK DOES NOT "fix" ANY bad drive sectors and NOT even the MBR, your sentence is perfectly correct.

FDISK /MBR (that may be the thing you were thinking about ) doesn't "fix" ANYTHING, it simply rewrites the MBR booting CODE, leaving the DATA exactly as it was before (correct or not).

CHKDSK, however, won't even access the MBR.

I may be far less authoritative than the guys that actually wrote CHKDSK , but you can read what they write about it :

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314835/EN-US/

....

Chkdsk.exe is the command-line interface for the CHKDSK program, which verifies the logical integrity of a file system. If CHKDSK encounters logical inconsistencies in file system data, CHKDSK performs actions that repair the file system data (assuming that the data is not in read-only mode).

....

Understanding what CHKDSK does

CHKDSK's activity is divided into three major passes, during which CHKDSK examines all the metadata on the volume, and an optional fourth pass.

Metadata is "data about data." Metadata is the file system "overhead," so to speak, that keeps track of information about all of the files that are stored on the volume. Metadata includes information about what allocation units make up the data for a given file, what allocation units are free, what allocation units contain bad sectors, and so on.

....

Phase 4: Checking sectors

If the /R switch is in effect, CHKDSK runs a fourth pass to look for bad sectors in the volume's free space.

....

jaclaz