Unspecified error using chkdsk

[liquidguru]

hello,

i have a 300GB external firewire drive attached to my laptop...i've had it a while, and it's worked mostly ok...i using Windows XP Home, SP2

when running chkdsk /f g: from the command prompt i'm getting the following error :

The typr of the file system is NTFS.

Volume label is phat git

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...

File verification completed.

Correcting cross-link for file 8.

An unspecified error occurred.

then the command prompt returns...

i get the same error message when running chkdsk on this drive on startup..

i can access the data on the disk, but i am rather concerned about this error...does anyone have any advice on how i can troubleshoot this further, or fix it?

thank you

[LLXX]

Copy the contents to another drive, reformat, then copy the contents back.

That should get rid of any filesystem corruption.

[liquidguru]

Copy the contents to another drive, reformat, then copy the contents back.

yes, my problem is that's it's a 300GB drive attached to my laptop...i live on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere, and there just isn't another 300GB drive available ... there is also no way to buy a drive on-line, and get it here soon, without paying huge amounts of freight and then customs...

i was rather hoping there was a 'better' tool than chkdsk to attempt to repair the disk, if that's what it needs...as i said earlier, i can use the drive as normal, but i am concerned that it might crash completely...

[oioldman]

reading your sig, you have 4x120GB drives which is roughly 480GB.

are you using all that up? or do you have just enough space to fit what you have on the 300GB? to do as suggested by LLXX

[liquidguru]

@oioldman

yes, i'm using most of it all up...i take alot of underwater DV, and use the disks to store the footage....takes up alot of space, approx 13GB of space for every hour of video (uncompressed AVI, which it needs to be)....looks like i may have to stop using that disk until i can get another....bummer

does the error suggest that the disk may fail at any time?

thanks for the suggestions

[LLXX]

The strangest Idea to come across my mind as I was reading this post was to create several dozen Gmail accounts and upload your files to Google for temporary storage Either that, or rent some webhosting storage.

does the error suggest that the disk may fail at any time?

Strange recurring filesystem corruptions are a sign of failing hardware. However if you pulled it out while it was writing or similar, then filesystem corruption is not abnormal. It's just when it appears seemingly randomly, and recurs, that it's a problem. Edited May 18, 2006 by LLXX

[liquidguru]

create several dozen Gmail accounts and upload your files to Google for temporary storage

yes but unfortunately there is a small but significant chance that the world will naturally come to an end before my uploads finish at a max of 12kb/s

i love living where i do because it is where it is, but from a tech point of view, i'm in the dark ages here..this island is called 'the nature island', and it is beautiful, but i'm constantly amazed i even have electricity most days, let alone my wireless connection to the internet (unprotected, of course, as no-one has a computer within five miles of me) etc etc...

i will cross my fingers that it holds out a few more months and see if i can get another 300GB disk somehow, then transfer the data, re-format and see how it goes...

another, probably very silly, thought occured to me...could i do a 'quick format' then recover the data on the disk after, using data recovery tools? i found some software from Runtime Software called GetDataBack for NTFS...any ideas about whether this is any good?

again, thanks for the input LLXX and oioldman