Over time, your hard drive could develop errors for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons are:
* Improper Shutdowns
* Power Outages
* Power Surges
* Age of Drive
In this article I will explain a method that can repair a damaged hard drive. It is also possible to be able to tell if the hard drive is nearing its end by using this method.
Warning: Depending on the extent of the damage to your hard drive, this test can cause the hard drive to actually fail. So, prior to running this test, be sure to backup all data.
<>Start Repair Method:
1. Insert your Windows XP/2000 installation CD and restart your computer to launch the CD. If you receive a prompt asking what boot method you would like to use. Select the option that allows you to boot from the installation CD.
2. The next prompt will ask what you would like to do? Select the letter "R" to enter the Windows Recovery Console.
3. When asked what partition you would like to boot to, select the partition that has your Windows operating system installed on it. You may be asked for an administrator password at this point. If you use one, then enter it now. If not, simply press enter to continue.
4. A command prompt should now appear. Type in the following command and then press enter on your keyboard: chkdsk /p
5. Your system will begin testing for errors on your drive. If you receive a message that states; "One or more errors detected on the volume", then it is possible to use CHKDSK to repair these errors. If no errors were found, CHKDSK will not be able to repair your drive.
6. If one or more errors were found, type in the following command at the command prompt and then press enter on your keyboard: chkdsk /r
7. Once you press enter, the CHKDSK utility will begin checking every sector on your hard drive for errors and automatically repair them. This test could take some time depending on the size of your hard drive.
8. Once your system stops scanning and returns you to the command prompt, type the following command again, then press enter: chkdsk /p
9. If after the scan completes and it has found no errors, this means that you have successfully repaired your drive. If errors are again reported, this means that the CHKDSK utility was unable to repair these errors and it could also indicate that the drive is on its last leg.
10. Exit the Recovery Console and remove your Windows XP/2000 installation CD. Be sure to (if you haven't already) backup all data on your drive.
/F Automatically Fix file system errors on the disk.
/X Fix file system errors on the disk, (Win2003 and above)
dismounts the volume first, closing all open file handles.
/R Scan for and attempt Recovery of bad sectors.
/V Display the full path and name of every file on the disk.
/L:size NTFS only: change the log file size to the specified number of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays the current log size and the drive type
(FAT or NTFS).
/C Skip directory corruption checks.
/I Skip corruption checks that compare directory entries to the
file record segment (FRS) in the volume's master file table (MFT)
Linux man page 2fsck is used to check a Linux second extended file system (ext2fs). E2fsck also supports ext2 filesystems containing a journal, which are also sometimes known as ext3 filesystems, by first applying the journal to the filesystem before continuing with normal e2fsck processing. After the journal has been applied, a filesystem will normally be marked as clean. Hence, for ext3 filesystems,
e2fsck will normally run the journal and exit, unless its superblock indicates that further checking is required. device is the device file where the filesystem is stored (e.g. /dev/hdc1).
Note that in general it is not safe to run e2fsck on mounted filesystems. The only exception is if the -n option is specified, and -c, -l, or -L options are not specified. However, even if it is safe to do so, the results printed by e2fsck are not valid if the filesystem is mounted.
If e2fsck asks whether or not you should check a filesystem which is mounted, the only correct answer is ''no''. Only experts who really know what they are doing should consider answering this question in any other way.
If you're a legitimate Microsoft customer, you can download and install all the Windows updates you need without running Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and exposing yourself to the false positives it's become known for.
In today's article, I explain how to install Windows XP and upgrade it with every available security fix and many optional updates as well, without ever installing WGA. May 21, 2009
BlackHat
TheBlackHawk