PROBLEM: My desktop computer with a new 1TB hard disk drive and is running Windows XP Professional, The C: drive containing Windows is 100GB and the rest of the disk is partitioned as drive D: which is used for storage. Both partitions are formatted to use the NTFS file system. The PC was running just fine until it produced a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) yesterday. The drive’s power and data cables are connected correctly, but when I ran the Windows chkdsk diagnostic utility by entering cmd in the Start => Run box and entering chkdsk c:/r at the Command Prompt, it told me the C: drive partition was in the RAW format and the disk couldn’t be checked. When I entered diskmgmt.msc to bring up Disk Management, it confirmed the C: drive was unformatted. I then restored a system image created with Windows 7’s Backup & Restore, but got another BSOD today.
ANSWER: This looks to me as if it is a problem with software-related rather than a hardware-related problem. For example, if you use disk or file encryption software it could be responsible. You need to run the Windows chkdsk disk-checking program to give the drive itself a clean bill of health. Then you need to be able to find out which software is the cause of the problem. Note that chkdsk is available from Windows XP to Windows 8.1.
CHKDSK – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHKDSK
In Windows XP, open My Computer, right-click on the C: drive, click Properties and open the Tools tab. Click on the Check Now button. Place a check mark in both boxes with the mouse and click Start. Answer Yes to schedule the disk check for the next boot up and restart the computer. Note that the disk-checking can take several hours.
In Windows Vista and Windows 7/8.1, you have to run the Command Prompt as the Administrator. If you just enter cmd in the Search… box and then enter chkdsk (plus any of its switches) at the Command Prompt, a message that says: “Access Denied as you do not have sufficient privileges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode”.
To do that in Windows 7 SP1 open Start => All Programs => Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt and click on “Run as administrator”. Enter chkdsk /? to be provided with a list of the available switches provided by the chkdsk command.
How to Run an Error Check on a Drive from Windows 8.1 –
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-run-an-error-check-on-a-drive-from-windows-.html
Obtaining the CHKDSK Results in Windows XP:
1. – When the Event Viewer is open, select Application.
2. – The 4th column of information in the right-hand pane is titled Source , click on the word Source at the top of the column to sort by that column.
3. – Scroll through the Source column to find the most recent entry titled Winlogon.
4. – Double-click Winlogon to open the CHKDSK results.
The Windows Vista and Windows 7 CHKDSK results are much more difficult to find in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Here is a webpage that provides that information:
Where to find the CHKDSK results in Vista, Windows 7 – http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=441
If you can make head or tail of the results, you can use the Copy button to copy and paste the results into a file that can be provided as an attachment to a computer forum, such as the one provided below, whose experts can analyse it for you.
In Windows XP, use Windows Explorer (right-click on the Start button and click on Explore) to open the C:\Windows\Minidump folder. There should be a file in it that has a .dmp extension. WinDbg can be used to analyse it.
Windows Debuggers: Part 1: A WinDbg Tutorial –
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/6084/Windows-Debuggers-Part-1-A-WinDbg-Tutorial
Right-click on it and click on Send To => Compressed (zipped) Folder. You can then attach the zipped file to a computer-forum thread that you have created.
The regular posters at this forum – http://community.talktalk.co.uk/ – will be only to glad to analyse the results for you or provide you with further help.
