I dont know what is happening with my computer but everytime I restart my computer, it checks the disks for any errors(and nothing is found everytime). Can anyone please let me know if it is any setting of windows or any virus/malware?
Sadly, you told us nothing about your computer as far as version of Windows, make and model of the computer, when the problem started, or what you have done so far.
Sorry for that. I thought it is mentioned in my profile. I have windows XP running on Intel Dual Core 2.2 GHz processor. So, far, I have done nothing to rectify it. I am thinking of running Norton Antivirus scan to rectify it. Please let me know if there are any suggestions.
Sorry for that. I thought it is mentioned in my profile
Sadly, the information in profiles is pretty useless because many people have more than one computer, or they come here helping a friend or relative with their computers. So unless you specify in your post the computer in question is the one in the profile, we cannot assume it is or we may end up giving bad or incorrect advice.
While this does not normally indicate a malware problem, it will not hurt to scan for it.
Could be a Dirty Bit issue also. If the above does not work or you are unsure how to do it you can try the following.
Check and see if the hard drive is dirty. Please click on START–>RUN and type cmd. In the new window that appears, type fsutil dirty query c: and hit ENTER. If what appears on the screen says Volume - c: IS Dirty, then please do the following:
Please check the following before proceeding:
If you have Spyware Doctor installed, uninstall it.
If you have ZoneAlarm installed, open it, click the "Overview" tab, then select "Preferences", and UNcheck the "Protect ZA Client" check box.
Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the prompt in the Command window, type the following commands, pressing "Enter" after each one:
Substitute the drive letter for the drive your want to check for the ? in the following commands. Please note the spaces.
chkntfs /d ….. (This will reset autocheck options to default…will come back invalid on some installations)
chkntfs /c ?: ….. (This will allow checking the specified drive )
chkntfs /x ?: ….. (The x switch tells Windows to NOT check the specified drive on the next boot)
At this point, restart your computer, it will not do a chkdsk and will boot directly to Windows.
This next step is important as this is where the Dirty Bit will be unset.
Substitute the drive letter for the drive your want to check for the ? in the following commands.
Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the command prompt, type the following, pressing "Enter" after each one: (Again, note the spaces.)
chkdsk /f /r ?: ….. (To manually run a full chkdsk operation on the specified drive)
Y ….. (To accept having it run on the next boot)
This should take you through 5 stages of the scan and will unset the Dirty Bit. Be patient…this is a very thorough check and will take quite a while.
Finally, when the chkdsk operation has completed, type fsutil dirty query ?:, press "Enter", and Windows will confirm that the Dirty Bit is not set on that drive.
Reboot again and see if chkdsk still runs on startup. If the machine boots back up to the command prompt, type exit and press "Enter"…it should boot to Windows.
Thanks Digerati and rshaffer for the replies.
Digerati's link didn't worked as registry value was already set what it should be.
@ rshaffer - I tried your suggestion and now, run the command fsutil dirty query d: (as disk checking runs for d drive only) and I find that it is dirty.
Now, I didn't got what to do:
Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the prompt in the Command window, type the following commands, pressing "Enter" after each one:
Substitute the drive letter for the drive your want to check for the ? in the following commands. Please note the spaces.
chkntfs /d ….. (This will reset autocheck options to default…will come back invalid on some installations)
chkntfs /c ?: ….. (This will allow checking the specified drive )
chkntfs /x ?: ….. (The x switch tells Windows to NOT check the specified drive on the next boot)
Do I need to run all the above commands with five dots and replace the ? in all the three with d?
Also, can you please let me know, what is dirty bit and what is the reason for it to set (any virus or malware etc)?
Thanks rshaffer..that fixed it…however, I would like to tell you that there is no instance where the system was shut down abruptly, then how this can happen…is there any reason for it?
It doesn't have to be shut down abruptly for the dirty bit to happen. Just the system shutting down before the memory has had a chance to completely clear itself. It is not a big issue but it is a pain in the rear when it happens. Now that you know the symptoms and have the instructions you should be able to resolve it quickly if it happens again.
I am glad it worked and hopefully now everything is working correctly for you.
Cool. Thanks rshaffer for the information.
Just want to confirm to be clear:
1) this statement is used to check if the drive has dirty bit: fsutil dirty query c: (substitute c with the drive you want to check)
2) then, you have to run these commands in cmd:
chkntfs /d ….. (This will reset autocheck options to default…will come back invalid on some installations)
chkntfs /c ?: ….. (This will allow checking the specified drive )
chkntfs /x ?: ….. (The x switch tells Windows to NOT check the specified drive on the next boot)
From the above statements: I understood why we are running first command but I dont get why we are running other 2 commands (because in those commands we are asking the system to force check and not check the specified drive). Can you please explain this?
First option resets the autocheck
Second option tells chkdsk to check the specified drive to make sure everything is now cleared out and making sure it will run right in the future,
Third option tells it not to check on the next boot when you have finished the above because the next set of instructions then clears the dirty bit out.
If the above is not run then when you started the below you would restart the whole chkdsk on every boot again.
Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the command prompt, type the following, pressing "Enter" after each one: (Again, note the spaces.)
chkdsk /f /r ?: ….. (To manually run a full chkdsk operation on the specified drive)
Y ….. (To accept having it run on the next boot)
This should take you through 5 stages of the scan and will unset the Dirty Bit. Be patient…this is a very thorough check and will take quite a while.
Finally, when the chkdsk operation has completed, type fsutil dirty query ?:, press "Enter", and Windows will confirm that the Dirty Bit is not set on that drive.
Reboot again and see if chkdsk still runs on startup. If the machine boots back up to the command prompt, type exit and press "Enter"…it should boot to Windows.
What it checks is the NTFS or the NT File System and Not the actual hard drive.
Since the Dirty Bit was corrected all the commands did run as they were suppose to and that is why the chkdsk no longer runs on every bootup.
