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I would boot to the installation DVD, choose repair and open the command prompt. I would first run chkdsk /r to completion, and then I would run sfc /scannow to completion, both from the DVD repair option rather than from your hard drive.

I’m curious as to why you are suggesting running from the installation DVD rather from the hard drive. I may give that a try.

I have already performed a SFC /SCANNOW (executed from the hard drive). Here are the results:

Code:

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windirLogsCBSCBS.log. For example
C:WindowsLogsCBSCBS.log

I looked at the CBS.log file, but I’m not sure how to interpret the data.

Also previously I performed a chkdsk /r and found no errors.

I have also deleted and rebuilt the indexing file.

I just finished implementing Microsoft KB2498472 but that did not fix the problem on the original drive. I’ll need to wait for up to 12 hours before I can verify if this fixed the problem.

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The ntfs errors are back. Fourteen in a row, just as before. This is with a different disk drive so it can’t be the drive.

Are there any “hidden” options that will tell me what program was executing when these errors are generated?

I pulled out the current OS drive and installed the new drive that I had imaged last week and so far the system has been up for 7 hours with no ntfs errors. It was either the drive was physically bad or something was corrupted. I still get the CAPI2 errors, but those have been there for a few months.

SFC /VERIFYONLY reports inconsistencies but I don’t plan to execute the /SCANNOW option until I get another image completed. (The old drive also reported errors).

It wasn’t the defrag program. It runs 1 time per week and last executed 2 days ago.

I plan to let the computer run for a couple of days (without rebooting) to see if the errors repeat. I’ll check out MyDefrag.

If all else fails, I can revert to the last image to the new drive. The only changes since the image have been the Microsoft patches.

It took 3 hours to complete. No errors were found. Sure enough, 1 hour and twenty minutes after bootup, I got the same 14 errors. It does seem odd that the errors are not reported immediately. I wonder what runs 1 to 1 1/2 hours after boot to cause these errors?

…I would also make a drive image if the drive is rescusitated,…

Not a problem making a drive image as the computer seems to be running fine, (not running slow or hanging up). If I wouldn’t have reviewed the event log, I wouldn’t have known I had a problem.

On your advice from my last problem, I had already purchased a new drive, made an image and verified it booted OK. That new drive is not installed but is available for installation. I am in the process of running chkdsk /r but it will most likely take in excess of an hour to complete.

Thanks for the additional responses. The replacement drive was supplied by Dell under warranty and did not include the wizard (it already had the OS loaded).

Regardless of the utility I choose for my OS backup and restore plan, I intend to purchase an additional internal drive so I can perform a “test restore” so I am better prepared next time.

See the update to my previous post.

I have completed the copy and verified the BCD contained the proper values (I did not need to change anything). You stated “The BCD store will have to be edited, because it probably points to the third partition (partition 2) on the drive for the OS partition, and will need to be edited to point to the second partition (partition 1) on the drive.” I saw nothing that mentioned the partition number, just the partition name.

I shut down, moved the cable from the old drive to the new drive and left the old drive disconnected. When I attempted to boot, I get the following message:

Reboot and select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected boot device and press a key

Still no joy.

UPDATE:
I am now up and running. I found I needed to make the Recovery partition “Active”. So far everything seems to be working and there are no hard drive errors reported by Windows. Thanks for all the help. I still need to restore drive D, my data drive, but that should be an easy task

I should probably start a new post on this, but I need to find out what to use to make this easier next time an OS drive fails. Obviously Norton Ghost is not doing the job. Although I routinely verify I can restore regular files from backup, I didn’t have the guts to wipe out the OS and test recovery of drive C.

I deleted the partition on the destination drive and now the copy button is highlighted when the RECOVERY-1 and OS-2 partitions are selected but not when the DellUtility-0 partition is selected. Possibly it has something to do with that partition being formatted as FAT16.

I have successfully copied the RECOVERY-1 partition and now I am in the process of copying the OS-2 partition (this will take a long, long time). Since I can’t copy the DellUtility-0 partition, I’ll attempt to boot without it.

Anything else I need to do before attempting to boot with the new drive?

Again – thank you very much for your help.

Another question – Above you stated I need to “create one big full-size partition and choose HPFS/NTFS as the file system” on the destination drive. In reading the instructions for BootIt NG, it states I can only paste into free space but since I created one large partition, there is no free space available.

I have the ISO CD created and have booted BootIt NG. On HD 0 (the failing drive) there are 3 partitions, DellUtility-0, RECOVERY-1 and OS-2. I have deleted all partitions on HD 1 and created one large partition on HD 1. If I highlight DellUtility-0, the only options available are Delete, Image and Properties. Obviously I can’t use copy if it is not highlighted. DellUtility-0 is Bootable: FAT16, Size 39 MB, Cluster Size 2048 bytes with *Warning* File system ends at LBA 80321.

How can I copy it or do I need to copy it?

The BCD is in RECOVERY-1.

And since the BCD store is on the failing drive, you’ll also need to copy that partition to the same position on the new drive. Partition 0 is probably the Dell Utilities, partition 1 is probably the Recovery partition, and partition 2 is probably your OS partition. What all this means is that you should probably replicate your “failing” drive to your new drive completely, if you do indeed have a Recovery partition.

I do have a recovery partition. So BootItNG copies partitions and not complete drives. To get Utilities, Recovery and OS will I need to copy 3 partitions individually? I’m showing my ignorance of operating systems here – Most of my experience is web design, PHP, Javascript and etc. You state I’ll need to copy that partition to the same position on the new drive. I’m assuming that BootItNG takes care of that for me or do I manually need to create these partitions?

One last item – I’ve read the Getting Started Guide and it seems to indicate that I can’t just download and install BootItNG. I need to create an ISO image on a CD or DVD (my computer doesn’t have a floppy). Is the ISO image a requirement?

Thanks for your patience. Hopefully I can help someone in the future in my area of expertise.

You can use BootIt Next Generation (fully functional 30-day free trial download) to make a byte for byte image of your failing drive and then restore that image to your good drive. It’s tiny (it will run from a floppy drive) and thorough. It will also run from CD or USB, or it can be installed in its own 8MB partition.

BootIt NG will work for what you need; I’ve done it a number of times. BootIt NG will also do a byte for byte bootable copy from one partiton to another.

Thanks for your quick reply. I’ll try BootItNG but since the C drive is on its last leg, I want to make sure I take maximum advantage of the up time. A couple of questions:

Which function do I use in BootItNG?
Can I go directly from my current C drive to my D drive instead of copying to a USB drive and then to my new drive (SATA to SATA is much faster than SATA to USB).

I believe the image is stored in imageres.dll