[Nottingham] Locating NTFS errors

[ForkBombFluf]

On Tue, 13 Jan 2009, Danny King wrote:

>> What error message from where suggests a file/disk problem?
>
> Windows won't boot: it'll hang just before login on a black screen
> with a cursor, and I can't mount the ntfs partitions under Linux
> unless I force it. chkdisk reported no errors at first but chkdisk /R
> reported fixing "some errors" but I didn't catch any more information
> than that I'm afraid.

If it was Windows chkdsk, That's probably because it didn't *give* you any 
more information.  It's notorious for being uselessly vague.  Were you 
doing this logged into the NTFS volume via the the recovery console?

> I'll download ultimate boot cd and see if any of
> its diagnostic utilities will help.

Have you tried ntfsfix? (Part of ntfsprogs package, if you have a Knoppix 
LiveCD it will be on it.)

Like Martin says, back up any data you want to keep while you still can, 
at least you *can* still mount it with the force option!  I recently 
"lost" an NTFS volume too, I got the "$MFTMirr does not match $MFT" error 
when trying to ntfsfix it, and it would *sometimes* mount under Linux 
(long enough to get most of the non-encrypted data off), and sometimes 
not.  Funnily enough, it was running Windows chkdsk to try and fix it that 
finally clobbered BOTH file tables, and now it thinks there's nothing at 
all on the volume.  I've historically found Linux tools to be much gentler 
and more informative than Windows' own.

>> Might you actually have a problem with the HDD itself or with a bad
>> sector? Try a HDD diagnostic check and a surface scan?

What Martin said.  It's very possible the drive has a physical problem and 
is on it's way out, so if you intend to continue using it, you'll want to 
check it out thoroughly first.

Good luck,

-Stef