CHKDSK doesn't complete, can't clear dirty bit

Question

At some unknown point, the dirty bit on my C: was set (verified with fsutil), and now chkdsk runs on every boot. However, it always aborts at ~51%, preventing the dirty bit from being turned off. I booted into the Recovery Console and tried almost every chkdsk recovery option (/f, /r, /b), and they all fail some way through. From what I have gathered, this implies that there are sectors that are bad in ways that chkdsk doesn't handle (although those details are obviously unclear).

I tried a Hail Mary suggestion from another site: back up an image of the drive, format, restore the image, but that was ineffective...I used Acronis Backup & Restore, and I suspect it's restoring the problematic sector as well.

I don't think the drive is bad or is going bad. It's a fairly new Crucial mSATA SSD. Best guess, something like a power blip caused the corrupted sector. Otherwise, there are no problems, and everything runs fine.

Any suggestions on what to try next? Since I've successfully round-tripped my backup image, I'd be willing to try just about anything.

Edit: FYI, this is the chkdsk output using any of the repair options:

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...

Correcting error in index $130 for file 203615.
An unspecified error occurred (766f6c756d652e63 461).

That's where it ends, and punts me back to the command prompt. I also tried the suggestions I have seen for this error - run Dism and/or sfc - but neither worked.

Solution 1

The solution is simple.

Do a search on the hard drive for AUTOCHK.EXE and rename all instances of it to AUTOCHK1.EXE

You will be able to boot up the computer, get access to your programs and data and email, and fix your problems.

AUTOCHK.EXE looks like CHKDSK.EXE but is the version invoked by Windows on boot up.

Solution 2

Most formatting tools seem to reuse the bad sectors. I found that the Windows XP formatting tool was the only one that would reallocate the bad sectors and replace them with healthy ones. I can't remember if I used UBCD4WIN (Ultimate Boot CD for Windows) or a Windows XP disc, but both contain the same formatting tool. The drive lasted a few more months before needing to be formatted again, after which it only lasted a few more weeks and reformats before it died completely, so this solution is only temporary.

Long story short: Use the Windows XP formatting tool, either with UBCD4WIN or a WinXP install disc, this will quarantine the bad sectors instead of reusing them, then restore your backup. Make sure not to format again with another tool or it will release and reuse the bad sectors.

Solution 3

You should first ensure you have a good backup. Then you should check Crucial's site for any firmware update for your specific drive model which addresses these issues. Also I would recommend running a drive testing utility (manufacturers sometimes provide these but I couldn't find one for the Crucial SSDs) which tests every sector on the physical drive.(for example, Western Digital has their free Data Lifeguard software for testing drives). Don't depend on chkdsk to do this. I would lean toward a failing drive. Again, backup, backup, backup!

Comments

[wst]

After an elaborate ordeal, I was finally able to update the firmware on the SSD...to no avail. As I noted, the drive is backed up; however, a drive failure seems unlikely.

[Ryan Griggs]

As i stated, did you check that the firmware was intended to address this issue? The firmware information should detail the issues fixed. Also did you run a bootable drive diagnostic to test the entire disk? (Ensure compatibility with your SSD drive)

[Ryan Griggs]

My finding is that in today's drives, once you start getting bad sectors, you should replace the drive. Otherwise they begin to multiply.

[wst]

@RyanGriggs That has been my experience, but only with spindle drives. SSDs are an entirely different animal, and they don't seem to fail in the same way. Also, I don't think this is a typical bad sector...see updated question.

[wst]

@Wald0 I'm looking at the UBCD4WIN tool listing, and I don't see the XP formatter. Could it be called something else?

[wst]

The firmware notes said something vague like "bugfixes and performance improvements". There is not a Crucial diagnostic tool, but everything I've read suggests using CrystalDiskInfo to read the SMART data, which says health status is "good" and life remaining is 96%. It also shows 0 "reallocated" or "uncorrectable" sectors.

[Ryan Griggs]

So are you able to do a format/reinstall a clean copy of your OS then copy your data files back, instead of doing a full bare-metal restore, which would also probably restore any corrupt file allocation info?

[Wald0]

It was a couple years ago, but I think it was through a disk partition tool on UBCD4WIN.

[wst]

Yes, in theory, and I had considered a repair install. But I installed Windows via flash drive, which has since been overwritten, and I would need to rebuild it. I will save this as the final option.

[wst]

Before reformatting I ran a full scan/repair on the disk with HDAT2, but it didn't find anything, so I suspect the problem is actually the disk index, not the rest of the disk. So far I haven't found a way to repair that without chkdsk, though.

[Ryan Griggs]

Its really easy to create a bootable usb drive using Rufus and a stock windows disc. ( rufus.akeo.ie)

[fixer1234]

So close. A 9 month old question and you missed the window of opportunity by 2 days. See wst's answer. Hopefully, future readers will benefit from your answer. ;-)

[wst]

Although I can't actually test this because I can no longer reproduce the problem, it seems like this would only bypass the boot time disk check but not actually provide a way to repair the damaged filesystem index.