New
#1
CHKDSK: "Insufficient disk space to fix the security descriptors..."
Hi everybody, I've made a lot of progress with this external drive, but I seem to be stuck now.
-------------------------------------------------
Unidentified problem with 3TB external drive (USB 3.0 enclosure) that the computer suddenly started treating as RAW. Spent the last two weeks running CHKDSK /r repeatedly. Slowly got through many hundreds of indexing errors. Now I get as far as "verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)," but I seem to have hit a wall here...
CHKDSK won’t go any further because there is "Insufficient disk space to fix the security descriptors data stream."
Microsoft’s advice (Error Message:) is of no help to me. They say to “delete some unneeded files from the disk and try again,” which doesn’t help me since I can’t get the drive to mount or stay mounted long enough to copy the files onto a different drive.
-------------------------------------------------
The drive behaves differently each times I power up its enclosure, but it is usually one of these things:
- Drive doesn't mount.
- Drive mounts after a few minutes. I see a generic "Local Disk L:" in Windows Explorer but, when I try to explore its folders, the computer takes about 15 minutes trying to read it (I can see the progress bar moving slowly across the top of the screen), and then says that "The parameter is incorrect." Drive disappears from Windows Explorer.
- Drive mounts after a few minutes. I see the full Volume name that I originally gave it, and can see all of the folders/subfolders. However, I cannot open or copy any files from the drive — on the few occasions I've gotten this far, I tried to copy some files from the drive to a different drive (thinking that I could free up some space and maybe get further along in the CHKDSK process). I hit "Copy" on a single folder on the bad drive, and then hit “Paste” on my target drive. The computer spent an incredibly long time "calculating" the file names/sizes. Hours later, there was a new error message: An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. . . . Error 0x800704fD: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.” I clicked on "Try Again," and got the following error message: An error has occurred. The destination you have specified does not exist . . . The drive had already dismounted.
---------------------------------------------
Sometimes, after the drive mounts, I run CHKDSK but it says that the drive is RAW.
Then I’ll power-cycle the enclosure and try again, and CHKDSK says that the drive is NTFS and run its course... until I get to the "Insufficient disk space to fix the security descriptors data stream" message. Then I'm back at the command prompt, and I must power-cycle the enclosure before I can continue.
Sometimes, when the drive finally mounts, I now see a frame pop up, asking if I want to “scan and fix” the drive. I tried it once but the system hanged and the drive eventually dismounted. Now I just click on "Continue without scanning."
---------------------------------------------
I’ve tried plugging the drive into internal bays inside two (2) different desktops (each running Win 7 (x64) and UEFI), but it is never recognized by either computer’s BIOS, Windows Explorer or “Disk Management.” My only success, thus far, has been via the external USB 3.0 enclosure.
--------------------------------------
This is my dilemma. The folders/files all appear to be on the drive, but I can’t get the drive to stay mounted long enough to copy anything onto a new drive in order to free up enough space for CHKDSK to finish.
What can I do here? Any thoughts or advice? Would using a different CHKDSK option make any difference? Is there any way to get the computer to use C: drive space to complete whatever tasks it can't complete on the external drive? Thanks!!
Last edited by alanbalanb; 22 Oct 2014 at 17:00. Reason: More people are likely to recognize 'CHKDSK' than the error message itself.