Windows 7 Requires Disk Check NOW For All My 8 Drives/Partitions?HELP!

montecarlo1987 · 02 Mar 2013

Hello.

I need your help. For the last few days, I have been receiving on start up of my Windows 7 64-bit operating system the message on a black and white DOS like window screen (1 sample):

Checking file system on D:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is WORK DESKTOP.
One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended that you continue.
To skip disk checking, press any key within 10 second(s).

...with many more of the same messages FOR ALL my internal physical hard drive partitions in my desktop computer.

Okay, let me elaborate -- you need to know this background: Now this ENTIRE issue started OVER a week ago for ONLY ONE drive/partition asking for a disk check for consistency for my newly installed Windows 8 Pro 64-bit partition I created/installed on another physical hard drive from the perspective of Windows 7 64-bit. Yes, I have 2 operating systems on my computer -- Windows 7 64-bit on one physical hard drive partition; I have my Windows 8 Pro 64-bit on another physical hard drive partition; and I have 3 other physical hard drives with several individual drives/partitions on them for GBs of my backed up data and other files and folders I have saved. NOTE: I do NOT dual boot. I use BIOS to switch between the OS drive I wish to boot from for whatever Windows OS I want to use. I have had no problems right along. Okay, enough of the background.

Let me add, this "One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency" message(s) happened ONLY WITH startup for my Windows 7. NOTE: I did NOT receive or do NOT currently receive any such message for disk checking during booting with my Windows 8 Pro. Windows 8 will proceed to the Windows 8 lock screen without any issues when booting.

Now, let me back up: When this first happened OVER A WEEK AGO, when Windows 7 was loading, I would get the same check disk message above but FOR ONLY I would need to check for consistency for the Windows 8 Pro 64-bit drive/partition as I have previously said. This is my H drive from the perspective of my Windows 7 64-bit OS. It would do this each time I booted into my Windows 7 for several days. I would hit a key to override it ever time to avoid disk checking. In the mist of this issue happening, I transferred some digital camera images I originally placed on the desktop on my Windows 7 and move them to my Windows 8 Pro's desktop. I planned on using them on my Windows 8 Pro at a later time. Now, I knew I did NOT have much personal data associated with my newly installed Windows 8 Pro 64-bit drive/partition -- mostly the files and folders from the Windows 8 64-bit installation that would be impacted from a disk check. I then figured, what the heck; I might as well have Windows 7 check for errors with my Windows 8 Pro's drive/partition and get it done with so I would not get this message any longer. My newly moved images to the desktop would not get harmed I said to myself. Windows 7 was asking for a disk check long BEFORE I moved the images to the Windows 8 Pro's desktop. So when I rebooted into my Windows 7 and allowed my Windows 8 to be checked for consistency, I found it was deleting files and the very images I transferred over to my Windows 8 desktop in rapid succession on the black and white DOS like screen. After the disk check ended, I booted over to my Windows 8 to see if those images were still on my desktop! I foundthe images WERE GONE!!! I was very angry, but I DID make a backup of these lost images for my external hard drive to store a copy of them. Phew!!! I was safe from losing them! Anyways through all of that, I assumed I must of fixed whatever was wrong with this consistency/disk check for my Windows 8 Pro drive/partition per Windows 7. I was able to boot into Windows 8 Pro without any issues after Windows 7 performed the disk check. All "seemed" good.

After that happened, I rebooted back into my Windows 7 again. Now, I found this happening: FOR EVERY PHYSICAL HARD DRIVE's DRIVE/PARTITION I HAVE CREATED ON MY COMPUTER -- regardless if it is either Windows OS drive or any one of my several backup drive/partitions of my saved data files and folders, Windows 7 is requesting a disk check to be performed ON ALL DRIVES/PARTITIONS for consistency. Yes, even Windows 8 Pro's drive/partition AGAIN! What I have been doing is that I am hitting a key to stop the disk check to occur and it provides me the same message above for the next drive/partition. In total, it asks FOR ALL of my 8 drives/partitions on my system to have a disk check for consistency NOW!!! I AM SCARRED TO DEATH TO DO THIS!!! I AM AFRAID I WILL AGAIN LOOSE MY DATA THROUGHOUT MY PARITIONS/DRIVES!!! I have GBs of stored files and folders on my internal hard drives I have backed up!!! So right along now, I am just pressing any key to bypass the disk check for ALL my 8 partitions/drives when Windows 7 loads each time.

What do you think I going on here??? Please explain and do you have any solutions or even some ideas what is occurring??? I need some sound guidance. Please reply.

Thanks!

pbcopter · 05 Mar 2013

This happens because the default mode for Windows 8 is fast startup which essentially is like hibernation and leaves all the drives set in a mode that Windows 7 does not recognize.

You must disable fast startup to avoid the problem.

See this tutorial.

Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 8

Let the disk check complete when you boot into Windows 7.

pscowboy · 05 Mar 2013

PBCopter has a valid point, but only true if you never shut down (just reboot) but your issue is way deeper.

The method of dual-booting that you have implemented (two separate hard drives; BIOS boot order switching) is not going to work. The MBR systems on each OS are different.
The W7 OS is not liking something on the hd that W8 is on, and is trying to fix it. And so started the disk check stuff.

You will have to start over. Save all your important data (and whatever) on an external. Boot up the 7 and go into Disk Management and delete the partition(s) on the W8 hd. You will use this for storage later. Unplug it, and all your other h/ds.

Reinstall 7 on the hd that has 7 on it now. At the beginning of the install, you have to choose where to install. There is a spot to perform disk functions. Go there and delete all the partitions to become all unallocated. Continue the reinstall. Get 7 all setup with everything you want including all updates. Probably take about 6-8 hours.

When you have 7 just right, do a backup image onto dvds using either Acronis or Macrium. This will serve you well in case something gets screwed up.

Still using just the one hard drive, boot up 7. Go into disk manager and shrink the C partition from the right until you have 60-75 gig unallocated. Reboot with your W8 dvd in the optical drive and install 8 into that unallocated section you just made.

When that is completed, you will have a proper dual-boot scenario without having to muck around your BIOS; and, you won't have conflicts.

You can start introducing the other hard drives one by one to each OS for proper recognition.

Edited by me to clarify some language.

montecarlo1987 · 15 Mar 2013

@ pbcopter & pscowboy:

Hello to both of you! Thanks for your replies! I haven't read them since now after I had performed my own testing of this issue. I have returned here to update you on the status and the results.

It is a long story and to spare you the extensive testing and details, I determined the root cause was indeed corrupt files on the Windows 7 drive only. Once I let Windows 7 error-check and fix the corruption on its own drive, things were all back to normal. The Windows 7 drive must of also triggered an all error-checking for all other drives/paritions/volumes in the computer. After all error-checing was done, there is no errors found elsewhere excpet for the Windows 7 drive only. This issue has not returned since the fix. I was timid on running a check disk for error-checking for the fear lose something I saved as valuable, but so far (and some time that has passed now) I see on my Windows 7 drive there are no missing personal files! So, I may of got lucky this time! I assume it must of been corrupt system files that got fixed, maybe?!?!?

Thank you all for your help!