is there still a bug in win 7 with chkdsk /r?

mpcrsc562 · 11 Nov 2009

i had run an instance of hard disk sentinel and it showed the drive i use as storage as having bad sectors.

i ran chkdsk /f /r and opened task manager just to see what memory usage would be. physical memory usage peaked at 7.25 gb and leveled off at 7.06 gb. i wondered why so much memory was being used, so i googled "how much ram does chkdsk use," and found these articles:

Critical CHKDSK bug found in Windows 7 release build ? Tech Products & Geek News | Geek.com

Blue Screen of Death returns to haunt Windows 7’s public release | VentureBeat

Windows 7 chkdsk memory leak?

the dates on these articles are june, august and september... i was wondering if this is still a concern for the retail versions of win 7 (obviously, the ram usage is still an issue, but does anyone have experience using the retail version running chkdsk /r and having your system crash?)

(while googling, i ran across a tutorial from vista forums about running chkdsk--so for now, i'm going to run chkdsk from my installation disc)

Teerex · 11 Nov 2009

chkdisk is designed to use that much memory when you use that /r switch because you would only use that command if you're trying to confirm the possibility of an imminent disk failure.

It will use as much memory as it can to finish this task as soon as possible. This is by design, and there is no bug.

mpcrsc562 · 11 Nov 2009

the articles speak of a 'bug' that causes your memory to be used to the point that it causes the system to crash--so that is what i'm speaking of.

Jacee · 11 Nov 2009

What problems are you having?
Is your computer crashing?
Did you do a 'clean install', or an upgrade?
What OS was on your computer before installing Windows 7 X64?

A bit more information is most helpful to those of us who try to 'troubleshoot' your problems. :)

mpcrsc562 · 11 Nov 2009

Jacee said:

What problems are you having?
Is your computer crashing?
Did you do a 'clean install', or an upgrade?
What OS was on your computer before installing Windows 7 X64?

A bit more information is most helpful to those of us who try to 'troubleshoot' your problems. :)

no problems--per se. as my post indicated, i ran chkdsk and saw the ram usage peak at 7.25 gb, then level off at 7.06 gb. i had another computer on and googled "how much ram does chkdsk use" to see what was up with that high usage. the articles i found stated that the 'bug' caused the users computer to use all ram until the point that the computer crashed. i stopped the check when i read that. i then ran the check by way of my installation disc.

as for the rest of your questions, clean install with vista home premium x64 installed prior, but the drive in question has never for its life had an operating system installed on it--it has always been used for storing media.

so to reiterate, i never used chkdsk to the point to even see if it would crash--i stopped about 5 minutes into the check when i saw the articles, then re-ran chkdsk from my install disc. i was just curious to know if there is this 'bug' as the article speak of. if not, then i can run (if needed) chkdsk from windows instead of from my install disc.

H2SO4 · 11 Nov 2009

mpcrsc562 said:

...so to reiterate, i never used chkdsk to the point to even see if it would crash--i stopped about 5 minutes into the check when i saw the articles, then re-ran chkdsk from my install disc. i was just curious to know if there is this 'bug' as the article speak of. if not, then i can run (if needed) chkdsk from windows instead of from my install disc.

Engineering Windows 7 : What we do with a bug report?

"... from their perspective the memory usage was by design and was a specific Windows 7 change for this scenario (the /r flag grabs an exclusive lock and repairs a disk and so our assumption is you’d really like the disk to be fixed before you do more stuff on the machine" (as Teerex said)

"We queried the call stacks of existing reported crashes (of all kinds, since this was reported) and we did not find any crashes with chkdsk.exe running while crashing. We then began automated test runs on a broad set of machines—these ran overnight and continued for 2 days. We also saw reports related to a specific hardware configuration, so we set up over 40 machines based on variants of that chipset, driver, and firmware and ran those tests. We were not hitting any crashes (as mentioned, the memory usage was already understood). "

Diagnosis: Randall Kennedy (InfoWorld) is an a55-hat.

Lee · 11 Nov 2009

H2SO4, Thank you, I was just going to post that same quote. Thought this had gone away, albeit it appears that some of the new 7 users are now finding these bad tidbits still lying around the Internet. :)

mpcrsc562 · 11 Nov 2009

guess that sums it up. thanks.

Lee · 11 Nov 2009

From all of us it has been a pleasure to help.

H2SO4 · 11 Nov 2009

Antman said:

I would like to get a hat in size a55. The senior members spent quite a bit of time on task when that 'bug' first appeared.

@Lee: thank you too :)

@Antman: They're in short supply. A bunch of experts over at InfoWorld have gone from shop to shop buying every hat in that size.