Solved CHKDSK on eSATA Drive Formatted For Use With Macrium Reflect

[baumgrenze]

I cannot seem to get Macrium Reflect Home Edition to verify an image. (See attached image)

On their forum I read that perhaps I needed to run

chkdsk /r /f

on the backup disk to which I am writing. The image appears to write but cannot be read, or perhaps I do not understand the error message in the attachment. I could not run chkdsk either:

F:\>chkdsk /r /f
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID.
Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)

I replied with NO.

I was asked if I wanted to run it on the next reboot. Concerned that chkdsk might run on another drive I replied NO and exited the command prompt.

I opened Process Explorer and searched for the drive, F: and there were no processes running. I even rebooted and opened the elevated command prompt as the only activity and had the same experience when trying to run chkdsk.

How do I run chkdsk on this disk? Should I force a dismount?

 

[Megahertz07]

Chkdsk cant run on a drive that is being used. It can be in use by antivirus or even by Macrium.
You should allow it to run on the next boot. On Explorer, right click on the drive, Properties - Tools - Error checking - Check now

 

[Digerati]

Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)
I replied with NO.
I was asked if I wanted to run it on the next reboot. ...I replied NO and exited the command prompt.

MHz is right, you should say yes to both prompts and then follow the prompts to let checkdisk run at next boot, then reboot.

Checkdisk has to run BEFORE any OS is loaded so it can move data around if a bad disk sector is found. With Windows loaded, many many files are open and are unmovable.

Note this process can take many hours - even a couple days in some rare cases - especially if problems are found and the drive is large. It may appear to be frozen, but just walk away and wait for it to finish. I usually start it, then go to bed.

Also, you don't need to enter chkdsk /f /r. You only need /r. If you enter chkdsk /? you will see /r implies /f. That means it's already doing both functions.

Concerned that chkdsk might run on another drive

Chkdsk will only run on the drive your command prompt is sitting on - UNLESS you tell it to run on a different drive.

So if, you open a command prompt and are sitting at c:\windows\system32 and you enter chkdsk /r, it will run on C drive - the whole C drive.

If you want to run it on D drive, you either change (cd) to D drive, or you enter chkdsk d: /r and it will run on D drive.

 

[samuria]

You can run check disk without the / r / f on a drive in use as it doesn't correct any errors but it's quicker if it finds errors you have to run it at boot it's handy to see quickly if there are problems just run chkdsk c:

 

[baumgrenze]

Thank you for your replies.

I see that this post lacks some critical details. I will try to describe them below in as few words as possible:

1) The drive F: is a month old Toshiba 2Tb spinner (TOS-HDD-3B03)

2) It is mounted in BlackX Duet eSATA 'toaster' and is protected by a fan blowing down on it for good measure.

3) I purchased this drive to save Macrium Reflect images of my system disk, in this case one with Win7/Pro x64 and assorted program files (but no data other than local mail files stored by Mozilla SeaMonkey and various log files.)

4) I've tried saving images of my system drive and they fail during verification with a 'cannot read' error. This also happened the one time I tried to save an image of my data drive.

5) I do not intend to install any operating system on it.

My understanding of chkdsk is clearly limited. It is not clear to me how Win7 will 'remember to run chkdsk on reboot' on F:, because I tried to run chkdsk on F: before a shudowon. Clearly two other drives, C: (system and programs on a Crucial M550 SSD) and D: (data) will be on and running when I reboot. I want to image them before I run chkdsk.

 

[Digerati]

My understanding of chkdsk is clearly limited. It is not clear to me how Win7 will 'remember to run chkdsk on reboot' on F:

Chkdsk just writes a simple "runonce" command in the Registry.

The only reason it would need to run on this non-boot drive at next startup is if you have a program running that opens files normally stored on that disk.

 

[baumgrenze]

Thank you both for your helpful comments.

I ran chkdsk on F: at an elevated prompt and it appears that there are no problems with the disk. Here is the record from the elevated prompt where i ran it:

..................
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>f:

F:\>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is BackupDrive.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
256 file records processed.
File verification completed.
0 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
0 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
286 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
256 file SDs/SIDs processed.
Security descriptor verification completed.
16 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
14256 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

1953512447 KB total disk space.
3093720 KB in 10 files.
20 KB in 17 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
126339 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
1950292368 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
488378111 total allocation units on disk.
487573092 allocation units available on disk.
..................

I'm glad I opened this thread. I now feel more confident in opening chkdsk without any parameters. Most of my past experiences have been 'disturbing ones' where Windows XP and/or 7 announced during a boot sequence that 'my system was troubled' and that I was being subjected to an arbitrary running of chkdsk. Acceptance of the consequences always seemed a foregone conclusion. I never did understand what happened to the 'lost contents' of disk sectors with the problems.

My interest in Reflect was reawakened when I opened a thread on tenforums and simrick took up my case. Along with essenbe I was carefully shepherded through a clean install of Windows 10 on my other Crucial SSD. I need to get back to an orderly installation of programs and education to eventually make the OS migration with some gracefulness. I thought it advisable to create a backup of my Win7/Pro system disk both for security's sake and as an education. It seems as though every time I try something like this the experience is more like something from Joseph Heller's 'Catch 22' with me playing the role of Captain John Yossarian.

Since I recently purchased a copy of Macrium's Home Edition of Reflect, I've filed another support ticket with them. True to form, the most interesting questions manage to present themselves at the end of 'summer vacation in Europe' and on a weekend as well. I hope we will be able to sort this out in good time one day next week.

I sincerely appreciate the help provided on sevenforums!