chkdsk weirdness with external drive log file

[CharlieSummers]

tl;dr - chkdsk can't write log file causing loop

I hate chkdsk...

Ok, so Windows 7 machine crashed. I remove all external drives, reboot with a chkdsk scheduled, boot disc tests fine. I bring in an external disc (N, run chkdsk from an elevated command prompt with /f, and get an error...chkdsk apparently fixes it, then hangs, eventually complaining about not being able to write to the log. Ok, close the command prompt (I know, I know), remount the disc. Again run an elevated command prompt, but now get the error:

Deleting index entry Chkdsk20200325221550.log in index $I30 of file 17.

chkdsk continues, and says:

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

...then the d*mned thing hangs up after the "allocation units" line, clearly having problems writing to the d*mned log file. The only way out is to close the command prompt, which...yeah, you guessed it...causes an issue with the log file. A check w/o f switch gives:

Index entry Chkdsk20200325221550.log in index $I30 of file 17 is incorrect.

...and then cannot continue. If I attempt to add my user to the permissions of the N:\System Volume Information\Chkdsk folder, I get an error that Chkdsk20200325221550.log cannot be found but then can otherwise access the folder. (Didn't bother deleting the other .log files since they aren't causing me grief.)

So it *seems* that chkdsk is failing on writing the log file for some strange reason, on next run it cleans up that mess then fails to write the log file, then...then...

I hate chkdsk. Any ideas how to fix this problem? Or can I assume since everything *else* seems ok, I can ignore it and get back to using the data on the drive?

 

[iko22]

Hello CharlieSummers, welcome to the Forum

Does this help? ChkDsk stuck at particular % or hangs at some Stage | Windows Club .

 

[CharlieSummers]

Hello CharlieSummers, welcome to the Forum

Thank you very much!

Does this help? ChkDsk stuck at particular % or hangs at some Stage | Windows Club .

Not really, no. I knew on what file it was stopping, and was able to brute-force that one log file out of the way by adding my administrator account to the Security permissions of both the \System Volume Information\Chkdsk folder and the \System Volume Information folder; once I gave the Administrator account Full Control access to both and reran chkdsk, the log file was dealt with (fixed and removed, since it is no longer in the folder) by chkdsk. Once I ran a few non-fix chkdsk runs to verify there were no additional problems on the drive, I removed those permissions and (so far) things seem fine.


It's interesting, though, that if there is a problem with a chkdsk log file, chkdsk seems incapable of fixing it...you'd think it wouldn't be any different than any other area of damage on the drive. My anecdotal sample of one, however, suggests otherwise.