Problem - repeatly runs Chkdsk on boot

I have a puzzling problem that has me stumped - All suggestions welcome.

XP SP3 machine installed on a single NTFS partition.

On power up it says that the disk need checking for consistency and runs CHKDISK on C:\

CHKDSK verifies everything but does not find any problems. The machine then reboots running CHKDSK again. This loop carries on until I hit a key to skip chkdsk, the machine then boots fine except it complains that one Truetype font file is corrupt or unreadable.

To fix this I restored an Acronis Image backup taken in December onto a new disk and do a disk swap.

To my astonishment I have exactly the same problem!

Prime95 and multiple runs of Bast's bst seem to run without problem indicating the hardware is probably OK.

Any Suggestions welcome. I don't really want to do a new clean install but that is the last resort.

Thanks in advance

Tim.

Try this one first:

If you have your windows installation disk, bootup using that and go into recovery console, then run a chkdsk using that with the /r switch

i.e.
chkdsk c: /r

There are other methods using the registry etc, but try that one above first.

Out of interest, what size is your C: drive ?

I had similar problems recently, and my XP SP3 is installed on a 1 TB Samsung drive.

I'm just wondering if it's a quirk with the drive ?

Incidentally, my problems stopped almost as abruptly as they started.

Thanks for the reply.

I have just tried your suggestion, the chkdsk /r from the installation CD ran to completion saying that it had fixed one or more errors.

The following reboot onto C: went straight into chkdsk again.

Tim.

The original was 40GByte, the replacement was 160Gbyte. So small by today's standards.

Tim.

In reply to a post by TimJ:

I have a puzzling problem that has me stumped - All suggestions welcome.

XP SP3 machine installed on a single NTFS partition.

On power up it says that the disk need checking for consistency and runs CHKDISK on C:\

CHKDSK verifies everything but does not find any problems. The machine then reboots running CHKDSK again. This loop carries on until I hit a key to skip chkdsk, the machine then boots fine except it complains that one Truetype font file is corrupt or unreadable.

To fix this I restored an Acronis Image backup taken in December onto a new disk and do a disk swap.

To my astonishment I have exactly the same problem!

Prime95 and multiple runs of Bast's bst seem to run without problem indicating the hardware is probably OK.

Any Suggestions welcome. I don't really want to do a new clean install but that is the last resort.

Thanks in advance

Tim.

The aconnis issue is due to a copy of a bad sector .. so it will repeat itself.

that one Truetype font file is corrupt or unreadable.

Which font is it? if it says which one delete it, if it doesn't say it may be worth using Tweakui and repairing the font list.

I would also check both drive's fitness with the manufactors hdd test progams as well to be on the safe side

If you haven't already seen it you might want to take a look at this thread.

The problem is hardware.

The more things I tried the worse things became, until it would not boot at all.

Western digital disk diagnostics pass fine, but MEMtest-86 fails after 4 secs with an unexpected Interrupt. New CPU and memory are now on order, I just hope that it is not the motherboard as it is a specialised industrial SBC.

Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

Tim.

In reply to a post by TimJ:

The problem is hardware.

The more things I tried the worse things became, until it would not boot at all.

Western digital disk diagnostics pass fine, but MEMtest-86 fails after 4 secs with an unexpected Interrupt. New CPU and memory are now on order, I just hope that it is not the motherboard as it is a specialised industrial SBC.

Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

Tim.

you did do the wd diagnostic in full mode and not quick ...