If there ever was a command never to run (other than FORMAT C:) it would be CHKDSK. Used to check for file system errors, under normal conditions i.e. when there are no problems, this command is harmless. Under abnormal situations the chkdsk command can wreak havoc.
The problem lies in it's results. Once a surface scan is completed and bad sectors are found the resulting file is saved. Now this doesn't seem like a bad thing until put into practice. Ok, so let's say you've save some precious photos and suddenly your hard drive decides to develop bad sectors exactly on that location where you stored the photos. You run chkdsk and it manages to find some files and saves them with a .chkdsk extension. So what's the problem? You can't open the file. Hrm. Nor can any utility open this file format. Doh! Just run some data recovery software right? Wrong! You've saved that chkdsk file in the exact same location as the original file, hence preventing any future data recovery.
What you've done is saved a garbage file on top of your photos. Now there is no trace of your photos because you thought you were being a smarty pants by running chkdsk. Way to go hero!
The CHKDSK command can never help in a recovery situation so don't ever use it. These errors cannot be fixed using some crappy built in windows utility program. When you run into serious problems get all of the information before you decide to ruin your data.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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Thanks! I just got burned with this. There were some strange things going on with Windows. One thing in particular was that I couldn't print email messages. I searched and searched for a solution and every one I found and tried, never solved the problem.
Frustrated, I stumbled across a site that spelled out exactly how to do a repair install of the Windows OS. I printed the info. and off I went. According to what I was reading, a repair install doesn't cause harm to any of your data files and doesn't force you to have to reinstall all your apps, unlike a fresh, (re)install of Windows.
The repair install took an extremely long time and when it finished, it ran me through some setup routines regarding display, network, etc... I thought this odd since, according to my understanding, a repair install simply fixes any corruption/damage in the OS (system files).
Anyway, I don't know how, I suspect chkdsk ran and found some bad things on my drive because my 'My Documents' folder was renamed to 'My Documents.000' and converted to a file (32K). A number of my application folders in 'Program Files' appear the same (files now at 32K), AND, because I was trying to prevent disaster by storing my 'My Documents' folder on a separate physical drive in my PC, I was also keeping my email (.PST) file(s) on the same drive under a folder called 'Outlook Stores'. That folder too is now a 32K file.
So, I lost ALL my documents, ALL my email, quite a few applications, AND, the Add/Remove Programs list is EMPTY!
My fault - I should have been more cautious, unlike if I had been doing a fresh install since I know a fresh install pretty much blows away everything on the Primary "C" drive.
Here, instead, I was doing a repair install, stupidly never backed up any data, and am now paying a heavy price for it. DUMB!
Call it closing the barn doors after the horse has already escaped but, I NEVER want to have to live through this nightmare ever again. So, I am trying to figure out a backup solution which separates my backed up data from Windows. What a disaster! The only comfort I have is that my pictures were stored on an external USB drive which didn't seem to be affected at all.
I'm SICK!
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