Delayed write failed error - is this bad?

[basmic]

I'd consider using Samsung's diagnostic tool on the drive - both Quick and Advanced tests. If the drive passes both tests, then you're half way home, at least.

Run SpinRite over night on the drive - ideally the most thorough test. Can't remember which option it is, but basically it tests every single area of the physcial drive, and ensures that every single byte of the drive can reliably retain the data. While testing, it will also refresh the surfaces. If it finds a defective/dodgy area of the drive, SpinRite usually makes a damn good attempt at making that area of the drive perfectly and safely usable again.

 

[dirtydog]

I backed up the entire C: partition, then formatted it (full, not quick) and restored all the data back to the partition. I then used fixmbr / fixboot from the Windows CD to make the disk bootable again. It booted into Windows fine, I ran CHKDSK and..... the errors are still there

I have just acquired Spinrite and I will indeed give that a go The drive got the all clear from Samsung's diagnostic software (hutil) - at least on the quick tests, I didn't do a full surface scan as it takes hours.

 

[basmic]

I backed up the entire C: partition, then formatted it (full, not quick) and restored all the data back to the partition. I then used fixmbr / fixboot from the Windows CD to make the disk bootable again. It booted into Windows fine, I ran CHKDSK and..... the errors are still there

I have just acquired Spinrite and I will indeed give that a go The drive got the all clear from Samsung's diagnostic software (hutil) - at least on the quick tests, I didn't do a full surface scan as it takes hours.

I've seen an old 4.3gb Samsung drive do a full test in about an hour. My own Hitachi 400gb took 2.5 hours - so I reckon yours ought complete in an hour.

If possible, let SpinRite 6 chug away in a spare machine. Times do vary substantially, but expect it to take around 3-9 hours.

From what I can gather, Spinrite will only repair physical drive errors. Don't expect the drive to go through chkdsk with flying colours, or chkdsk to fix the drive first time. The problem could be a structural problem, rather than a physical one - ie: a MFT problem, or the drive needs zero erasing and repartitioning.

 

[dirtydog]

Spinrite found no errors - it took about six hours in all just to check the problem partition. I expect that you are right; the solution will probably involve repartitioning the drive.

I'm wondering whether I need to bother fixing this seeing as everything is working okay, and I keep important data backed up elsewhere. I guess I'll have to see whether I get the same error I got yesterday morning, or any other problems.

Incidentally I have another install of Windows on this disk in a small partition. If I run chkdsk from that install of Windows, to check the C: partition, the first time it finds errors and fixes them. The second time it finds NO errors. Even if I run it again a third time, it finds NO errors. Yet as soon as I boot into the main Windows installation on C:, and run chkdsk, it finds the same errors again straight away.

It's strange.

 

[.walls]

Ok - go to:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\PowerdownAfterShutdown
and change the 1 to a 0. This will stop xp from powering down the system when you select shutdown and will leave a prompt saying that it is ready to turn off the computer.

Reboot, then run

chkdsk /f /r

and reboot again. (the /f is probably redundant, but...)

When the system comes up again - do the same (don't run chkdsk in windows - as it can have issues with open files).

When the pc comes up again - check the event logs (I believe it will be in the system logs) for the last winlogon event - that will tell you the output of the last chkdsk.

Hopefully it'll be clean...

If not - reboot again and go into BIOS and disable ACPI and try it again...

From what I can gather - the issue is related to xp powering off the system too quickly on some ACPI enabled systems and not waiting for the write cache to finish writing to the disk (data is still in RAM, therefore it is lost when the ram is refreshed).

You can also try disabling the write cache itself from the disk controller - but your system will take a performance hit when writing - so that's not advisable...

EDIT: check out this thread - it's a bit of a monster, but seems to have lots of people with the same problem...

 

[Durzel]

Has anyone suggested disabling write caching yet? Seems to be the obvious thing to fix first....

You can also try disabling the write cache itself from the disk controller - but your system will take a performance hit when writing - so that's not advisable...

Better to have a system which has slower disk writes than one that doesn't work at all.

 

[.walls]

Has anyone suggested disabling write caching yet? Seems to be the obvious thing to fix first....

You can also try disabling the write cache itself from the disk controller - but your system will take a performance hit when writing - so that's not advisable...

Better to have a system which has slower disk writes than one that doesn't work at all.

Seeing as you've quoted me suggesting it... I would say yes!

Besides - surely it would be better to try the things which aren't going to affect performance of the pc first?

Incidentally, some ide controllers don't let you disable write caching - although, I believe that to be a driver issue.

 

[dirtydog]

Just an update - the partition is now passing the chkdsk test with no errors. All I did was delete some stuff (I uninstalled a few unused programs, cleared the temp folders etc.) and defragged with PerfectDisk, and it passed. Very odd.

Partition Magic 8 still thinks it's off though; it says one of the partitions starts in the wrong place. Oh well, it's working for now which is what matters

Cheers to everyone who helped in this thread by the way!