boot/chkdsk taking too long

[DitkaisGod]

Everyone,

I have this laptop, no install discs, which I was given to troubleshoot b/c of a long boot time (>5 mins). I have: uninstalled symantec and handfuls of other programs, deleted all temp files, temp internet files, cookies, prefetch cache, checked for viruses and spyware using AVG and Ad-Aware (both clean), run defrag, taken most everything out of the startup routine via msconfig, and now running check disk. None of the above helped and check disk (Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors only) has been on stage 4 for 12 hours now.

Any ideas on the original lengthy boot time or the amazingly long check disk time? I am at an absolute loss here.

Thanks!

 

[vacunita]

The Hard drive may be developing some hard to read sectors causing a delay in the boot up process, as well as halting the check disk procedure.

Try downloading a UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD), and boot the machine with it.
You can run several Hard drive utilities from it.

Alternatively, if you know the make and model of the hard drive, you can attempt to download the manufacturers diagnostic tools, and run them. They'll usually create a bootable floppy or CD you can boot the machine off of, and run the tests.


If you boot into Safe Mode does it load any faster? It may have trouble initializing a device in normal mode, but since most drivers aren't loaded in Safe Mode it bypasses the trouble device.


----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[DitkaisGod]

Thanks for the response,

I do have the UBCD so I will try that when I get home. I actually forgot I even had it. I left it running so it can finish chkdsk (don't want to hard shut that off).

I will try the things you mentioned and see what happens. (That is if chkdsk EVER finishes! lol)

The laptop has been winning all the battles thus far but I will win the war!

 

[linney]

How big is the hard drive? A rough guide for a 40GB partition is about 30 minutes for ChkDsk to complete, based on that unscientific fact is the hard drive over 1 Terabyte in size (I doubt it is)? Of course ChkDsk could be struggling to fix tons of bad sector errors which account for the massive time delay?

 

[DitkaisGod]

HDD is not near that large. I am not by it now but it is a home use HP about three years old so it must be under 250 and likely 80 Gigs or so.

Hopefully it is just fixing tons of bad sectors and when I get home tonight a reboot will take less than 5 minutes. Not sure what I will try if this or the suggestions by vacunita don't work. After everything I have tried, I'm out of ideas short of a fresh install. I'll get on the laptop owner to search again for the discs as that would have solved this days ago. (Or at least narrowed it down to being a hardware issue if re-install did not help)

 

[DitkaisGod]

Well, disk check finished and did absolutely ZERO to help. Ugh!

 

[electronicsfreak]

I know you have unchecked some things in msconfig but have you tried a clean boot?

Disabling everything in startup tab on msconfig, also going to services, checking the box to hide all microsoft services, then disabling what is left? That sometimes helps with rare problems

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[goombawaho]

Run the LONG TEST for that HDD manufacturer from the UBCD and see what it says.

If you have a BartPE CD, you could boot from that and run a chkdsk c: /f and see what it turns up and how long it takes.

 

[linney]

Have you checked for any Bios update, or tried setting the Bios to safe default setting?

As you have no XP CD maybe there is the hidden recovery partition on the laptop that could be used to restore the machine to the factory settings after you have saved all the valuable data.

 

[DitkaisGod]

Everyone,

I have received the recovery discs! The owner found them. I am about to try the Windows repair and if that does not work just wipe this sucker clean and re-install. (already copied Docs and Settings off).

And linney, I had found out HP has that but this laptop had been re-installed by someone before and that was deleted.

I will let you all know and thanks for all the tips, I will keep them for future use.

 

[BadBigBen]

It actually sounds like that PIO mode is activated, on the HDD, this happens when XP detects 6 or more DMA errors...

uninstall the IDE PRIMARY CONTROLLER through the DeviceManager, and it can't hurt to deinstall the SECONDARY either... then REBOOT, and let XP install them again, as this resets the DMA counter to 0 (zero)...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[DitkaisGod]

Everyone,

Success!!! The boot time is from >5 mins down to 45 secs to get the desktop and 1:45 to open Word from there. (this is a three year old HP AMD 1.69 GHz 1 Gig RAM laptop) I think the boot time is not bad for those specs.

Anyway, I got hold of the recovery disc. Did not want to re-install after all the things I did so I chose the Windows Repair. I had all types of "cannot find file" errors, which I ignored, I think b/c the laptop had SP3 on it and the disc was SP2. (just a guess)

Ran through the errors, computer froze on logon. Hard shut down, logged on and came up without a firewall, IE, unable to get advanced wireless options, Windows defrag, etc. (Files which errored and were skipped on repair I assume.) Downloaded and installed SP3 and this sucker is running like a champ!

Thanks all for the help!