WinME Stop Scandisk on Startup

[Trentham]

I'm trying to sort out a WinME system which always asks to do a scandisk on startup.

It may be quite justified in thinking that it ought to do one in that the machine *did* crash at one time and it's not been able/allowed to complete a scan disk since then (it's trying to do a thorough scan).

The problem is that it just doesn't complete, even after several hours. The disk's been scanned with other utilities (including a full surface scan) and I just want ME to stop trying to do this scan.

Can it be done? How does ME detect improper shutdown?

As a bit more background, this has been a pretty ill machine and I've got to the stage of reinstalling from scratch (even then I still get the scandisk). I suspect the disk may be causing the original problems in that it's got 20+ bad blocks but having got them all marked unusable I need to see whether it'll work OK now.

As I type, WinME is currently doing a scan disk and after 3 hours it's about a third of the way through the clusters.

 

[Styx]

(tap F8 five times per second during a restart; Choose option number three (3) in the Windows Startup dialog box using the arrow keys below the Delete key, and strike the Enter key; Click Ok when prompted). click the Cancel button if ScanDisk appears.

***

Note: Start ScanDisk (Start button; Programs; Acccessories; System Tools; ScanDisk); Check the Standard box; Check Automatically fix errors; click the Advanced button, the settings should be as follows - Display Summary - Always, Log File - Replace Log, Cross-Linked Files - Delete, Lost File Fragments - Free, Check Files For - check (Invalid File Names) should be checked. Click the appropriate button to start the 5 minute scan.

Emachines, Celeron 600, 256 Mb RAM, 30 Gb HDD, ADSL.

 

[mattjurado]

Scandisk usually runs itself all the time if the drive is starting to fail. You can turn it off in the msdos.sys file by setting autoscan=0. However, realize this is not a solution, if the drive is indeed bad. Take the time now to backup any data, then run a scan in safe mode (try it without throrough) and if it finishes, reboot and see if it goes away.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[Trentham]

Many thanks MattJ. As you suggest, it looks like the disk is on its way out!

 

[satrow]

Hey Styx,

A fair comment but - I've seen Scandisk trash a hard disk when it was set to 'automatically fix....' (it chose the corrupted FAT to 'rearrange' the data!). If that box was not ticked, it will, on an error, give a choice of repair options; it may even offer of 'undo' data being saved to floppy.

I always use the 'append to log' option, too; gives an idea of what happens with scandisk between visits to the machine.

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[Styx]

ScanDisk has never caused me a problem in any way at any time, even though I've been using it for over 10 years.



Emachines, Celeron 600, 256 Mb RAM, 30 Gb HDD, ADSL.

 

[Trentham]

Well I've put a new disk in now and all is well.

When I set autoscan=0 in msdos.sys it still did a scan. Perhaps the 'msdos.sys' that I needed to alter was called something else at the time, eg. msdos.dos.

 

[satrow]

Try changing it in 'msconfig' (from the Run command) - Advanced - put a tick in the box to 'disable Scandisk after a bad shutdown' - or similar.

But do a manual full scan first, in case there are bad sectors!

 

[AirCon]

When I set autoscan=0 in msdos.sys it still did a scan

You need to configure it from MSConfig. In General tab, click on Advanced button, check on "Disable Scandisk after bad shutdown"

-- AirCon --

 

[AirCon]

satrow,

I must have fallen a sleep
My apology I didn't see your posted earlier

Regards

-- AirCon --

 

[satrow]

It's ok, AirCon, you were writing while I was posting!

 

[Trentham]

Thannks all for your help.