Did I destroy my Acronis backup?

[jmt356]

Yes, I did find that file and it does contain this message.

So does all this mean that I can't view the results of the external hard drive scan?

FYI, I also ran Check Disk from another laptop in order to isolate the possibility that the problem was with the first laptop's not recording the results, but even on the second laptop, there is no record of Wininit or Winlogon in the Source column under Applications in the Event Viewer.

[StuartR]

...So does all this mean that I can't view the results of the external hard drive scan?...

The example you gave was for a scan of your C drive. This can only be run at boot time because your C drive is always in use and CHKDSK cannot lock it. When you run this boot time scan of your C drive it puts the results into the event log.

To scan your external drive, you should be able to run CHKDSK interactively from a DOS window so I would not expect to get this message in the text file. Make sure that you have NO open files on the external drive, not even an explorer window showing the drive contents, and try again.

[jmt356]

I ran the scan of my external hard drive and it completed fine, with no problem, through all of hte phases, both times, on two separate laptops. That is not the problem. The problem is trying ot figure out where the results for the Check Disk are, as they are not located in the Event Viewer fro either laptop.

[StuartR]

If you want to capture the results of the CHKDSK on your external drive then issue the command with the output redirected to a file, just like you showed above, but specifying the drive letter of your external drive rather than C:

CHKDSK E: /F > C:\CHKDISKLOG.TXT

(I have used drive letter E, you should replace this with the correct drive letter for your external drive).
Before you do this make sure there are no open files on the external drive, not even an explorer window.

[jmt356]

The first time I did this, I typed in CHKDSK F: /F > C:\CHKDISKLOG.TXT at the command prompt. After hitting enter, the blue light on the external drive (which I had connected to the computer via USB) went on and there was some rumbling going on, but then it stopped and nothing happenned. My cursor just moved down a line in the command prompt window.

Then I typed CHKDSK F: /F > F:\CHKDISKLOG.TXT and absolutely nothing happened, not even teh rumbling or the blue light. The cursor just moved down a line.

I'm not sure if I'm at the command prompt. I went to Run and typed cmd which took me to a little back window with white characters. I think that's it.

My external drive is F.

[HansV]

If you use > to redirect the output to a file, you won't get on-screen feedback. Did you look at C:\ after you typed

CHKDSK F: /F > C:\CHKDISKLOG.TXT

and the "rumbling" ended to see if a file CHKDISKLOG.TXT had been created?

[jmt356]

I just did, and yes, it's there. And here's the report:

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.

244196000 KB total disk space.
233674252 KB in 3494 files.
1796 KB in 520 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
88976 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
10430976 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
61049000 total allocation units on disk.
2607744 allocation units available on disk.


So I understand that to mean that the disk is OK and I'm not really sure why it was taking so long to copy files over to my laptop or why some of them weren't being copied at all but I assume it's because the file extensions are too long for the new laptop since on this new laptop with Windows 7 a new folder is created called Libraries into which My Documents is placed, and this, coupled with the additional three characters that "My Documents" contains over "Documents" in my old laptop running Vista, makes the file extensions too long, and maybe also because I didn't mount the image but rather was copying files through Windows Explorer.

[jmt356]

I just ran a check disk on my external drive and would like to review the log. I am using Windows 7 Home Basic Edition. At the command prompt, I tried typing:
CHKDSK H: /H > C:\CHKDISKLOG.TXT (where H is the letter assigned to the hard drive). However, each time I press enter, "Access is denied" is reported. None of the files on the external drive is open or displayed on Windows Explorer. What is causing this?

[HansV]

Try writing the log to a subfolder of C: instead of to the root C:\, for example to C:\Users\<username>\Documents, where <username> is your Windows login name (this is your "My Documents" folder).

[jmt356]

I think it should be C:\Users\<username>\My Documents, no? That is how it appears on my computer.

[HansV]

The "real" name of the My Documents folder in Windows 7 is Documents.

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[jmt356]

That is how it appears on my computer running Windows 7 Home Basic, but on my computer running Windows 7 Home Premium, the address is C:\Users\User Name\My Documents

I tried typing the following into the command prompt:
CHKDSK H: /H > C:\USERS\[USERNAME]\DOCUMENTS\CHKDISKLOG.TXT

This creates the file CHKDISKLOG.TXT in the Documents folder, but the file is entirely empty except for the first line, which states, "Invalid parameter - /H."

??

[HansV]

So using the path C:\USERS\[USERNAME]\DOCUMENTS works.
The error message in the file means exactly what it says: /H is not a valid parameter for the CHKDSK command. Higher up in this thread the parameter /F was mentioned. That one is valid, it tells CHKDSK to repair errors. Why did you change it to /H ?

[jmt356]

This particular computer assigns the letter H, not F to the external hard drive.

[StuartR]

The H: tells chkdsk which drive to check
The /F tells chkdsk what kind of checks to carry out

/H is not a valid switch for chkdsk

Type chkdsk /? to get details of the syntax for chkdsk
Or just use
chkdsk /F H:

[jmt356]

It worked using your suggestion. This is the formula I used:
CHKDSK H: /F > C:\Users\\Documents\CHKDISKLOG.TXT

By the way, on the computer that displays the Documents folder as "My Documents," when viewing the folder in Windows Explorer, if I put the cursor in the Windows Explorer address bar, the name changes to "Documents."

[HansV]

By the way, on the computer that displays the Documents folder as "My Documents," when viewing the folder in Windows Explorer, if I put the cursor in the Windows Explorer address bar, the name changes to "Documents."

When you click in the address bar, you see the "real" path.