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Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

colintivy
Rising Star
Posts: 1,375
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎07-03-2008

Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

My lenovo E535 laptop is generally running OK on ordinary office work but just recently I was printing some text on my HP6100 and almost finished it when the dreaded Blue Screen of Death flashed up and everything went through the rigmarole of offering the Safe mode or restarting as normal. When I went back to the text file (which seemed to have completed its printing) I coiuld do nothing with the file itself because an error  message told me that it had been  edited by an "unknown client" and gave no obvious way to get past it. I have Administrative powers but still did not find a way of normalising things. Any clues?
Luckily I had a copy of the file but had to change its name to let me put it in its proper place in the index. These files re  pages of addresses for the production of sticky labels (you might guess they are for Xmas!) all nicely in alphabetical order. I could not use the original file name because it was locked into the damaged one. I just changed the names of  al the other files to agree with the new name style and save the whole lot, then deleted all the old files. Pause for breath.
One side effect which could be serious has been a regular backup failing to complete itself because a faulty file would not work. Could this be the one identified above?
Huh
Edit for typo.
10 REPLIES 10
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

My guess (and it's just a guess) is that the file became corrupt in such a way that Windows does not want anything to do with it, not even to delete it.  Could be that the file is sitting on a degraded sector of the hard drive so running chkdsk might be worth a try.  You'll need to use the full five stage version.  But make sure you have a backup first because if your hard drive is going wrong it may not appreciate the hard exercise that chkdsk puts it through.
TORPC
Grafter
Posts: 5,163
Registered: ‎08-12-2013

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

To follow up on ReedRichards advice for running the Full Five Stage Version of chkdsk
Only twice in my lifetime I have heard chkdsk referenced as the "Full Five Stage Version"
To clarify
Open up the command prompt (Click on start type in CMD) then right click on the Command Prompt Icon & choose Run as administrator
You will then be presented with the command prompt box with a black background
To run a standard chkdsk that only checks 3 stages in read only mode
Type chkdsk then press enter & it will then run 3 stages but not do any repair(s)

To run a Full Five Stage Version
As above open the command prompt
Then type chkdsk /f /r & press enter (notice the single spaces between the /'s) You will be informed that it cannot run as the volume is in use & do you want to schedule the volume to be checked upon next reboot
Press Y then press Enter then reboot your laptop (Can typically take approx 40 minutes on a clean machine, or if it needs to complete repairs can take several hours)

Do not be alarmed if it tells you that it has either Replaced / Deleted inserted orphaned  MFT index files etc
Here is a brief list that show some results one may come across
Quote
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "") from file record segment 120759.
The USA check value, 0x0, at block 0x3 is incorrect. The expected value is 0x63.
The multi-sector header signature in file 0x3d5b6 is incorrect.
Deleting corrupt file record segment 251333.
Deleting orphan file record segment 251321.
Deleting an index entry from index $O of file 25.
Deleting index entry P1040158123.JPG in index $I30 of file 118566.


colintivy
Rising Star
Posts: 1,375
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎07-03-2008

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

Wow!  That is a mouthful but I will print the replies out for study. I forgot to add to my post above that I am sure that some of the problem may be caused by the HP 6100. There have been a few DSD's, which did not do any damage, when the printer was doing its thing. I am not sure if the proximity of the laptop to the printer may be a factor. I cannot see if the cause is electric or interference and will experiment.
colintivy
Rising Star
Posts: 1,375
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎07-03-2008

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

@RR.
I have not ventured down this path after consideratioon of the above advice yet. If you look again at my post you will see that  getting a full backup is problematic. I am trying to trace the file(s) which might be corrupted, but it is not easy. (another thread on this elsewhere).
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

My personal belief is that part of routine computer maintenance should be to run chkdsk every few months.  chkdsk /r or /b to be specific.
colintivy
Rising Star
Posts: 1,375
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎07-03-2008

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

OK!
I will try to backup in sections of my files until I find the bit that will not work. At least that might finding the culprit a bit easier. Will report later.
Starb7
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎08-01-2015

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

Fixes put to one side, as you know and probably been told many times (I'm not nagging here) it important that you have backups in place.  That's easier said than done as it is a pain in the butt to do sometime.  I have tried many backups tools and here are the best I have found and that work:
1.  SyncBack (www.2brightsparks.com) - this is great and there is a free version too.  You can schedule it to make copies of your data and with the paid version to can backup to an FTP space.  The free version does not backup to such as Google drive or OneDrive but this is a way around that.  Now, if like me you like free stuff  Smiley you can get it to backup to Google Drive and OneDrive by simply choosing the backup destination as your local GoogleDrive or Onedrive folder.  The downside is of course you have copies of your data on your HD also note, this will use space up on the remote drives and can hof your internet speed/usage!
2.  Microsoft's own Backup system.  This is of course free as it's built-in.  I would recommend that you create a partition of your HD as the Windows Backup will use ALL the space it can get, eg create a partition that can comfortably store your data plus a bit.  Windows will make backups to here for you.  NOTE, remove the option to make a System Recovery Image as it will do this each time and you only really need one of these and I would create that as a physical CD to put away safe.
3.  Macrium (http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx - this is my preferred choice) also a free version is available.  This tool lets you create an entire image of a drive or partition.  NOTE, you would have to create a separate partition to image the main 'C' drive, etc.  I prefer this one because it has the added advantage that you can do it from Windows and the resulting image file can also be 'mounted' to view and copy files from if you need to without doing a restore.  You can also (as I do) have multiple images of your drive and it also has a CD boot option in the event you have to restore the full HD image.  Finally, it can also create entire clones of your HD - the ultimate backup!
PLEASE NOTE:  in all cases, the above might say create a partition on your drive, etc, but if the drive fails, so will the backups!  With that thought in mind, get a external USB drive or better still, invest a bit of cash and get a Buffalo NAS drive - it's well worth the investment as these drives can do more than just store files, ie DNLA certified media server, TimeMachine (Apple), Remote Access, multiple volumes and so on.
I do not work for any of the above and these are just my opinions and solutions.  If you get stuck, I'll try to help but your best source is always the software or hardware vendors first.  In any case, even a basic backup can save hours of re-installing and recovering data!
Kremmen
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 559
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Registered: ‎13-04-2013

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

I can also recommend SyncBack. Been using it for years since Microsofts SyncToy let me down.
On the file issue, there is a utility called 'unlocker' that has freed up files for me that Windows refused to access, dven after tge 'take ownership' ploy
Let's be careful out there !
colintivy
Rising Star
Posts: 1,375
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎07-03-2008

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

These advices look very interesting. I have tried Windows BU and also Lenovo Solutions which are all available on the machine. The stumbling block has consistently been the dreaded fouled-up file cocking up the BU recording. I have a SATA extenal HD, very similar to that in the machine, and intend to use it as the repository for periodic BUs once I get a fully working system. Backing up can be very time-consuming which is not always available, but I hope to have a determined bash at getting it all working asap.
As a side issue, I have not resolved the reason why I get the occasional BSODs, always in conjunction with  the  printing of texts on my HP6100 printer which otherwise seems to do its stuff very well. I have had no responses from M$, HP or Lenovo indicating a possible explanation.
Roll_eyes
7up
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Strange behaviour of Win7 Premium

Quote from: Kremmen
since Microsofts SyncToy let me down.

Urgh yeah i had a run-in with that once where it decided it was going to start deleting stuff that didn't need deleting. No idea how or why it decided it must do that but that was the end of it for me.
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!