one partition won't chkdsk, other will

[tlroche]

summary:

* C: won't chkdsk, though the other partition of the same hard disk will.

* Windows won't boot to any Safe Mode, though it will boot normally.

details:

I have a ThinkPad Z61t (product#=9442-UN6) with a single hard drive model#=Toshiba MK1032GSX, capacity=93.16 GB. It runs the pre-installed Windows XP SP2. All Lenovo critical and recommended updates have been applied, and all Windows updates have been applied. I formerly did workstation support for a living, and consider myself a fairly conscientious user: e.g. every week I chkdsk and defrag the hard drive on this TP. The hard drive is partitioned into

* C: for Windows and for those applications that refuse to install anywhere else

* E: for the rest of the disk

(D: is reserved for the optical disk.) For the past two weeks, I have experienced the following problems:

* When I run

chkdsk /r c:
chkdsk /r e:

  E: will chkdsk normally, but C: fails with

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot open volume for direct access.
Windows has finished checking the disk.
.....

  C: formerly chkdsk'ed normally, i.e. after ~30 min. However now chkdsk of C: returns immediately, with the above text.

* Subsequently I see the above text at every reboot.

* When I run Diskeeper Lite (as factory-installed) both C: and E: will defrag normally.

* When I try to boot to Safe Mode to fix the problem, the boot hangs at the stage when the drivers are printed to the screen. This happens with any Safe Mode (default, with networking, with command prompt). However the box can boot to non-Safe-Mode Windows without apparent error (other than the text above).

Not being able to run `chkdsk` on a Windows box makes me uncomfortable, since I regard this as essential maintenance. How to fix?

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche@pobox.com>

[BoredSysAdmin]

Apperently most problems related to simular symptoms are Spyware Doctor's software fault. Uninstall it or follow this recommendation:
1. Exit from Spyware Doctor (to exit from Spyware Doctor please right click on the Spyware Doctor icon in the notification area (next to the clock on the Windows taskbar) and select Exit from the menu that appears)
2. Delete the file 'ikhlayer.sys' from c:\windows\system32\drivers\
3. Restart Spyware Doctor
Chkdsk, defrag and error-checking should now work."

A few other links that may have a possible solution:

http://www.mcse.ms/archive55-2004-6-811167.html (conflict with Diskeeper or Zone Alarm)

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q180694

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum...0/1087548926?s

http://www.mytechsupport.ca/index.ph...=42&topic=3503

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles...rticleID=14614

[andyP Community SuperMod]

There is also a possible solution here

[tlroche]

Thanks for the suggestions! However the problem is now fixed. The only thing I did was change antivirus scanners. I'm starting a new job, for which the employer requires Symantec AV, so today I uninstalled AVG Free Edition and installed SAV. After doing that, I noticed that, on reboot, instead of getting the message

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot open volume for direct access.
Windows has finished checking the disk.
.....

I got

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Preload.
The volume is clean.
.....

After wXP restarted I ran

chkdsk /r c:

then cold booted: when the Z61t came back up, it ran the chkdsk before restarting wXP.

I had been running AVG for about a year so I'm reluctant to blame the problem on that--all I can say is what I experienced.