Macrium Reflect Free Error Code Help

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I am running the free version of Macrium Reflect 7 on my old Win 7 Thinkpad. I have been having a series of weird issues with the laptop itself – random freezes, needing to reboot, etc over the past few weeks, and so far, I can’t isolate the cause of that behavior.

After I had uninstalled the Lenovo Solution Center (after reading that it was a possible security issue) – it started running better, and so I decided I needed to make a backup while it was in a good state. I did create a System Restore, but every time I run Macrium, I get the following error message: MFT corrupt – Error code = 6. Please run ‘chkdsk C: /r’

I am not sure what that means – but a search for that error did say that chkdsk might “fix” it. I did try running chkdsk C: /r but the message was that the volume was in use and to schedule that to run on reboot.

My question – how long might such a process take, and should I go ahead and schedule it to run when I reboot? This laptop takes a LONG time to reboot and there are always a lot of things that run – like TrustedInstaller – that seem to go on forever, so I don’t want to create a worse situation as far as a reboot taking hours to complete.

Is there any way around this to get Marcrium to run? Would a newer version possibly help? Mine is Macrium Reflect v7.2.5107.

Thanks for the help!

 

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Chkdsk with the repair switch can take quite a long time, especially if the drive is large and/or damaged. What you are describing sounds like you could very well have a failing HDD. Make sure to copy any data you don’t want to lose before going further. You may want to then download the HDD mfr testing software and at least run a quick test.

EDIT to add: By long time I mean I have seen it take days.

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LHiggins

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cyberSAR wrote:

By long time I mean I have seen it take days

Oh boy – days!! Yikes! Guess that isn’t a good idea…

Yes – I know something is up – this laptop is about 10 years old and probably just can’t handle the “modern” websites and things. I did first start having the freezing issue after I updated Firefox to V87.0 – so maybe it is that.

cyberSAR wrote:

You may want to then download the HDD mfr testing software and at least run a quick test.

You’re referring to the manufacturer’s testing software? I’m not sure if there even is any to find for this HDD anymore – it is so old. Would running the error check option within the drive properties tell me anything? How long might it take?

The HDD is about 2/3 full, and I do have 8GB RAM, so it should have enough “power” to run basic things.

I am reluctant to look into a new laptop – for a variety of reasons, but I will work on a manual backup of files in case disaster strikes!

Thanks for the help!

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By mfr software I meant drive manufacturer. Check for brand of HDD in device manager. Most have software to test the drive. WD and Seagate will usually test other drives too. Some have a utility to try to repair the drive but again, before doing anything I’d get a backup with those symptoms and 10 year-old drive!

BTW If the drive is bad, snag an SSD on sale and breathe new life into the machine

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LHiggins

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Thanks! The drive is a Western Digital – HGST Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630. They do have a tool to test the drive, so maybe I’ll give that a try first before looking into anything else.

I’ll also give some thought to a SSD, but with the age of the laptop itself, is doing that kind of  upgrade actually worth it? And if I did replace it – with the 8gm RAM that I have,  would upgrading the whole thing to Win 10 be a possibility?

Thanks!

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ABSOLUTELY! Even if the drive isn’t toast an SSD will drastically improve performance. Plus, if the drive isn’t bad, you will have a much easier time cloning if that’s what you choose to do. I’ve bought 500GB SSD drives on sale for ~$40. I have quite a few machines with 8GB memory running Win10 just fine.

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One more thing I wanted to add. That error doesn’t necessarily mean a bad HDD but in my experience when something like that pops up, especially combined with other symptoms, I always worry about a drive going bellyup and want to get a backup ASAP. Add to it a 10y/o drive and even more so. Good luck and hopefully it’s just some file corruption.

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LHiggins

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LHiggins wrote:

I am reluctant to look into a new laptop

You can upgrade your laptop’s performance by replacing your aging HDD with SATA SSD.

Before running Chkdsk /r you may try running Chkdsk /f

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk

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LHiggins

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Thanks for that link – I will check it out. I really don’t know much about those types of commands!

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Computers can be repaired / replaced.   Lost data is gone forever.  Before doing anything, make certain your data is safely backed up.

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cyberSAR, LHiggins

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A question about backing up. Since Macrium won’t work now – the only kind of “backup” I think I can do is a manual saving of data that I might want to preserve, right? There’d be no way to back up programs or other files – or is there?

Also – as to a new SSD – how would I transfer everything from this drive to a new drive if I can’t create an image to “restore” to the new drive?

 

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Yes. Backup your most important files manually first… just in case. Then try to get a backup of your complete user folder including appdata/roaming. I also backup my program data folder because some programs store important data to it in my environment. Also if you store files in non-standard locations don’t forget those. I use FastCopy when doing manual copies. Once comfortable, try to repair drive issues.

As to cloning, I generally don’t clone but create an image and use the image applied to new drive. I have used macrium on occasion but prefer Acronis. I do it from a USB or CD outside of Windows. If I have bad sectors I’ll generally tell it to ignore them or it may take forever.

Also, if you have a fairly recent good image you could use it and just update the files you copied earlier. I just had to do that with a bad drive that I was able to copy an old image from.

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You could try running Macrium Reflect from the rescue media. You might enjoy more success with Windows shut down. However, I know from personal experience that errors on the drive can cause the imaging process to fail.

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LHiggins

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This all has gotten me excited to look into the possibly of an SSD and maybe upgrading this old laptop to Win 10. That would certainly help me keep this laptop going for a while without needing to replace it.

I’m looking into the Western Digital HDD checking tool for my drive, and will also try a different backup program – maybe EasusTodoFree? Maybe that will allow a full backup to be made, as my last good one was in October (I know – my bad…). I’m also going to get a manual backup going as well.

And, has anyone had any experience with CrystalDiskInfo? That looks like it might also be a good alternative for checking the disk itself.

I will post back with results – but thanks so much for all of the ideas and help.  Very much appreciated!

 

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What brand of HDD do you back up to? Acronis  has free tools for many hdd manufacturers. Type in your HDD brand and Acronis free. You may very well find something. Not sure if the old Hitachi will qualify for WD/Acronis.

Note that your old HDD is 5400RPM so an SSD upgrade will feel tremendous to you. I have some old laptops with Core2 duo and quads with 4GB memory running win10 and the clients are very happy with the limited things they do.

Make sure to keep the dust bunnies out too!

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LHiggins

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The drive I use is an external Seagate Backup Plus, 2TB. I believe it has some tools included, but the new issue right now is that none of my backup external HDDs seem to work in my USB ports. Thumb drives do – but I have tried that Seagate and two other backup drives in both available ports – one 3.0, one 2.0 – and none are recognized. I restarted the laptop and it is the same – thumb drives are recognized, backup drives aren’t. But, when I connect them to my Win 10 laptop, all is fine – they are visible and accessible.

So – to start any type of manual backup, I guess I’m going to need to use a couple of thumb drives till I can figure out this external drive issue. It isn’t the ports as they work with the thumb drives, and the dongle for my wireless mouse is working in its USB port as well.

Guess I’ll see if I can figure it out, but right now, I can’t even get to the Macrium backup to restore the laptop if I needed to.

Does that sound like a symptom of a failing drive as well? It all worked fine before I tried to make the Macrium backup yesterday.

Always something…

ETA – spoke too quickly – my Pioneer 250GB external USB SSD is recognized now when connected to the laptop. It is the other backup drives that won’t work.Would that glitch in Macrium yesterday have cause issues on that drive? Doesn’t explain the others…

Would it be possible to connect the Seagate backup drive that has the Macrium backups to my Win 10 and also connect a different drive – most likely the Pioneer SSD – and then copy the Macrium files onto it so that I can access the backups?

Thanks!!

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And now, when I try to copy the USER file, I get errors that files such as ntuser.dat are open in the System and can’t be copied. I have nothing running or open – what does that mean?

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That’s normal. Just skip it. If copying the whole user folder there will be some files that won’t copy over.

As to your drives not being seen that could be many things. If you boot with your macrium boot disk, or any other boot disk, can you see those drives?

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LHiggins

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Thanks! I went ahead and started copying the User file – and just skipped those few files as you suggested. It is taking a while, so I’ll see about that other drive later on.

But if I can copy the Macrium backup files from it onto a different drive, since it works on my other laptop, that would be just as good as long as they worked? I think the most recent backup I have is from a while ago – I had pretty much stopped creating Macrium backups on that for some reason – I wasn’t getting updates from MS, and it kind of got me out of my usual routine of backup/download updates.

Thanks for the help!

 

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Yes you can copy the macrium file to another drive. Just did that last week on a data recovery.

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LHiggins

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If you’ve got about $50 get an SSD. You’ll be glad you did.

A bit of anecdotal evidence: I’ve got 2 Dell Latitude E5450 (both manufactured in 2015) laptops each running Win 8.1 Pro x64. One has 8GB RAM and a 500 GB HDD, the other has 4 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD; both have the same 5th generation core i5 processor and the same software. The HDD is no slouch but the SSD just flies. The monthly rollups go in start to finish anywhere from 3 to 10 times faster with the SSD.

If you go here: https://www.crucial.com/store/advisor you should be able to find your computer and get all the specs of compatible SSDs. Here’s a link to a pdf installation instructions document: https://www.crucial.com/content/dam/crucial/ssd-products/ssd-family/documents/installation-guides/sata-2-5-install/crucial-ssd-install-guide-en.pdf

(I’m assuming you have a 2.5 inch SSD, but if not there are installation guides here:
https://www.crucial.com/ssd/mx500/ct500mx500ssd1/ct11256830)

I’m not affiliated with Crucial in any way, but they do have an informative web site, IMHO.

I’ve got a couple laptops from 2009 that seem to be in good shape, just slow, and I’m thinking of trying an SSD on one or both of them.

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windbg, LHiggins

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Thank you so much for all of this information! I will take a look at it all once I get the USB/backup external drive thing – mentioned above – figured out!

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I have had good success with Crucial drives BUT I have had problems with Crucial 500MX on a couple Dell machines with the Intel Storage Controller driver. Changing to the MS driver works but that has to be done prior to the clone or image creation. Real PITA that I’ve never experienced with any other brand SSD. For that reason I no longer use Crucial drives.

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LHiggins wrote:

but I have tried that Seagate and two other backup drives in both available ports – one 3.0, one 2.0 – and none are recognized.

In disk management, do these drives appear and have drive letters?  If not, you should be able to right click on the drive and assign a drive letter.

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LHiggins

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Thanks! I’ll check when it is done copying the complete user folder. That is taking forever – several hours already and it is showing no sign of finishing – sigh….hope it is all there when it is done.

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OK – I finally was able to access the drive with the Macrium backups on it. I plugged in one of my USB switches and attached the drive to IT – and it worked! Not sure what is going on, but at least that seems to be a work around for now. The others seem to be working in the USB ports now – also not sure why they weren’t earlier.

Finished copying the User Folder and am now looking into how to check the disk for errors or issues – looks like that has to be done on a restart. Also going to look into some alternate backup software to see if it will allow a full back-up that Macrium couldn’t/wouldn’t do.

Thanks!

 

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If you want to try chkdsk, from an administrator command prompt the command would be:

chkdsk C: /r

You will get the reboot message. The /r switch will Locate bad sectors and recover readable information. /r includes the functionality of /f which checks the file system and file system metadata for logical errors.

cyberSAR is correct. This can take a long time.

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LHiggins

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Could be that you have ghost devices and Windows is getting confused. I periodically run into that when doing a bunch of drive swapping. These 2 programs make cleaning them up easier than doing each one individually.

Ghostbuster Portable
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ghostbuster.html
DeviceCleanup
https://www.uwe-sieber.de/misc_tools_e.html

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LHiggins

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I think you are right! Maybe when Macrium souldn’t run it somehow corrupted that connection to the external drive. I’m going to update Macrium and give it a try again tomorrow.

Thanks for the links – definitely is something to check into!

 

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If you boot from the Macrium Reflect rescue media and then attach your Seagate backup HDD, is it recognised?

If it is, you could image your system before attempting a Chkdsk repair.

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LHiggins

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Seagate drives come with free DiscWizard (Acronis) backup/cloning software.

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I had to update the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver on a Dell XPS 8100 when I upgraded from a HDD to a Crucial MX500 SSD.  I don’t know if it was specific to the Crucial MX500 or SSD’s in general.

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jburk07

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I’ve only had the problem with Crucial on Dell. Not sure if it is Dell or Crucial but to me it’s not worth the fight. I recovered an img off a bad HDD couple weeks ago and put it on a crucial drive and it bluescreened every which way. Thought the image was corrupt at first, then remembered one I did a couple years ago with a Crucial drive needing the MS driver. Restored the image to a samsung and it worked fine. So for the heck of it I restored the image to an extra HDD, changed to the standard MS driver and then cloned to the Crucial. It went fine. I then updated the driver and all was well.

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I should be clear that I have never used Crucial drives. I did, as a non techie, find their website useful, especially for installation guidelines and determining what drives are compatible with my computers. The Dell laptops I mentioned earlier are as they came from the factory; they have not been modified by anyone in any way.

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cyberSAR wrote:

I have had good success with Crucial drives BUT I have had problems with Crucial 500MX on a couple Dell machines with the Intel Storage Controller driver. Changing to the MS driver works but that has to be done prior to the clone or image creation. Real PITA that I’ve never experienced with any other brand SSD. For that reason I no longer use Crucial drives.

mledman wrote:

I had to update the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver on a Dell XPS 8100 when I upgraded from a HDD to a Crucial MX500 SSD. I don’t know if it was specific to the Crucial MX500 or SSD’s in general.

Add me to the list of people who have had trouble with the MX500. I was getting random file corruption issues about 2 years ago. I didn’t bother to figure out what the problem was, but simply replaced the MX500 with a Samsung 860 EVO and have had no further problems.

 

LHiggins wrote:

I’ll also give some thought to a SSD, but with the age of the laptop itself, is doing that kind of  upgrade actually worth it?

An SSD can improve disk reads/writes by about a factor of 5. For a subjective example of what that feels like, see my short video here.

Keep in mind it won’t speed up internet or CPU processing times, but speeding up disk transfers still improves the overall experience.

You didn’t say how old your ThinkPad is, but also note your laptop should support SATA-III as an older SATA-II bus will hinder SSD transfer speeds.

 

 

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Guess what I’m doing right now! A clone from HDD to a Crucial MX500 on the same model Dell I had issues on a couple weeks ago   Went well this time since I made sure the MS driver was installed. Haven’t gotten as far as updates yet.

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How ironic!

Win 11 home - 24H2
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dg1261 wrote:

You didn’t say how old your ThinkPad is, but also note your laptop should support SATA-III as an older SATA-II bus will hinder SSD transfer speeds.

I think it is at least 8-10 years old. I feel like I’ve had it forever and really hate to see it having these issues.

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Good morning! I wanted to update with a few things I’ve found that might explain the failure of Macrium – though no idea of a fix. Maybe this might shed some light for those who understand these things more than I do.

Here’s a summary. I’ll try to attach text files of the actual results as well.

First, I ran a WMIC and got this – no errors on the disk.

Next, I ran vssadmin list writers and found errors in these:

• ‘System Writer’ – inconsistent shadow copy
• ‘WMI Writer’ – inconsistent shadow copy

I also found similar errors in the Macrium Log Files as well, with various writers having “no selected components for restore” with these needed to be added:

* Writer ‘Task Scheduler Writer’:
– Add component TasksStore
* Writer ‘VSS Metadata Store Writer’:
– Add component WriterMetadataStore
* Writer ‘Performance Counters Writer’:
– Add component PerformanceCounters
* Writer ‘Registry Writer’:
– Add component Registry
* Writer ‘COM+ REGDB Writer’:
– Add component COM+ REGDB
* Writer ‘WMI Writer’:
– Add component WMI

I’m not sure what to make of this – but it seems that some of the writers needed to create the backup are missing or inaccessible – the bad part of the drive perhaps?

I am going to attempt to run chkdsk C: /f and see what that does, but wanted to update where I am at this point. And so far – the laptop itself is running well – no freezing issues and the external drives all seem to be fine today.

Thanks for any ideas – I am working my way through the suggestions and since I got the manual backup of the User Folder done yesterday, thought I’d start with chkdsk C: /f first.

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The /f switch checks for logical errors.  The /r switch checks for logical errors and bad sectors.

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LHiggins

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Thanks. So would missing vss writers be logical or bad sector? I’m hoping to avoid an all day scan – took most of yesterday to copy the User Folder and I really don’t want to have this laptop out of service for too long…

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It could be ether or both.  Or a corrupted VSS (volume shadow copy).

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should be either or both

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LHiggins

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LHiggins wrote:

I’ll try to attach text files of the actual results as well.

OK – here are the other two – they didn’t want to attach for some reason.

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I have another question for those of you familiar with Acronis. I came across a free tool that they have called VSS Doctor that looks interesting and might address the VSS issues I am having. I chatted with them and they said it is safe and may or may not help in my situation. Seems worth a try – it isn’t supposed to take too long to run.

Has anyone had any experience with that tool?

Thanks!

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Just thinking (typing) out loud here:

If you’re considering a SSD, you could install it, restore your (October) good image, update any programs and copy back the files you want.  Having a good image and a copy of your data allows you to try anything with confidence!

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LHiggins

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Yes – I am in the process of trying to evaluate it all and see if getting a new drive might be the way to go. I am not really confident in how it would all work as far as being able to restore my current Win 7 to a new drive, and would probably need some help – or my computer guy – to do it.Replacing a drive is pretty far above my experience for sure.

Plus the compatibility issue:

dg1261 wrote:

You didn’t say how old your ThinkPad is, but also note your laptop should support SATA-III as an older SATA-II bus will hinder SSD transfer speeds.

I guess I’ll need to see what the costs and time involved would be to get the new drive. In the meanwhile, I am hoping that there is still a way to repair the VSS and continue to use this one as it for a while longer. Still looking into that VSS Doctor as a possible option.

Thanks for the encouragement!!

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Did you ever run chkdsk /f ? That would be a very logical place to start. After rebooting check the event log and see if any bad sectors are listed there.

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Not yet – but that will be first on my list for the morning. Had some things to do today and I didn’t want to tie it up doing that. I’ll post my results when I do it.

But a question – I have trouble running event log/viewer – always get a message that says something about a snap-in not loading?

In any case where should I be looking – in system logs?

Thanks!

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I always use event viewer but you might try this.
https://www.minitool.com/news/chkdsk-log.html

BTW chkdsk /f generally doesn’t take long. The  /r switch is what can take a long time.

 

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LHiggins

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Just had a thought. Do you have system restore enabled? Can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen a corrupt SR point cause issues. If so, turn off SR and delete the old restore points, reboot and re-enable if you like.

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LHiggins

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That’s interesting. I do have system restore enabled, and I just checked to see how many restore points I have – many.

Which brings up a question – could this whole issue have anything to do with uninstalling that Lenovo Solution Center last week? I have a restore point from before I did that – would rolling back to that point restore that software, and if it had anything to do with the bad sectors, would that be a possible fix?

Thanks for the link to the event viewer alternative, too!

ETA – there is also a restore point from yesterday that I didn’t do manually – it says it is for Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable x86 14.24.28127. Wonder that THAT is??

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Not sure what the Solution Center does but uninstalling wouldn’t cause bad sectors. We still don’t know if you have bad sectors It could have corrupted some files possibly. Right now I’m dealing with a system we’re removing a dual boot Win7 from. After removal and deleting the volume Acronis complains of drive errors… there are none,  but Macrium happily creates the image with no issues.

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LHiggins

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@LHiggins Have you installed any new software recently? I got the Microsoft Visual C++ thing on a Win 7 computer a few years ago after installing some Epson printer software. About a day after installing the software I was offered the C++ update. I didn’t even know I had C++ on the computer, unless it was bundled along with the Epson software. I don’t know if uninstalling the Lenovo Solution Center would for some reason trigger a C++ update or not.

FWIW, I’ve not had good results uninstalling factory “bloatware” from Dell or HP computers – something always gets messed up. I’ve never had any problem like what you’ve described but I have had computers slow to a crawl, lose AV protection, get hassled to death about missing software, etc. I’ve always just given up and reinstalled the software, and that returned the computer to it’s “normal” state.

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LHiggins

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Yes, in the past couple of weeks, I have added a new version of ESET to replace the one that was expiring, and I downloaded a copy of EasusToDo backup software to see if maybe that would work to create a backup. I never used that since when I first went through the set-up – it was saying that it would take upwards of 4 hours to complete the backup, and I didn’t really want to put the laptop though another all day session like I did when I copied the User Folder.

I was never prompted to download any thing related to C++ but maybe that was just part of the ESET or the Easus install?

Also, I got an update to FF to version 88.0.1.

Firefox may have been a cause of the initial issues with the freezes, since I had a setting that limited it to one process in the performance tab. Maybe that caused some of the freezes, since I generally ran 8-10 open windows at a time. I reset that to “use recommended performance settings” and that seemed to solve the problem. The freezes ended pretty much – but this MFT thing with Macrium came up, so possibly any damage is due to the problems with FF?

Who knows – but I guess if the disk is damaged – it doesn’t matter so much the cause as the way to deal with it!

Thanks for the C++ info!

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[JohnW]

I would add that backing up your data manually was a good suggestion, and I assume that you may have already done so.

If you plan to make a current image, you should probably do so after running ‘chkdsk /r’ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk, as an image copy program usually copies data sector by sector from the source. If you have existing errors on your disk, the image may copy your problem, unless you fix it first.

As far as cloning your HDD to an SSD, no need to make an image first, as the cloning process moves the entire drive to the new drive in the same manner as making a disk image file, but it only takes one step.  Many SSD drive manufacturers offer a free drive cloning tool. I can vouch for Samsung, as I have used it successfully a couple of times.

Good luck!

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by JohnW. Reason: Corrected typo

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LHiggins

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LHiggins wrote:

MFT corrupt

This is a very serious error as the MFT holds all your file location information.
I would not use that disk until I had sorted out the problem.

Run the manufacturers diagnostic program on the disk. Do not use anything else until you know if the drive is OK.

Copy any files / data from the disk. As long as you can copy your data all will be well.
Windows files can be ignored.

Assuming the disk is dead / dying, replace is with an SSD and reinstall everything from scratch. Now you can copy your data back.

Keep the old disk for a while in case you find you’ve missed something.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

This is a very serious error as the MFT holds all your file location information. I would not use that disk until I had sorted out the problem.

Run the manufacturers diagnostic program on the disk. Do not use anything else until you know if the drive is OK.

OK – so not chkdsk /f? I was set to run that this morning, but I can wait for more info. I had looked at the Western Digital site to find the right diagnostic tool, but the one that seems to be for the drive I have says “<span dir=”ltr”>Please note: WinDFT is not designed to run on your primary operating drive.</span>”

My last good Macrium backup is from October, I believe. Would restoring to that point and then reinstalling whatever data/programs I have from my backup be a possible solution? Or would rolling back to an earlier restore point work?

And as to a new drive –

JohnW wrote:

As far as cloning your HDD to an SSD, no need to make an image first, as the cloning process moves the entire drive to the new drive in the same manner as making a disk image file, but it only takes one step. Many SSD drive manufacturers offer a free drive cloning tool.

Wouldn’t that bring along the corrupted files as well?

Thanks for the suggestions and help!

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LHiggins wrote:

And as to a new drive – JohnW wrote: As far as cloning your HDD to an SSD, no need to make an image first, as the cloning process moves the entire drive to the new drive in the same manner as making a disk image file, but it only takes one step. Many SSD drive manufacturers offer a free drive cloning tool. Wouldn’t that bring along the corrupted files as well?

Yes.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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LHiggins wrote:

And as to a new drive – JohnW wrote: As far as cloning your HDD to an SSD, no need to make an image first, as the cloning process moves the entire drive to the new drive in the same manner as making a disk image file, but it only takes one step. Many SSD drive manufacturers offer a free drive cloning tool. Wouldn’t that bring along the corrupted files as well?

Yes.

The safest solution sure solution is what Paul T suggested. Copy your personal data first (not Windows) and re-install Windows on the new drive.

I wouldn’t trust that original drive, or anything stored on it.

For future reference, here is the link to Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics that I have installed to support my WD drives. Scroll down to the link for Data Lifeguard.

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?DL

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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LHiggins

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Thanks John! I guess the first thing I should do – besides making sure all of my data is safe on another drive (which I did do the other day – saved a complete copy of my User Folder), is to check the disk to see if it indeed is the issue. If it has bad sectors, then any of the other ideas on repairing the files probably won’t work, and I’ll need to weigh replacing the drive or replacing the laptop itself.

If it turns out that the drive is OK, then I guess I’ll need to work through possibly fixing the problems with chkdsk /r as suggested by Macrium – which is where I first saw this issue of the MFT.

Thanks for the WD link – hopefully the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool for Windows will work on my drive and give me the info needed.

Before attempting anything – I am going to make a list of that I need to be sure to save – like emails and my FF bookmarks, etc – things that I’ll really need no matter whether I get a new drive or not.

Thanks for the help – I appreciate it!

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LHiggins wrote:

Thanks for the WD link – hopefully the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool for Windows will work on my drive and give me the info needed.

You may have the best chance of a repair using the native hardware manufacturer Western Digital tools, rather than generic Windows chkdsk commands.

Here is a quote from the Data Lifeguard help file regarding the Extended Test. It is non-destructive, unless you select the repair option after bad sectors are selected. Personally, I would never keep an old drive like that when there are obvious signs of failure. But you will have to arrive at your own risk assessment regarding the continued use of a “repaired” drive.

EXTENDED TEST: For most computers, the Extended Test takes anywhere from 30 minutes to many hours to test one drive. Larger drives take longer to test and the performance of the computer affects the test time. If a bad sector is detected, the test may stop responding for a few minutes and then continue. By default, the Extended Test is a non-destructive test. This test is destructive only when you select the repair option after bad sectors are detected.

The Extended Test scans the entire disk media from LBA #0 to the maximum LBA. When a bad sector is detected, you are prompted to repair it. If you choose to repair the sector, the program writes zeros to the bad sector; this causes the drive firmware to relocate the bad sector and return the sector to a defect-free state.

 

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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And so – just to be clear – what would you recommend that I do – just scan and see if there are bad sectors or actually try to repair those? That won’t restore what was in the sector – just remove the defect? So if the missing VSS writers were in those sectors, they won’t be restored?

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And just a side comment about Macrium and the MFT thing. I don’t see it as Macrium being the problem. It was likely doing it’s part to alert you to the MFT issue, as any image taken in that drive state would most likely be unreliable.

With that thought in mind, if you managed to find an alternative to Macrium that did not complain, would you really want to trust that image?

My two cents…

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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LHiggins

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JohnW wrote:

With that thought in mind, if you managed to find an alternative to Macrium that did not complain, would you really want to trust that image?

You’re right – after all of this, I would be skeptical. I’m in the process now of being sure I “have” everything saved onto an external drive before I try the WD tool. Maybe it will fix things – if not, I’ll have to assess the whole situation and make some decision.

Thanks so much for your help!

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Good luck!

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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LHiggins wrote:

what would you recommend that I do – just scan and see if there are bad sectors or actually try to repair those? That won’t restore what was in the sector – just remove the defect? So if the missing VSS writers were in those sectors, they won’t be restored?

My only recommendation is to ensure your data is backed up first. There are no guarantees what will happen next. I’ve never been so deep in the weeds before that I was facing your decisions. I have been taking frequent images for over twenty years, so my first instinct now is to toss any questionable drive into the trash, and restore  my system from the most recent good image.

You should assume worst case is that you will need to nuke that installation of Windows. And then if you get lucky, be happy!

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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LHiggins

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JohnW wrote:

I’ve never been so deep in the weeds before that I was facing your decisions.

LOL – feels like deep in the woods! But I do have to say that I don’t feel as panicked as I thought I’d be. I have all of my data on an external drive, and that Macrium backup from October to fall back on if the drive proves to be OK. If it isn’t – then I need to make some decisions as to what’s next. We’ll see…

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Here’s the way I see it. Bounce through the copied file backup and make sure you got everything. That’s why I use a different program than windows copy and paste. I get log files of any errors. I still bounce around though Also bounce around the current hard drive to make sure you or a program didn’t install or save something outside your user folder. I’ve found that often. Don’t forget to export any registry keys you may need, export your credentials in credential manager, save your host file if you’ve modified it, export and save any tasks you created and  get copies of your software registration codes.

Personally, I’d try acronis from a boot disc if you have the space. IF it works you have another safety net. If it doesn’t so be it. Now it’s time to check the drive with the HGST or WD program. Try the quick test first. If it shows errors you can pretty much assume your drive is toast. If it doesn’t you can go for the long test to verify and also give chkdsk a shot if you have the time.

As to replacing the HDD if it’s bad (or even if it isn’t and you want better performance) SSD is the way to go. How is the rest of the laptop? Hinges solid? Keys not worn out? Looks brand new? Drop ~$40 and watch how much better it runs. You can probably find a video online as to breaking down the laptop and replacing the drive. It really isn’t hard on most older models. Before making the decision run a battery of diagnostics on other components, memory, processor, video etc. Will take the better part of a day but will help make your decision.

If you go the SSD route a fresh install is really nice but you have to consider if you have all your software and keys. Sometimes I’ll clone a failing drive and fix it best I can because the client has special requirements or no longer has access to software they need.

Wishing you all the best!

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LHiggins

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Thanks for organizing an approach to this problem! I am now (still) in the process of gathering up my files and trying to be sure that I have everything I need saved to my external drive just in case. Not sure of registry keys – but I think I have all of the Windows 7 product keys and all of my program log-ins. I’ll look into saving the registry itself if that’s what you mean.

Once I’m “sure” I have everything saved, I’ll do a quick scan with the WD tool that John recommended, and see what that returns. Till I know for sure that there are no errors on the drive, there’s no sense trying anything else. If that comes back clean, I’ll set up a full scan for tomorrow and see what that shows.

If the drive seems fine after all of that, maybe I’ll look into that Acronis VSS Doctor tool – maybe that will fix the Macrium issue. Or a different backup software? Or possibly reverting back to my last good Macrium backup and restoring the software and changes made in the interim.

As to evaluating whether it is worth trying to replace the drive – this is an old laptop – in pretty good shape, but old. And I am not sure I am that confident to do any kind of drive replacement myself – so I’d need to factor in the cost to have my computer guy get involved against the cost of a new computer. Maybe it is just time to look into a new one – guess seeing the results of the scans will help me to see which direction I need to go. Also, I haven’t yet checked the event viewer – I’ll look at your minitool link – but maybe there is something there that might be helpful, too.

The kicker is, at this point, after the earlier problems with the freezing and restarts, which seem to have gone away – everything else, except Macrium and its warning about the MFT, seems to be working fine. It isn’t using lots of resources, the CPU usage is low, and I haven’t run into any of those hangs or freezes since I made that change in the FF performance.

So – I have some work to do and once I get some results, I can make some decisions. I’ll post back with what I find out after the scans.

Thanks for all of the help – I really appreciate it!

 

 

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Just wanted to update this thread to say that I have had no luck correcting the issues.

I have tried checking the disk using the Western Digital tool suggested by JohnW, and it has passed the quick tests. No issues found. I also ran CrystalDiskInfo – same – no issues found.

I find that I cannot run chkdsk c:/f as each time I set it to do that on reboot, at the start of the reboot process it says it will run and then immediately it says that Disk Checking is cancelled and Windows starts.

So – I can’t say that there aren’t disk errors, but since both the WD tool and CrystalDiskInfo aren’t showing anything through a quick scan – does it seem likely that there aren’t?

After all of my manual backups, I ran the Acronis VSS Doctor – which appears to have reregistered the VSS writers – which was the error I kept getting in the Macrium logs when the backups failed. However, it also has this warning:

Not sure what to make of that, but apparently there is some storage issue that is preventing Macrium to run. I did even download the current version of Macrium – no joy there either.

I also tried to use Macrium’s own fix VSS problems and it didn’t to anything – backups still fail and have the same note each time: MFT corrupt – Error code = 6. Please run ‘chkdsk C: /r’

Since I can’t get chkdsk to run, there isn’t any way to run this either.

So – I am now at a loss as to what to do next. I could try to find a different backup software to see it that might work. I could also roll back to my last Macrium backup (but that is from October/November) and see if  that works, and restore my data that would be missing.

I’ve pursued this VSS issue as that is what Marcium is pointing to in all of the failed backup logs. But much of what I find about fixes for the VSS involve MS Servers, not a laptop running Windows 7. I have searched for the specific error codes and found ways to add storage to the VSS in the registry, but I am really not ready to give that a try.

Not sure what to do next – but I think I have pretty much exhausted most avenues of what might be a fix – as well as exhausted myself and all of you along with me! Maybe someone still has a suggestion – I’m open – but I am thinking that perhaps it is time to start looking for a replacement for this laptop.

Thanks for everyone’s help and support! At least, for the moment, it is running fine – just can’t psych out that backup issue.

 

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Try running sfc /scannow in elevated command prompt. Then try chkdsk. If it still doesn’t work try this  https://www.vistax64.com/threads/chkdsk-will-not-run-at-startup-in-vista.130824/

 

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LHiggins

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Will those Vista instructions work on Windows 7?

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Yes, they should.

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LHiggins

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LHiggins wrote:

I find that I cannot run chkdsk c:/f as each time I set it to do that on reboot, at the start of the reboot process it says it will run and then immediately it says that Disk Checking is cancelled and Windows starts.

Try using restart instead of shutdown.

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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LHiggins

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Yep – tried that and it just won’t run!

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LHiggins wrote:

I have tried checking the disk using the Western Digital tool suggested by JohnW, and it has passed the quick tests. No issues found. I also ran CrystalDiskInfo – same – no issues found.

Did you try the WD extended test yet? This is the test that checks disk sectors and relocates bad ones…

For maximum confidence, the Extended Test is recommended.

 

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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LHiggins

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Also, try running it from a boot disk not within Windows. Here’s the old HGST disk programs https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

I think you’re getting to the point, if these latest tries don’t work, of either living with it or going for the old image restore and updating your files with the updated backup copies. You seem to have issues with many windows functions, event viewer, chdsk, VSS etc. Sometimes it just pays to jump ahead when you have known good backups. Either way, be ready for a HDD replacement just in case!

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LHiggins

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OK – I ran the verify test in scan disk and got this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>sfc /verifyonly

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\Windows\system32>

So again, with this test, there doesn’t seem to be a problem with the disk.

JohnW wrote:

Did you try the WD extended test yet? This is the test that checks disk sectors and relocates bad ones…

I haven’t done that yet since I was hopeful that getting the all clear on the more limited tests might tell me if I actually needed to go further.

I can set it up to try that tomorrow – I just wanted to get an idea of the possible “damage”.

If the backup issue with Macrium is due to a storage size issue with the VSS shadow storage – does that sound like a drive issue?

cyberSAR wrote:

I think you’re getting to the point, if these latest tries don’t work, of either living with it or going for the old image restore and updating your files with the updated backup copies.

Yes, you may be right.

But one other question – if I do decide to get a new drive – isn’t any kind of cloning going to bring along whatever issue is causing that VSS thing?

 

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But one other question – if I do decide to get a new drive – isn’t any kind of cloning going to bring along whatever issue is causing that VSS thing?

Yes most likely but it is possible that if the old hdd is bad you may get lucky and be able to fix it on the new drive. I think you’d be better off with a fresh install or a restoration of last known good image to new drive and then update with your backed up files. Still think you should run extended drive test from boot disk – maybe overnight.

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LHiggins

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In the macrium forums there was a thread that discussed running chkdsk from within the rescue environment. According to that thread, this procedure succeeded to correct the error 6 for MFT corruption. Afterwards the poster was able to image the drive.

 

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LHiggins

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EricB wrote:

In the macrium forums there was a thread that discussed running chkdsk from within the rescue environment. According to that thread, this procedure succeeded to correct the error 6 for MFT corruption. Afterwards the poster was able to image the drive.

Great – thanks so much! I’ll take a look for it tomorrow! Wouldn’t that be great if it could be corrected! Thought I had read everything on that site but I will look again!

Thanks!!

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Turns out I did have that Macrium info bookmarked. I’ll check into it more and try it tomorrow. Thanks again!

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I also came across this one – https://forum.macrium.com/14308/MFT-corrupt-Error-code-6-Please-run-chkdsk-C-r?PageIndex=2

Hope it works for you.

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LHiggins

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I have followed jphughan and his posts on Macrium for while and I think his advice is very credible.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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LHiggins

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OK – seems I lost my first post somehow….

In any case – just about ready to run Check Disk R (writing it that way since it seems using the actual term caused the posting error). Just waiting for my final data backup to finish. I am expecting Check Disk to run a long time – hopefully not all day – and after that I will see if my Macrium issue is solved, depending on what that shows. I’ll also set it up for an extended WD scan, too. Will post back with results whenever…

Depending on the results, I can then make some decisions on which direction to go with this laptop.

Thanks everyone!

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OK – and the same issue with the lost post again. I get these messages:

• You can use BBCodes to format your content. (yellow box)
• Error: Are you sure you wanted to do that? (pink box)

I wasn’t editing or posting too quickly – just a normal post.

In any case – just wanted to note that due to some bad weather headed this way, I am going to put off running any checking programs till tomorrow when I don’t have to worry about possible loss of power issues.

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I’d boot to a recovery USB and then run chkdsk on your hard disk.
First, do a read only chkdsk and see what it reports, then a repair and see if it is fixed.

From the diag results it seems the disk is OK but has some data corruption in the MFT. Unfortunately, this may cause data loss and you may have to wear that.

Assuming you fix the disk, I would then perform a repair install over the top to make sure the Windows files are OK.

cheers, Paul

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LHiggins

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TestDisk (TestDisk is OpenSource software and is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL v2+).

Repair An NTFS MFT

The MFT (Master File Table) is sometimes corrupted. If Microsoft’s Checkdisk (chkdsk) failed to repair the MFT, run TestDisk. In the Advanced menu, select your NTFS partition, choose Boot, then Repair MFT. TestDisk will compare the MFT and MFT mirror (its backup). If the MFT is damaged, it will try to repair the MFT using the backup. If the MFT backup is damaged, it will use the main MFT.

If both MFT and MFTMirr are damaged and thus cannot be repaired using TestDisk, you might want to try commercial software like Zero Assumption Recovery, GetDataBack for NTFS.

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LHiggins

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Good morning and thanks for the additional posts.

Paul T wrote:

From the diag results it seems the disk is OK but has some data corruption in the MFT.

At this point, I agree – I think the disk is OK, but there is an error in the VSS/MFT as indicated by the Acronis VSS Doctor info that I posted above and here:

ForVolume: \\?\Volume{53469d44-e884-11e2-af9d-806e6f6e6963}\
OnVolume: \\?\Volume{53469d44-e884-11e2-af9d-806e6f6e6963}\
Used: 55 MB
Allocated: 364 MB
Maximum: 1124 MB
Minimum: 320 MB
VolumeSize: 1499 MB
Available: 756 MB
TargetMaximum: 320 MB
MaximumGreaterThenMinimum: True
MaximumIsEnough: True
MaximumIsNotReached: True
AvailableIsEnoughForMaximum: False
IsOk: False
Description: Available free space is not enough for configured Maximum. Clean up some space.

That Volume is the same number referenced in the Macrium logs for each failed backup:

* SNAPSHOT ID = {146ff5be-62ab-4e40-a983-bc065fa37851} …
– Shadow copy Set: {173be792-01dd-41fb-a270-7f3d2380c0ec}
– Original count of shadow copies = 2
– Original Volume name: \\?\Volume{53469d45-e884-11e2-af9d-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\]
– Creation Time: 5/25/2021 1:29:50 PM
– Shadow copy device name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy9
– Originating machine: Irene-THINKPAD
– Service machine: Irene-THINKPAD
– Not Exposed
– Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
– Attributes: Auto_Release Differential

Based on my very limited understanding – it seems that the volume size is larger than the allotted maximum size – thus not allowing the backup to be made. The instructions: “Available free space is not enough for configured Maximum. Clean up some space.” are where I am right now – no idea how to “Clean up some space”.

I don’t know if this is a Macrium issue or a MFT issue – so I really don’t know if running chkdsk /r will actually fix it.

Also, I am quite leery of running that chkdsk /r as I know it will take a long while, and not sure if it will fix it, and could cause more issues that it solves? I am more open to running just chkdsk from my rescue media first as PaulT noted:

Paul T wrote:

’d boot to a recovery USB and then run chkdsk on your hard disk. First, do a read only chkdsk and see what it reports, then a repair and see if it is fixed.

Before I do that, I was going to test by trying a backup using EasusToDo to see if that would run. If it does, then it seems the problem is Macrium.

I have tried to find information on how to change the size of a volume – all that I can find seems very technical and involved. I can say that I have looked at adjusting the size of my system restore settings – and for some reason, almost all but the very newest one that I did yesterday, are over 5 years old – and I know that there were many from the past weeks there recently.

In any case – my “plan” is to try the backup using EasusToDo, and see if that runs. If not, I was going to try chkdsk  – not /r – and possibly the extended test using the WD too, and see what all of that tells me.

At this point, things are running well – but no idea if that will last. If I didn’t try running that Macrium backup, I’d never have known this at all…

Thanks again for the help!

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Maybe you can resolve the VSS problem by resizing the maximum to a value lower than the available value by using the vssadmin utility — https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/vssadmin

 

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LHiggins

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Thanks! I’ll take a look at that – though it does say right at the top that it doesn’t apply to Windows 7. Possibly might still work??

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I wouldn’t doubt that Win7 info has been purged from MS documentation since it is out of support.  I have a Win7 VM tucked away.  When I fired it up vssadmin indicated that the resize option was available.

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LHiggins

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Great – thanks for checking on it! Once I try an EasusToDo backup and do a little more cleaning up, I’ll look into that option since it sounds like that is what needs to be done.

Thanks!!

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I suspect the VSS issue is related to the disk corruption.
Fix the disk first and then worry about the VSS issue. (You are making this more complex than it needs to be. Break it down into simple things and do one at a time.)

1. Manual file backup. Done!
2. Fix disk.
3. Fix Windows – over the top repair.
4. Backup with Macrium. Is the issue fixed?

cheers, Paul

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JohnW

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Just wanted to update this thread with what I’ve done so far.

1. I ran the WD Lifeguard Quick Check several times – no issues reported – SMART data – all green.
2. I ran CrystalDiskInfo several times – also no issues reported. Health was good and all checks were listed in the blue range.
3. I ran the WD Lifeguard Extended Check – and got this result: “Test completed successfully.” No sector issues found and drive health was good. For those who might be interested, it ran for about an hour and 25 minutes for a 500 GB drive – about 235 GB used.
4. I got a new Seagate external hard drive to use for backups and a new USB to created new rescue media.
5. I ran 5 backups using EasusToDo Free to the new external drive. All ran fine and all were successful – no errors reported. I ran two data and file backups, two system backups and one local disk backup, all with no errors or issues. I also checked the integrity of the backups and that was fine, too.
6. I have created several new restore points – without any issues.

LHiggins wrote:

The kicker is, at this point, after the earlier problems with the freezing and restarts, which seem to have gone away – everything else, except Macrium and its warning about the MFT, seems to be working fine. It isn’t using lots of resources, the CPU usage is low, and I haven’t run into any of those hangs or freezes since I made that change in the FF performance.(from May 24)

Laptop continues to be running fine – still no  problems with any random restarts or freezes since I adjusted the performance settings in FF a few weeks back – which was where the freezes would happen.

So – I think at this point, I am going to say that perhaps the issue was within Macrium itself – since the EasusToDo backups worked fine. For now, I am going to watch things and see if there are any issues, but with the results of the various scans all showing no issues and the health of the hard drive as good on all tests, I’m more confident now that the problem wasn’t/isn’t the drive itself.

Thanks to all who gave their thoughts and advice.

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None of those test utilities checks the MFT.
Have you run chkdsk in test only mode?

cheers, Paul

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Hi Paul,

OK – I booted into my Macrium rescue media and ran CHKDSK from the command prompt – CHKDSK C:. It ran to about 35% – and returned what looked to me like a number of file name errors related to emails that were probably in my trash?? I didn’t know how to get a copy of the results, but wrote down these:

• “all file names for file xxx (many different numbers) are invalid”
• “minor file name errors detected”
• “index entry of file xxx is incorrect” (these were all emails in trash and not recent – I could tell by the subject line referenced.
• Then after a long list of things like that it said:
• “Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode. Failed to transfer messages to the event log with status 50”

It only took a minute or two to run, so I don’t think it actually touched most of the drive.

I am not sure what to do next – if the errors it found are all related to email files in the trash – that really doesn’t tell me anything. And no other specific errors were found since it stopped at around 35%.

CHKDSK also won’t run from a command prompt within Windows, and it won’t run on a reboot when I set it to – it just says that checking is cancelled.

So – what next?

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ETA: Just tried it again within Windows and it did run – to the exact same spot again. I got a copy of the file, here’s a bit of it:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>CHKDSK C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows7_OS.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
596224 file records processed.
File verification completed.
2460 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
110 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)…

16 percent complete. (146840 of 716148 index entries processed)
An invalid filename Re: All OK?? – John<John@gmail.comt> – 2019-
04-30 0828.eml.trashinfo (155225) was found in directory 36541.
All filenames for File 155225 are invalid.
Minor file name errors were detected in file 155225.
17 percent complete. (171456 of 716148 index entries processed)…

All filenames for File 288961 are invalid.
Minor file name errors were detected in file 288961.
An invalid filename Re: All OK?? – “Cottone, Frank” <Frank.Cottone@us.issworld.c om> – 2019-04-30 1458.eml (291299) was found in directory 143159.
All filenames for File 291299 are invalid.
Minor file name errors were detected in file 291299.
22 percent complete. (294537 of 716148 index entries processed)…

Index verification completed.

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.

Just wanted to add that info!

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It appears that there are errors in your file system.  That is what chkdsk is telling you.  Macrium told you the same thing when it reported “MFT corrupt – Error code = 6. Please run ‘chkdsk C: /r.”

By default, Macrium runs a file system integrity test before backup and that test failed so Macrium halted.  You can still make a Macrium backup even if you don’t repair the file system.  In Macrium Free v7, on the menu go to Other Tasks, Compression, and choose Make an exact copy of the partition(s).  My understanding is that using the forensic copy backup option will bypass the file system verification test and allow the backup to run.  The backup will include everything, including blank sectors and the errors in the file system.

Using the forensic copy option will not repair the errors in your file system, only make a backup.  You already know that chkdsk /f or chkdsk /r is the next step towards repairing the file system errors. You are understandably reluctant.  If you want your file system errors fixed, the best you can do is get a good backup image (Macrium, EasusToDo) and a good back up of your personal files and then give chkdsk /f a try.

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LHiggins

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Correction: In post #2368953, to set the option for the forensic copy, on the menu: Other Tasks, Edit Defaults, Compression, then choose Make an exact copy of the partition(s).

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LHiggins

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The file system is broken.
I would reformat that disk and reinstall everything from scratch.

Alternatively, boot to the EaseUS rescue media, format the disk and restore the backup you made earlier. This is easy and quick and still leaves the nuclear option.

As always, make another data backup to pick up your latest changes before doing any of the above.

cheers, Paul

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LHiggins

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One has to question how the file system was corrupted by invalid file names.  Windows will ordinarily refuse to create/rename a file that violates file system requirements.  It makes me wonder if the cause could be other problems with the disk that might be dealt with by chkdsk /r.

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LHiggins

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The filenames were broken in the MFT by whatever caused the corruption in the first place (power issue?).

Running chkdsk /r will fix stuff and possibly break other things given the amount of corruption. Reformat is a guaranteed error free fix.

cheers, Paul

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LHiggins

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Even if chkdsk /r is not successful reformatting remains an option.  But doing a full format instead of a quick format is worthy of consideration.

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Full format is a waste of time. The manufacturer tests have already been done and the disk is OK.
(And modern hard disks are very reliable thanks to internal checking.)

cheers, Paul

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Good morning and thanks for all of the input. This isn’t really the outcome I was hoping for, obviously, and there is a lot to think about.

As to the file name corruption mentioned below…

EricB wrote:

One has to question how the file system was corrupted by invalid file names. Windows will ordinarily refuse to create/rename a file that violates file system requirements.

Paul T wrote:

The filenames were broken in the MFT by whatever caused the corruption in the first place (power issue?)

…I do have one possible thought as to what the cause might be. For some time in 2019-20 I ran Linux from an external SSD on this laptop – not dual boot. It got a bit glitchy and I finally reverted back to just Windows and didn’t use that Linux install anymore. However, before I gave up on it, I copied over some files and emails from the Linux install and saved them in Windows in case I needed them. Some are emails, some other files.

I did a quick search for “how is the file system was corrupted by invalid file names win 7 linux” and found a few discussions which seem to indicate that Linux allows characters within file names that Windows doesn’t – so perhaps copying those files into Windows led to them being categorized as invalid file names – thus those errors. Here’s one.

My last good Macrium backup was in Oct/Nov 2020 – before I gave up on Linux – can’t quite remember the date – but some files probably were moved over prior to that, so that may not have anything to do with the recent Macrium backup error.

In any case, know that isn’t all that is wrong – just a possible explanation of how those names got created in the first place.

As to the rest – I will take all of it into consideration as to how to proceed.

One question in the meanwhile – before I attempt to do anything to fix things – what might happen in the next few days/weeks? Will the laptop suddenly just die, freeze, not boot – just wondering what catastrophic failure might occur – or will it be a case of gradual issues like freezes, black screens, till it finally just won’t work?

Thanks for the many thoughts!

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Its always safer to mount an NTFS partition as read-only in a Linux distro.

I’ve experienced some intermittent problems when mounting NTFS with read/write permission and allowing Linux to do file management.  Fortunately, I noticed the bad behavior right away, and running chkdsk /f in Windows corrected the situation.

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LHiggins

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I suspect it will continue to work but MR won’t back it up. As backup is an essential part of life, I’d want to get it fixed sooner…

If you are sure you have all the data backed up in MR or EaseUS, I’d run chkdsk /r and see what happens.

You will probably get a list of files that were “fixed”, but I’ve rarely seen “fixed” files behave, they usually have lots of data missing / corruption.
Scan the list / paste it here and we will advise if you need to tidy up afterwards.
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

cheers, Paul

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LHiggins

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Do those instructions work also for the Win 7 that she is on?

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LHiggins

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Sure do! 

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LHiggins

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Perhaps you’ve mentioned it already – what is your email client? If you can identify/isolate which email files are corrupted, there MAY be a way to delete just them while saving the rest.

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LHiggins

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Good morning! Thanks again for all of the input – lots to think about!

Paul T wrote:

I suspect it will continue to work but MR won’t back it up. As backup is an essential part of life, I’d want to get it fixed sooner…

Yes – backing it up is a concern for sure. I have been able to do a full system backup with Easus, and used their verify option, but I guess until I’d need to restore it – there’d be no way to be sure it was going to work.

As to the possibility that some of the corruption is from Linux files being misnamed, I am now wondering if that error will carry over from any data backups that I have as well, and restoring from those backups would just bring that same error back even if I did “fix” the issue with chkdsk /r. I’m wondering if I should try a chkdsk on one of the external drives that has that data to see if I get some similar results first before doing any type of fix.

And that would also mean that possibly all of the backups that I do have – my user folder, my data backups, and manual backups may all carry those corrupted files as well?

PaulK wrote:

Perhaps you’ve mentioned it already – what is your email client? If you can identify/isolate which email files are corrupted, there MAY be a way to delete just them while saving the rest.

My Win 7 email client is Windows Live Mail. When I was using Linux it was Thunderbird. The emails that I think may be part of the corrupt files are ones that I saved from TB to bring into WLM if I needed them. I don’t need any of them and can delete them – but I think that I already did delete some that are/were in the trash of the laptop and may still be there causing those file name errors.

A couple of questions before I plan some time for the chkdsk:

• Should I run a chkdks on one of my external backup drives to see if the errors repeat?
• Can I just delete those old Linux files – and how to I “purge” them from my trash? I never really empty it and I’m sure there is a lot of junk in there that I could eliminate.
• If those errors are on the backup drives – how can I fix that – also find and delete what I think are the corrupted Linux files?
• And not sure if this is at all related – but this issue did start with the Macrium error showing some problem with the VSS – I have been noticing for months now that when I first boot, or sometimes just randomly – a program called TrustedInstaller.exe runs – sometimes for a long while – and is creating “shadow copies” of many files. I’ve tried to find more about that and it seems it is a legit part of Windows, but could that also be something related to this issue?

I realize that there is a lot more here that needs attention than just possibly those Linux files – and also wondered if chkdsk will even address a fix for those.Would it be better to try to delete those first?

I also feel that doing things like reformatting and restoring files is pretty much at the outer edge of my experience. I’m game to “try things”  but this all does sound like it is above my head and I am not at all confident that I can accomplish it and not make things worse (as you can probably already tell from my reluctance). And the cost of having my computer tech guy possibly do it would need to be considered if I did decide to go that route to get him involve – and not sure it that would even be a good idea at this point, either.

In any case – I have some work to do to get this all ready. And at this point, I have to wonder if this all isn’t the universe conspiring to tell me it is time to consider a new laptop – also something I guess I need to look into.

Thanks again for all of the help – I really do appreciate it!

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You have a good backup so just run chkdsk. There is nothing else to do until chkdsk has finished fixing the files.

We await the results. 

cheers, Paul

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LHiggins

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OK – results!! So, I ran CHKDSK /r – had to do it using my Macrium boot USB – and it ran for about 3 hours. As indicated in the first attempt – it was those email files that seemed to cause the problem. In the first or second stage it deleted the orphaned files and then re-established them, then verified all.

Moved on through all 5 stages, and found no other errors. It would not transfer the transcript to the event log from the rescue environment – and I couldn’t figure out a way to preserve a copy, but I wrote down the pertinent info summary at the end of the scan:

• Correcting errors in the MFT’s BITMAP attribute
• Correcting errors in Volume Bitmap
• Windows has made corrections to the file system.

No other errors noted. When the system rebooted and came back to a resting state, I ran a quick CrystalDiskInfo – all was good – no damage to the disk.

I then set it up to create a Macrium backup – which it is now doing – started normally and didn’t give that error. Hopefully it will complete in a timely manner.

So does this sound like it is corrected? Sorry I couldn’t get a copy of the actual file – though it wasn’t really long except for the initial part where it recovered the 34 orphaned email files.

Now that it appears that things “may” be fixed – or at least working properly – how can I be sure that any of those possibly corrupt files don’t reinfect things?

Should I:

1. Delete all of the files and folders that I had saved from Linux?
2. Make a new manual backup of my user file?
3. Delete other files – old emails, old userfiles, other backups?

Thanks for the help and encouragement. I’ll await further thoughts on what to delete and how to prevent this from happening again.

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YAY!!!! Congrats! You look like you are in pretty good shape now. As PaulT stated, once you had good backups it was time to go for it. I know you were worried so I think you can breathe a sigh of relief now.

Personally, I wouldn’t delete anything until you need the space. After your backup completes I would run sfc/scannow and then tackle any remaining bugs you seemed to have had. Also, time to think about that new SSD and upgrading to Win 10 which you had asked about awhile back.

Very happy for you. Gonna have a beer and celebrate your success

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LHiggins

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Thanks so much! I really do feel much better now. Macrium completed fine, so I now have a current backup following CHKDSK to fall back on just in case. I am verifying that image now – but it all was much less painful than I had imagined. I had read some horror stories about using CHKDSK – glad none of that happened.

I’ll take your advice about sfc/scannow once I’ve had a chance to “recover” from this – LOL!

cyberSAR wrote:

Gonna have a beer and celebrate your success

I’m with you – and that gave me the biggest smile when I read it!

Thanks again to all who helped me through this – can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of the help everyone here is always willing to offer!

Enjoy the weekend!!

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I’ll have a cold one also to celebrate your successful recovery!

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LHiggins

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Thanks! Yes, I am feeling much better about it all today, and so, it seems, does my laptop! Enjoy that cold one!

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As I said above, recovered files are probably junk, but as you don’t have a list of them you may just have to live with them.
What you can do is open lots of old mail from around the time of the problems. You may find some of the corrupt files.

Agree with cyberSAR, keep everything.
If you do find a corrupt file you might be able to restore it from backup.

I’d chalk this up as a big win for Macrium. Testing the data structures before backup is wise.
The downside is not actually allowing you to perform any backup, but at least you knew there was a problem.

cheers, Paul

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LHiggins

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Thanks!

Paul T wrote:

What you can do is open lots of old mail from around the time of the problems. You may find some of the corrupt files.

Or – just delete them? I am sure that I really don’t need them – I just have a bad habit of not deleting old emails.

And I do have some from Thunderbird/Linux that I’ve saved in a file when I was making the move back to Windows – I don’t need those either.

If I do delete some of the old emails and then empty the trash – also something I never do – will that remove them from the system?

Paul T wrote:

I’d chalk this up as a big win for Macrium. Testing the data structures before backup is wise. The downside is not actually allowing you to perform any backup, but at least you knew there was a problem.

Yes – good that Macrium works that way. What I do want to do now is make a few new backups and then delete all of the old ones so I know all of them are “good” ones. And since I did make a few Easus backups, too – I think I’ll also make new ones there and delete the old ones so I don’t accidentally recreate the problem.

Thanks again!

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As you don’t know what files may be problematic, deleting old mail may make no difference.
Just relax, no need to do anything with mail.

Do NOT clean out old backups. Restoring backups will not recreate broken MFT tables.
Leave everything as is until all has been running nicely for a month or two, then you can clean up the additional EaseUS backups.

cheers, Paul

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LHiggins

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