# What does Fixing (C:) Stage 1 mean ?



## TheRandomOne

Did my Hard Drive finally die ?


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## Corday

It means you're in the process of running chkdsk. Let it continue.


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## TheRandomOne

Why did it happen though & should I be worried about my drive ?


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## Corday

If it came out OK, no worries. If it runs again on startup stop it and when you get into Windows, go to an elevated Command Prompt and run *chkntfs /x c:* if C: is your main drive. That will ensure it won't happen on every boot. If you want to see the chkdsk results, open the Event Viewer>Windows Logs>Application>On the right side "Filter Current Log.">select chkdsk and "*wininit* from the drop down menu>OK>choose the one that just ran.


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## jenae

Hi, we deal with a lot of remote clients so I wrote a little cmdlet to get the chkdsk results. Press the win + x keys and select Powershell(admin) from the options, copy the below cmd and right click anywhere in the Powershell window the cmd will append to the prompt, press enter.

get-winevent -FilterHashTable @{logname="Application"; id="1001"}| ?{$_.providername –match "wininit"} | fl timecreated, message | out-file $homepath/Chkdsk.txt
start notepad $homepath/chkdsk.txt

You can post the notepad output here.


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## TheRandomOne

After it finished & rebooted Windows loaded okay. But I reformatted it anyway for the safe side. Should I expect this again ?


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## Corday

TheRandomOne said:


> After it finished & rebooted Windows loaded okay. But I reformatted it anyway for the safe side. Should I expect this again ?


Check the log as both Jenae and I mentioned so you'll know the results. If you actually reformatted, then all is gone, however you can run chkdsl/r anytime you choose.


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## TheRandomOne

Yep reformatted the ***** as soon as possible & I did not do anything the check disk started automatically & do with the other stuff thanks


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## sobeit

just to note, sometimes you get a chkdsk when the computer was improperly shutdown, usually because of some sort of power outage or the power plug got pulled when the computer was on. So yes it could happen again, but normally it is nothing to worry about. You are usually given the option to skip it at boot.


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## erlebowman

I was unable to gain access to my large hard drive and after many re-boots this "Fixing ....Stage1:" started checking my hard drive. The problem is that it is an eight (8)gb hard drive. Any suggestions since I have let it run for a day now and it just went to 10%. I initially rebooted with a Windows 10 USB stick and a new ssd with no problems. Seagate tools wouldn't detect the drive but it did show up in my bios a couple of times. Any Help, otherwise I will probably cross my fingers and terminate the program?


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## Corday

It sounds like it's scanning an external HD. There's a procedure for this. I can't believe your main drive is 8GB.


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## erlebowman

My boot drive is the ssd. I did mange to squeeze the Ironwolf 8gb inside the used(Amazon 2018) mid-computer chassis. It's actually pretty neat for what there is.
Dell Optiplex 7010 Business Desktop Computer PC (Intel Quad Ci5-3470, 8GB RAM 360GB SSD HDMI Wireless WIFI DVD-RW Buletooth 4.0 Win10Pro, 1GB Graphics (Certified Refurbished) (360G SSD, Bluetooth 4.0) So, you might be suggesting that I pull the plug and try another procedure? What would that procedure be? It's been years......more like decades since I have tried entering machine code on a cmd line of any sort.


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## Corday

Pull the plug. Now, so we can figure out your set-up, what's the purpose of the 8GB drive? 
Please post Devices and Drives from File Explorer like this:


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## erlebowman

The reason for the drive was to be able to run a separate application of Plex with a mirror(hopefully) copy of my Movies and Videos. I was hoping to have this run 24/7 regardless of the state of the main computer. My desktop computer(not this one) has all of the original stuff.


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## erlebowman

All that showed up was the 480gb ssd drive and nothing else.... honest


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## erlebowman

11%... pulling the plug....Ctrl C doesn't do anything....


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## erlebowman

That is something new in that on re-boot it allowed me to cancel the chkdsk... Hang on..... Explorer is now showing: Local Disk(C: 414 GB free of 446 GB Mini-Computer (D 3.24 TB free of 7.27 TB. I saw a window momentarily saying that I need to re-boot due to a hard drive error and it needs to be check.


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## erlebowman

Everything seems to be there but it took a minute to load a 4gb movie but refused to run it just showing a black screen with the name of the file. Have downloaded EASEUS and am running its data recovery application. Doing a quick scan of the large drive. OOPS... not looking good. While scanning the large drive that says that there is 3.24 TB free of 7.27 TB it says that "This folder is empty" and is searching for deleted files. Remaining time 2:20:12 /Found: 0 file (0 KB) the time now says 3:31:17 ( two minutes later) now one minute later it says 5:20:50... Very Odd.....


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## erlebowman

Looks like I should just Format and forget about trying to save the files except that it took some time to load up the 4 TB of movies in the first place.


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## johnwill

Actually, I'd consider the possibility that the disk is bad. Frequently when CHKDSK stalls like that, it's having a problem reading/writing the disk, so maybe it's past time to replace it. I hope you have good backups...


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## spunk.funk

The large HDD has most likely failed. Formatting it isn't going to return it to it's former glory.
If you want a 3rd opinion and can still boot into Windows, download* DiskGenius* in my signature, select the large disk and go to the toolbar to *Disk/Verify SMART information*. This will give you a Quick Snapshot of your HDD's Health. You also can go to *View or Repair Bad Sectors/Start Verify*. This will take a very long time possibly overnight, But will show you all of the Bad Sectors on the HDD. To confirm that the drive must be replaced.


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## erlebowman

Nice! Thanks for your help. The "Smart" information check says that the disk is bad even though it looked good after initially allowing it to make some changes. I am running the "Verify" program in hopes that it can be restored to a stable environment. The odd thing is: Disk Management says "Its Healthy". As well any movie I have selected to run has run without a glitch and every time that I re-boot, CHKDSK insists on running even though the regedit BootExecute says "REG_MULTI_SZ autocheck autochk *". The last time the chkdsk was running with 132 hours to go and it was still increasing the ET to completion.
Right now, after 28 minutes it's zipping through after being stalled for about 15 minutes with red sections. ET to completion and climbing is 49 hours.
EXCELLENT=11643 GOOD=111 NORMAL=19 GENERAL=5 POOR=8 SEVERE=15 DAMAGED=39.
Everything is still green and zipping along. Fingers crossed.
Thanks again for everyones help. I'll keep you posted. ET has dropped to 31 hours after 34 minutes.
Later... Erle(URL)


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## Corday

Don't pay attention to ETA. It has no resemblance to reality, except maybe in the final stage.


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## johnwill

Yep, get the data off that one pronto if you can!


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## erlebowman

The "DiskGenius" has verified 11% of the 8TB hard drive after 90 minutes with 11 hours remaining. The DAMAGED Cylinders have increased by 1 to a total of 41.


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## spunk.funk

You can complete the test if you want to, but there is no need to finish it. It has verified that there are too many Bad Sectors and the drive needs to be replaced. Anything over a couple of Bad Sectors is a drive that is failing or already failed.


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## erlebowman

31% Completed - Time Elapsed 3:17 - Remaining 7:13 
Damaged 41 = (No Change)


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## erlebowman

spunk.funk said:


> You can complete the test if you want to, but there is no need to finish it. It has verified that there are too many Bad Sectors and the drive needs to be replaced. Anything over a couple of Bad Sectors is a drive that is failing or already failed.


Seriously, with a failure rate of .0.000041% if things hold up? Won't DiskGenius block them out if the repair is successful, which remains to be seen?


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## erlebowman

I stopped the Verfy at 42% and it locked up when trying to Repair. Now DiskGenius says ithe Disk is "Warning" not "Bad". Will Verify the 41 bad bits then try to immediately Repair when they show up and see what happens. Should only take about thirty minutes for the Verify this time. Oh yeah, this time on re-boot the chkdsk didn't try to run but Windows said that there is a disk error and I should re-boot to fix it. 🤞


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## spunk.funk

spunk.funk said:


> Anything over a couple (ie) 2 or 3 Bad Sectors, is a drive that is failing or already failed.





erlebowman said:


> POOR=*8* SEVERE*=15 *DAMAGED*=39*.....42% and it locked up when trying to Repair. Now


The drive is not stable and has failed. If you get it to stay connected, the status is unstable and will be unusable. The more you mess around with the drive the less chance you will have to recover any files off of it, if that is what you are trying to do. You are beating a dead horse trying to get this drive to be usable. The cost of drives are relatively inexpensive, there is no reason not to replace it.


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## erlebowman

It cost me over $300.00 year ago along with more than a weeks effort to load it with data and besides I am usually up for the challenge that my computers throw my way from time to time or so I would like to think. Throwing money at the problem rarely gives me any satisfaction at all compared with correcting any number of problems that do pop up from time to time.
I agree that the more I mess with it the more likely it is to fail except that in this case the opposite has been happening. At one point the drive was not detectable even to Seagate tools or the EUFI(BIOS). hum... I had forgotten about the Sea tools and wonder what it might be detecting now that the drive is behaving more civil?


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## spunk.funk

You have to face the fact that this drive is never going to work properly again, no matter how much money you throw at it.
If the drive is stable enough, copy the data off it to a drive of the same size or larger ASAP before it no longer works. If it is a Seagate drive and you have had it a year, you can check the warranty on it and send it back to them. Seagate will send you a _Refurbished _drive for free in return. Be aware that _Refurbished_ drives have a higher failure rate then a new Seagate drive which already has a higher failure rate then all the other new hard drive manufacturers.


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## erlebowman

Wow, you guys are good. I checked out the link and it says that the Warranty is valid until Dec. 2023 so I have some time.


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## spunk.funk

Backup your data and apply for an RMA to send the drive back to Seagate ASAP.


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## erlebowman

Update: Talked with Seagate on the phone today and am in the process of replacing the Seagate Ironwolf NAS 8TB drive purchased last December. I have sent them a 'screenshot' of Seagates 'Failed Generic Short' test.
*** Thanks for all the help. ***
The last attempt at restoring the drive was to try and extend Partition 3 to include more of the salvageable pieces(2TB worth), using Disk Genius, but after running for about 16 hours it has managed to verify about 8% of the partition to be salvaged. Enough already.
Later..... Erle(URL)


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## johnwill

Now you know why my important data is backed up on multiple media and in the cloud as well.


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## erlebowman

johnwill said:


> Now you know why my important data is backed up on multiple media and in the cloud as well.


I am trying to move 255GB of pictures which might take about t hours to do if successful. Looks like everything else is redundant.


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## spunk.funk

You can download Teracopy which will monitor your file transfer and it will pick up where it left off if it fails in the middle instead of starting over, with other benefits.


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## erlebowman

Thanks....


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