Scandisk wants me to fix two cross-linked files

[tonysolomon]

The PC has Win ME. Sometimes I have to hold the power button to make it shutdown, because of the ME bug and I was tired of seeing the scandisk upon reboot, so I just disabled scandisk using the advanced tab under msconfig.

I rebooted the computer and ran a scandisk. I got a window that said "the following files are crosslinked" and it gave me several choices on what I should do. I wrote everything down and hit cancel.

The two files were:

C:\_RESTORE\ARCHIVE\BKUPVXDLASTLOG.2
C:\_RESTORE\ARCHIVE\BKUPVXDLASTLOG.1

The choices were:

Copy each file a seperate copy of the shared clusters
Delete all affected files
Truncate all files at the point of the cross-link
Keep selected file & delete others
Keep selected file & truncate others
Ignore this error & continue

Does anyone know which one I should choose?
If I get an answer from somebody, I will run scandisk again and choose the answer if the error window pops up again.

[mjc]

Since they are in your restore directory it is probably safe to get rid of them...if you don't use the restore points.

If you haven't used them in a while or at all, turn off the sys restore feature and reboot...that should purge the directory, then create a manual restore point, use it as a new baseline.

Disabling scandisk is really a bad idea.

Try to find the program that is casuing the shutdown hang...often it is a background program that is not terminating properly. This is one reason why it is a good idea to have minimal startups/background running taks. 99+% of all shut down problems are solvable...you just have to spend some time figuring out where the exact problem is...

[tonysolomon]

Thanks. I guess I could take the time to figure out what's causing the hangups, but why is disabling scandisk such a bad idea. I run Norton System Check, Norton Speed Disk, and Norton Optimization Wizard about once a week.

I do want to disable it on the Win 98 system, just in case Maxtor doesn't replace the drive. The owner doesn't want to buy a new one.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

if the drive has no probs, it's in the software.

To me it's not getting to the root of the problem, besides if any errors are found, Scandisk limitedly can fix some of them.

Just what is the cause of the shutdown hang has my curiosity piqued.

Why don't you try the msconfig in 'Run' and only allow the crucial startup programs to run? Add one at a time till you find the culprit. Then we can deal with it and figure out why it is not working properly. I've seen when a piece of a program is lost due to a bad sector that would not let it run or complete it's tasks. This led to a shutdown problem until I reinstalled the program after letting the bad sectors be isolated (with ScanDisk) so as not to install in them again.

Blaming ME is just using it as a scapegoat. It's all Bill's fault!!!! :D Seriously, did the customer do anything odd? "doesn't want to buy a new one..." Sorry you're the reporter of facts, not a miracle worker. It's not your problem. Fix, not mask the trouble. If a new drive is needed, then say so.

BTW, Is it 98 or ME?

The backup issue may be unrelated, it's your job to find out.

[mjc]

Because you aren't running Disk Doctor....


Eventually you will end up with GDI.EXE or Kernel32 or user.dll or some other critcal system file crosslinked and your OS will be toast, because with ME you will not be able to fix it (No access to DOS and the windows version of scandisk won't run) so you would need to wipe and reinstall.

Speed Disk is the replacement for Defrag.

[tonysolomon]

@MJC, I deleted both affected files. I am running Norton System Doctor. Do you still recommend turning scandisk back on?

@Fruss Tray Ted, It is a software problem that hangs it up. I'll have to do what you said to find the specific reason. It's my PC and it's WinME. I shouldn't use one thread to talk about two PCs that have different problems. Thanks for the help.

[mjc]

You can use Disk Doctor in place of Scandisk...if you rename Scandisk to Scandisk.old (have to check, I think it is scandiskw.exe) and then rename DD to the name you just changed scandisk it will even run at boot up, instead of scandisk. Or after a bad shut down just remember to run it immediately...

[tonysolomon]

Thanks, but that kind of defeats the purpose of disabling scandisk. A bad shutdown caused scandisk to run everytime and that's the reason I disabled it, because I was the one who shut the PC down by the power switch. It didn't hang up every time, by the way. If it's a very bad Idea even with Disk Doctor running, then I will just re-enable scandisk and look for the program causing the hang-up.

[kayofcircles]

I know it's tedious, but you do need to figure out what's causing your Shutdown problem. We had to replace a hard drive on a guy's puter because he never fixed his Shutdown problem with ME...would just pull the plug on the puter. Not good.

This is a good place to run through a troubleshooter: aumha (http://aumha.org/win4/a/shutdown.htm) I don't remember if it was there that I read an article that said that although most times it is best to turn off the Exit music, sometimes with ME it is actually better to add Exit music. Another thing I am not sure about is whether the "IDE Hard Drive Cache Package" I downloaded from Microsoft's update page is for ME as well..but it might be. All it does is introduce a 2 second delay in the Shutdown procedure to allow the bigger hard drives time to finish up properly before the newer/faster chips shut the system down. Might help even if you don't have a faster chip or bigger hard drive.

[kayofcircles]

PS..Just ran a Google on it, and it is recommended for ME shutdown problems, and found posts on it early last year at Annoyances.org..so applied even then.

Microsoft download page (http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WUCritical/q273017/Default.asp)

[tonysolomon]

Thanks kayofcircles, you're right about the windows default sound scheme stopping the hangups. I'm so lazy, I should have looked. I had it before, but probably turned it off, because I don't like it playing when I'm listening to MP3s. I've copied many cures for ME, and auhma was one of them, I've just been to complacent to fix the bug. So, I just added a sound scheme and I'll reboot tonight to see if it works. Thanks for the help.

Edit: I've already downloaded that MS Windows IDE Hard Drive Cache Package. I think that it's similar to one of the Java scripts that are in a program I have called Xsetup. If the soundscheme doesn't fix it I'll check those out.

[kayofcircles]

Never really had a chance to "explore" ME much, but in 98, one can turn on/off sounds individually. I am easily distracted so never even turn my speakers on, and therefore there is no sense having hardly any sounds turned on. Have critical stop, and something else..and puter "squeaks" at me if I am trying to do something "wrong"..even with speakers off, so I would think you could have Exit music, but nothing much else, if you desire.

You can tell how "behind" I usually am because I didn't realize that IDE Cache thing was so old. I recently upgraded to newer, faster puter with 98SE and it was shutting down so fast that I couldn't even "see" the screens flash by. Had read here that SE had known shutdown problems, and found the IDE thing as a "preventative." I can really "see" the difference..now I can read the "Windows is shutting down" screen. I have to do whatever I can because that "Windows was improperly shut down. To avoid seeing this message" blah blah throws me into a hissy fit nowadays. In my newbie days, I felt like I had done something wrong, but nowadays I KNOW I didn't do anything wrong! The stupid puter locks up, I have to push Reset, and then have to read that @#*&! message.

Post back if that doesn't work, and we'll put heads together and come up with something else to try.

[tonysolomon]

I added the windows default sound scheme and there was no hang up, on shutdown. I've only shutdown once, since doing that, so I hope Win ME stays fixed. Thanks for all of the help.:)

[tonysolomon]

Thanks for your help kayofcircles. You reminded me to reselect a windows sound scheme and that fixed the shutdown problem. :)

[kayofcircles]

You're most welcome, Tony. But thinking of my uncle's ME puter, if this problem should reoccur, please free to come back. ME is a good OS, according to many here, but one does need to tweak it apparently to make it work at its best.:)