.CHK files and boot problem

[Fra]

A friends PC in DOS shows .chk files 400+ of them, these files and others are'nt visible when the drive is setup as a slave and in windows. Even after folder options/ show hidden files etc?
The machine will not boot, several files were missing including himem.sys. I can't remember the rest l'm back home now.

Can i use a boot disc to copy all the files from the A: over to the C: drive or do l just copy the missing ones to get the machine running?
I did suggest a format and reinstall, but there are files that weren't backed up and are needed.
The disc is almost full 35mb free on a 1084mb disc, win95 on a P120 with 16mb ram.

I believe a .chk file is a file made by scandisk after a crash or error.
Can .chk files contain data that can be recovered or are they useless?

TIA
Fran

[Paleo Pete]

Usually those can be deleted, most of the time it won't cause problems. They can be restored, but I'm not sure how. Haven't had to do it...

35MB free space is getting very close to the limit for win95, you should always keep 100MB free space, especially with 16MB RAM, it needs plenty space for a swap file. That's probably one of the reasons it's having problems.

To restore the missing system files in DOS boot to a start ip disk and type sys_c: using a space in place of the underscore used here. That should replace required boot files. Then you can copy himem.sys from the start ip disk.

Usually I avoid recommending a format and reinstall unless it is a last resort, but I think this is a perfect candidate for a reinstall. Time to start fresh. See if you can back up all files possible on floppy or copy to a second hard drive, then format and reinstall. With 400 CHK files it's time to start over. Programs will have to be reinstalled, but data files such as documents, pictures etc can be copied to floppies and replaced.

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[Fra]

Thanks for the reply Pete,
I agree with your suggestion of a format and reinstall, but as l said earlier he sayes there are some folders that he needs and hasn't any copies. ( always the way)
I think there was a lot of messing done, even he said something about compressing the drive. I tried a scanreg / restore but came back with bad command.
My idea, before i had seen the machine was to use another HD(5 gig) and set the original as a slave and copy over whatever files he wanted, but when l did this all l could see was, My documents, couple of small files and file called failsave.drv.
I couldn't see various other files eg Windows, Program files, MS Office and Quickenw that could be seen in dos when the drive was set to primary.
I was told the originl drive was Win 95 and my drive (5 gig) was a clean install win 95. Could it be that the original was win 3.1 and that is why l couldn't see all the files when it was the slave?
I found a site that gave details on how to recover .chk files www.ericphelps.com. (http://www.ericphelps.com.)
If l can't get the machine to boot using a disc as you set out, l was thinking would it be a good idea to copy his entire drive to the 5 gig drive to a seperate partition and let try and find his missing data in his time.
Do you think all the files would be visible? and want would be the best way to copy them across?

Cheers
Fran

[Paleo Pete]

Sounds like a compressed drive. That may mean problems, once a drive is compressed it's not easy to recover data if it suddenly develops problems. Drive compression creates a virtual drive, usually designated as letter H, and in the case of drive failure it cannot be accessed to recover files.

Try it the other way around, set the original drive as Master and the 5GB drive as Slave, then try to boot either into DOS or Safe Mode and see if you can access the data you need to keep. Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult to recover anything that's not visible to DOS already.

Disk Compression (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/compr.htm) explains how hard drive compression works, but so far I've been unable to find good info on the pitfalls of using a compressed hard drive, and can't remember the details on why it tends to be so difficult to recover data if you have problems.

If you can get the drive to boot into DOS or Safe Mode and get the compression software to run so you can see the data on it, then you might be able to transfer it to another drive. The problem is that you have to have it running as a compressed drive before all the data will be visible, but once the compression software kicks in, so does Windows...and Windows won't run...

The only way to remove compression is to run fdisk and delete all partitions, which wipes the drive of all data, so DO NOT fdisk it if you want to save data.

------------------
If your nose runs and your feet smell...
You're built upside down!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.dreamwater.com/paleopete/computer.htm) has been moved, please update your bookmarks.

[Fra]

Thanks for the feedback Pete.
I'll try your suggestion if not it's back to the original idea,format-reinstall.
Maybe this will help him to backup, backup and backup in future.

Cheers Pete

Fran

[tommy]

I assume the .CHK files are in hte ROOT directory. Maybe this is going back too far, but in the old days of DOS there used to be a limit of 512 files in the ROOT directory (only) after which unpredictable funny things would happen. I don't know if this limit applies to WIN xxx. As long as you can get the system up in DOS, why don't you
1) copy the .CHK files to a floppy
2) delete the .CHK files from the hard disk.
Can't hurt, and it might help.

As to a possible reason for so many .CHK files, be sure your friend is going thru normal shutdown procedures before powering off.

[ranchdog]

Something back in the cobwebs keeps telling me
fdisk didn't work on a compressed drive.... ?

Seems like I wound up using the zero utility.


Luck.

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