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General discussion

NTFS problem on my C drive

by Adzoe Nov 25, 2004 12:54PM PST

I have two 160GB hard drives on my AT7-MAX Abit MOBO with Athlon XP CPU and 1 GB RAM. My video is ATI All-In-Woncer 7500. Each of the HD is divided into 4 partitions of about 40GB. I also have a DVD writer and CDRW. I am running XP home with SP1. I cannot install SP2 due to the error I will now describe.

My C partition has 17.4GB used with 24.5GB free. If I add a few hundred files, however, I get an error message saying $MFT is corrupt, and further error details that the disk is full. I am informed that I need to run chkdsk. When I do, no erros are found.

Deleting some files corrects the problem until I pass some limit by creating more now and then.

Is there some hard wall against which my $MFT is pegging related to file count? I have 107,479 files with an average size of 202KB and 80% of my $MFT in use.

I defragged the drive without a problem, but the issue remains. Anyone know what is going on and how to fix it?

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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Re: NTFS problem on my C drive
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 25, 2004 1:03PM PST

While my initial response would be to run CHKDSK from the recovery console, other issue abound such as having a XP SP1 CD to get to the recovery console, proper 80 conductor IDE cables and the drive set to Cable Select.

More discsussions at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=corrupt+mft

Bob

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Re: NTFS problem on my C drive
by Adzoe Nov 25, 2004 1:12PM PST

Drives are properly set and the cables seem high quality supplied with the Abit AT7-MAX motherboard. Furthermore, partitions E,F,G on the same HD (and therefore cable) exhibit no problems.

I have an SP1 disk. Is there a difference running chkdsk from there compared to it running on reboot?

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Yes.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 25, 2004 1:33PM PST

But Microsoft doesn't document it. I only share that I've fixed a few with the manual method. Again, it shouldn't matter...

If you don't review that Google... your loss.

Bob

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Re: Yes.
by Adzoe Nov 26, 2004 9:40PM PST

Chkdsk /r did find and fix errors, but I still am at a file limit and cannot install sp2. Isn't there some tool out there to repair the MFT? Where is Peter Norton when you really need him? Also, in XP home is there any way to increase the allocation for the MFT like in 2000?

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If all else fails
by ronrumpf Nov 26, 2004 11:17PM PST

Hey Adzoe,
If all else fails might I suggest that you clear out your G drive (if it's the first partition of your second drive). Then GHOST your C drive to your G drive. Move the jumpers on both drives & reboot. Then you will be free to re-format your old C drive. Since both drives are similar you shouldn't need to swap them back. If you have a space problem on your C drive you may want to reconfigure your second drive to 80,40,40 before you GHOST it. Good luck Ron

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MFT compaction.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 27, 2004 12:37AM PST

The fine people of DISKEEPER tackled the MFT issue. I was also ejected for asking the forbidden question about the MFT grows but never shrinks at a seminar.

Hint: Unless you are ready to move to a new drive without using Drivecopy/Ghost/other, you should investigate DISKEEPER.

Bob

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