ScanDisk Fails Repairing Bad Allocated Cluster (130511)
The information in this article applies to:
This article was previously published under Q130511 SYMPTOMS
ScanDisk for Windows (SCANDSKW.EXE) may fail to repair a bad cluster that
is in use (allocated to a file), and you may receive the following error
message:
ScanDisk was attempting to correct an error, but encountered
another error while writing to one of the drive's data area
sectors.
ScanDisk can repair this error and detect other damaged sectors
on the disk if you choose to perform a thorough test now. However,
the data stored in this and any other damaged sectors may already
be lost.
CAUSE
This error can occur if ScanDisk tries to write the data it could read
from a bad cluster to a free cluster that is also bad (but has not yet
been tested by ScanDisk).
RESOLUTION
To resolve this situation, follow these steps:
- Run ScanDisk again and choose the Thorough option. Ignore any bad
clusters that have files associated with them. Repair any bad clusters
with no files associated with them.
- Run ScanDisk again and choose the Thorough option. Repair any bad
clusters with associated files.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95. We
are researching this problem and will post new information here in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.
MORE INFORMATION
On uncompressed drives, ScanDisk tries to repair bad clusters that are
allocated to files by writing any data that can be read from the bad
cluster to a free cluster, then repairing the cluster chain and marking
the cluster as bad in the FAT.
When ScanDisk tries to write the data to a cluster that is also bad,
ScanDisk should try to find another free cluster to write the data to.
ScanDisk should fail only if it can find no other free clusters to write
the data to. Instead, ScanDisk fails to repair the bad cluster and
generates the error message stated above.
| Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 12/17/2000 |
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| Keywords: | KB130511 |
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