problem with CHKDSK on SBS2000

Hello. Looking or a little help...

My customer is running SBS2000. Everything HAD been running fine with the
server for a long time (3+ years). There server has a five SCSI hard disk
drives in a hardware RAID 5 (4 drives int he RAID array, plus a hot spare).

Today, they started having problems with their database program - which uses
SQL Server. Rebooting the server fixed the problem for a little while, but
then the problem returned again. While troubleshooting the SQL problem with
the Tech Support staff of that software vendor, they noticed a single a
single instance of the following error in the event log:

==========================================
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Ntfs
Event Category: Disk
Event ID: 55
Date: 11/7/2004
Time: 4:19:59 AM
User: N/A
Computer: NTSERVER1
Description: The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable.
Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume C:.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 02 00 4e 00 ......N.
0008: 02 00 00 00 37 00 04 c0 ....7..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 32 00 00 c0 ....2..À
0018: 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
==========================================

We ran CHKDSK (with /F parameter). It got to 43% complete on stage 4 of 5,
and just hung there. We waited for more than 2 hours. The hard disk drives
continued to thrash like crazy, but no change in the percent complete.

We called Microsoft Support, and opened case number SRX041108607622. We
waited another 1-2 hours, but there was still no change in percent complete.

After 3+ hours of waiting, the MS Support Engineer had us reboot the server.
The server booted okay into Windows. (Thank God!).

We then rebooted the SBS2000 server using the recovery console, and ran
CHKDSK from the recovery console. It went smoothly to 60% complete, and
then just hung (no "stages" shown when running the CHKDSK from the recovery
console.)

After waiting 15+ minutes and there being no change in percent complete, the
MS Support Engineer had us reboot the server. The server booted okay into
Windows.

We confirmed that no errors are shown in the RAID software - all of the
drives are online and healthy,with zero errors reported.

We are going to wait until the staff starts working again in the morning, to
see if SQL Server runs okay,or if the errors start again. We are pretty
sure that the Tech Support staff for the database program is going to wash
there hands of helping until we can get CHKDSK to complete.

The MS Support Engineer was telling us the next step would be to format the
c-partition, reinstall Windows and restore from a prior tape backup ( we
have Veritas Backup Exec running).

Before we did that, I thought I would check with the Newsgroup and see if
anyone had any ideas for how to get CHKDSK to complete.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks.

Lloyd Wolf
Wolf Consulting, Inc.

Lloyd
Tue Nov 09 05:51:05 CST 2004

FYI.... late last night, another occurance of the Ntfs Error appeared in the
System log. No other errors or events appear around that time. A copy &
paste of the event is below.

Lloyd Wolf
Wolf Consulting, Inc.

======================================
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Ntfs
Event Category: Disk
Event ID: 55
Date: 11/8/2004
Time: 11:41:26 PM
User: N/A
Computer: NTSERVER1
Description:
The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run
the chkdsk utility on the volume C:.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 02 00 4e 00 ......N.
0008: 02 00 00 00 37 00 04 c0 ....7..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 32 00 00 c0 ....2..À
0018: 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
======================================

Jim
Tue Nov 09 07:44:51 CST 2004

What does the tech support of the raid controller card say? Adaptec
has fixed problems in the past that regular support channels knew
nothing about.

"Lloyd Wolf" <lloyd.wolf@wolfconsulting.com> wrote:

>FYI.... late last night, another occurance of the Ntfs Error appeared in the
>System log. No other errors or events appear around that time. A copy &
>paste of the event is below.
>
>Lloyd Wolf
>Wolf Consulting, Inc.
>
>======================================
>Event Type: Error
>Event Source: Ntfs
>Event Category: Disk
>Event ID: 55
>Date: 11/8/2004
>Time: 11:41:26 PM
>User: N/A
>Computer: NTSERVER1
>Description:
>The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run
>the chkdsk utility on the volume C:.
>Data:
>0000: 00 00 00 00 02 00 4e 00 ......N.
>0008: 02 00 00 00 37 00 04 c0 ....7..À
>0010: 00 00 00 00 32 00 00 c0 ....2..À
>0018: 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
>0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
>======================================
>

Jim B. SBS Community Member
remove the mvp to send email

Dave
Tue Nov 09 10:01:31 CST 2004

In addition to everything else you're doing, I would be first making sure I
had good backups of everything on any drives involved (not just partitions,
the drives themselves), particularly the sql databases. Before putting any
work into reformatting and restoring, I'd run the mfr's and/or adaptec's
test utilities on that whole raid system. If you've got a bad controller or
one or more bad drives, there's no point in doing all that work before you
discover it.

I would do both online and offline sql backups, to minimize downtime if you
have to restore from backup or replace hardware.


"Jim Behning" <jimbehningmvp@atl.mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:dgi1p09in23rs3ppgepmo4casvf1qc0lbq@4ax.com...
> What does the tech support of the raid controller card say? Adaptec
> has fixed problems in the past that regular support channels knew
> nothing about.
>
> "Lloyd Wolf" <lloyd.wolf@wolfconsulting.com> wrote:
>
>>FYI.... late last night, another occurance of the Ntfs Error appeared in
>>the
>>System log. No other errors or events appear around that time. A copy &
>>paste of the event is below.
>>
>>Lloyd Wolf
>>Wolf Consulting, Inc.
>>
>>======================================
>>Event Type: Error
>>Event Source: Ntfs
>>Event Category: Disk
>>Event ID: 55
>>Date: 11/8/2004
>>Time: 11:41:26 PM
>>User: N/A
>>Computer: NTSERVER1
>>Description:
>>The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run
>>the chkdsk utility on the volume C:.
>>Data:
>>0000: 00 00 00 00 02 00 4e 00 ......N.
>>0008: 02 00 00 00 37 00 04 c0 ....7..À
>>0010: 00 00 00 00 32 00 00 c0 ....2..À
>>0018: 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
>>0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
>>======================================
>>
>
> Jim B. SBS Community Member
> remove the mvp to send email

Lloyd
Tue Nov 09 13:38:21 CST 2004

Thanks to all for the advice.

When we run CHKDSK it gets part of the way through, and then hangs.

I was wondering if anyone knows of any third-party super-duper CHKDSK type
of utilities.

Lloyd Wolf
Wolf Consulting, Inc.

Jim
Tue Nov 09 16:26:11 CST 2004

What does the raid controller tech support say about the problem?

"Lloyd Wolf" <lloyd.wolf@wolfconsulting.com> wrote:

>Thanks to all for the advice.
>
>When we run CHKDSK it gets part of the way through, and then hangs.
>
>I was wondering if anyone knows of any third-party super-duper CHKDSK type
>of utilities.
>
>Lloyd Wolf
>Wolf Consulting, Inc.
>

Jim B. SBS Community Member
remove the mvp to send email

Lloyd
Wed Nov 10 10:54:55 CST 2004

Hello. Here is an update on this issue....

Last night, we worked with Gateway to check the physical hard disk drives.
We connected the drives to an onboard SCSI adapter, and used an onboard SCSI
utility to perform a "Verify" operation. We did this for each of the 5 SCSI
disk drives in the RAID array. Zero errors were detected/reported on all of
the drives.

We then rebooted the SBS2000 server into the Recovery Console, and initiated
a CHKDSK /R. After about 30 minutes, it was 60% complete, and then it just
hung there. We let it run all night. When we returned this morning (about 8
hours later), CHKDSK was still at the same 60% complete.

We rebooted the SBS2000 server. It started-up okay. It is up-and-running and
the staff is using it. But of course we are worried about a pending issue
that may occur at any unexpected time.

We know there must be some underlying problem that is generating the NTFS
error in the Event Log and probably the same problem that is preventing
CHKDSK from completing.

At this point, it does not *seem* to be a physical hard disk problem.

What would you suggest for a next step?

Lloyd Wolf
Wolf Consulting, Inc.