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ATI 19 the only software on my HP notebook that continues to cause (major) trouble

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Beginner
Posts: 3
Comments: 13

(Or did it start with ATI 16 already?)

I've never been in a situation like this before in my computer life, and I still struggle to (kind of) understand what is actually going on here? 

I have 2 identic HP Win10 notebooks (henceforth NB), and my working priciple has been, for many years, to install/configure NB 1, then make an image, then transfer it to NB 2, and continue so for updates. This principle stopped working (I think it was) in december '18 - and I also think it was when I still used ATI 16? More concretely, it seemed I continued to be able to make an image of NB 1, but the transfer to NB 2 ended in failure - NB 2 was no longer bootable. 

After many fruitless attempts to solve this problem through remote ATI support, I finally found a local workshop here in this exotic part of the world who have a reasonably good reputation. It didn't take them much time to suspect something was wrong with my drive, run CHKDSK and yes: There was an error, and after having fixed it with the computer's inbuilt software tools, I could make a fault-free image, which was then also successfully transferred to NB 2. 

Yesterday, on the first occasion after this event, I wanted to make an updated image, and the trouble started all over again. Having grown somewhat smarter through the ordeal, I ran CHKDSK myself, and yes: It tells about a number of various (or related?) errors - see below. 

Again, all my other programmes seem to run trouble-free, only ATI is affected. What does this mean? What is the probable cause? Why did it start in dec '18, after 1 1/2 years of operations? Who would be responsible/in a position to remedy this, once and for all?

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Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.16299.967]
(c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk
Der Typ des Dateisystems ist NTFS.
Die Volumebezeichnung lautet Windows.

WARNUNG! Der Parameter /F wurde nicht angegeben.
CHKDSK wird im schreibgeschützten Modus ausgeführt.

Phase 1: Die Basisdatei-Systemstruktur wird untersucht...
  406016 Datensätze verarbeitet.
Dateiüberprüfung beendet.
  23374 große Datensätze verarbeitet.
  0 ungültige Datensätze verarbeitet.

Phase 2: Die Dateinamenverknüpfung wird untersucht...
  35409 Analysedatensätze verarbeitet.
  520494 Indexeinträge verarbeitet.
Indexüberprüfung beendet.
  0 nicht indizierte Dateien überprüft.
  0 nicht indizierte Dateien wiederhergestellt.
  35409 Analysedatensätze verarbeitet.

Phase 3: Sicherheitsbeschreibungen werden untersucht...
Überprüfung der Sicherheitsbeschreibungen beendet.
  57240 Datendateien verarbeitet.
CHKDSK überprüft USN-Journal...
  35269632 USN-Bytes verarbeitet.
Die Überprüfung von USN-Journal ist abgeschlossen.
Das BITMAP-Attribut der Master File Table (MFT) ist falsch.
Die Volumebitmap ist falsch.
Bei der Überprüfung des Dateisystems wurden Probleme erkannt.
Führen Sie "chkdsk /scan" aus, um die Probleme zu suchen, und legen Sie sie dann zur Reparatur in der Warteschlange ab.

135575980 KB Speicherplatz auf dem Datenträger insgesamt
120528212 KB in 215404 Dateien
    158432 KB in 57241 Indizes
         0 KB in fehlerhaften Sektoren
    520760 KB vom System benutzt
     65536 KB von der Protokolldatei belegt
  14368576 KB auf dem Datenträger verfügbar

      4096 Bytes in jeder Zuordnungseinheit
  33893995 Zuordnungseinheiten auf dem Datenträger insgesamt
   3592144 Zuordnungseinheiten auf dem Datenträger verfügbar

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

0 Users found this helpful

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/run-chkdsk-utility-xp/amp/

Chkdsk finding errors is a sign of bad sectors on the disk. It's not uncommon that bad sectors will show up from time to time as a disk will begin to degrade over time. All disks will fail at some point. Some sooner than others. Most disks are good for the stated warranty period and should be considered suspect after that, although they may still run fine for years beyond that. Other disks fail much sooner, due to the standard failure rate of a batch of drives, bad parts, a bad build, or damage during packaging or shipping.

Regardless, your disk is failing and should be replaced soon. Chkdsk finding repeated errors is a sign of he disk is unhealthy. You should check the windows logs for other disk events too, but if it was me, that disk would be getting swapped out as soon as possible.

As for Acronis, it has nothing to do with the disk failing. However, it reads data at the sector level, not the file level like other applications. It creates a checksum of blocks of data and compares it to the disk later to determine what to back up. As such, it is more likely to find disk errors than other applications that just write random data to the disk, regardless if it's on a good part of the disk.

Here is another will written article about disk corruption and chkdsk too.

https://www.rizonesoft.com/fix-hard-drive-corruption-and-file-system-errors/

I would backup the disk as is and restore to a new or different one. Hopefully, the data corruption is minimal and repairable and will not come back on a new drive. Definitelyly look through the Windows logs for other information.

Also, in your chkdsk log above, it wad in search mode only. No repair was completed. You should backup first, if you can, then run chkdsk /R

If it succeeds in repairing, I would backup again and restore that backup to a new disk.

Beginner
Posts: 3
Comments: 13

 

Thank you. 

Assuming you are right: Are there any disk image making softwares beyond ATI (and other than Clonezilla which is too unconfortable for Win 10) that rely on files only, rather than sectors? I understood you that disk degradation starts at the sector level, thus another relying on files would continue to run fine until that stage is reached. 

Mind you: I have a little tool called SSDLife, and it tells me the drive health is 'excellent', the drive should last another 8 years. Also, (as mentioned) no other programmes show any signs of malfunctions. 

And yes, seen from here you should not refuse to mention other brands. I have no other advisor to ask. If you can't do it here, consider using a PM, or directly at don.mitchel@yahoo.com 

Don, there would be no point in making a file & folder level backup of your working NB and then trying to recover this to the second NB, as you would never achieve a working OS system.

Acronis (and all other backup solutions) makes a sector backup of the disk containing the OS in order to be able to capture data that cannot be captured as files & folders - Acronis uses the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to make a snapshot of such data at a sector level for this purpose.

The best recommendations I can offer here are two fold.

1.  Invest in a replacement drive for the second NB - drives are relatively inexpensive unless you are looking at multi-terrabyte capacity.  Install the drive and test restoring your NB1 backup to it.

2.  Visit the drive manufacturer support web site for the drive giving the issue, and look for any whole drive diagnostic testing tools that may be provided.  Test the whole drive with such tools if available.  Note: CHKDSK will only check those partitions on the drive having a drive letter, i.e. C: but will not check other partitions that are present which are hidden / system ones without a drive letter.

Your CHKDSK log told us 2 further things about this issue:

1. You did not use the /F parameter required to fix any issues found.

2. The BITMAP attribute of the Master File Table (MFT) is incorrect.  The volume bitmap is wrong. 

The Master File Table MFT is at the heart of the NTFS file system and if this is incorrect / wrong, then this can influence any data on the whole of the drive, as this is in effect the primary directory mapping the contents of the drive.