Created a Folder, Windows Crashed, big time...

[Kareeser]

This one's an IBM Netvista 6832-20U

Was just working on the computer in a program, and tried to create a folder on the D drive (it's a logical drive, same hard disk as C)

I got as far as typing the name, but once I pressed enter, Windows froze, and never recovered.

Did a cold boot, and windows loaded fine, only to have the start menu completely freeze up within 2 minutes of boot. Didn't have time to do anything else.

Doing a Repair Install now, as I can't think of anything else to try...

Anybody run into something like this?

[Kareeser]

Finished the repair install. Everything is back to normal, but still surprised that Windows wouldn't be able to recover from whatever struck it...

At any rate, anybody know what happened?
It's a clean machine, recently formatted. Only basic programs loaded, firefox, vnc, autopatcher, etc...

[Ob1]

did you try running chkdsk before the repair?

[Kareeser]

Nope, sorry... but how would I do that out of windows?

I tried using a boot floppy, but it didn't recognize the C: or D:...

[glc]

Start - run - cmd

chkdsk x: /f or chkdsk x:/r

x is drive letter, f fixes file structure errors, r does that and also scans for bad sectors.

[Ob1]

run it from the xp cd under the recovery console if you cant boot into windows

[glc]

If you use the console, chkdsk /f is not valid - in there, you use chkdsk /p instead. Chkdsk /r is the same as in the command window.

[Kareeser]

Ah, but the thing about that is that once I got into Windows, there was not enough time to do anything.

I had perhaps 5 seconds to use the start bar, and I don't believe any programs could be launched (wasn't sure about the run command).

Would chkdisk work using a boot disk, anyway, since it doesn't see the C or D drives?

[Ob1]

yes boot to your windows disk, and select the option to boot to the windows recovery console. enter the numver for the windows install you want to work with, then enter the administrator password then run the chkdsk command with the /p and /r switches

chkdsk [drive:] [/p] [/r]

Parameters

none

Used without parameters, chkdsk displays the status of the disk in the current drive.

drive:

Specifies the drive that you want chkdsk to check.

/p

Performs an exhaustive check even if the drive is not marked for chkdsk to run. This parameter does not make any changes to the drive.

/r

Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. Implies /p.

[Kareeser]

Ah... I'll keep that in mind next time it happens. I had been trying to get some sort of command console... tried using UBCD, and MS-DOS Startup Disk, even ubuntu (to retrieve some files).

I ended up running the repair, anyway