Re: file system index corruption problem


"ajsmith9870" <anthony.smith@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1162939666.572868.97160@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Windows 2000 server (SP4) -

HP Proliant ML370
Smart array 6400 controller
2 x 36gb 15k SCSI drives mirrored
Dual Xeon processors
4Gb RAM
Sophos AV
Around 30 concurrent users

The server is running in terminal services application mode and has
Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 (Standard) installed.

I have been experiencing a problem for months that I have been
struggling to get to the bottom of. At first the server began to
bluescreen daily. I changed the processors one at a time, and then
swapped out all the memory. Then, when we moved from Symantec AV to
Sophos the bluescreens stopped, but another problem arose. Symptoms
are that the server either stops accepting new logons, fails to load
users' default profiles at logon, or reports a virtual memory problem
for users already logged on. Any one / any combination of these. A
reboot always sorts the problem out, but only for half a day, to a day.
In the end I discovered that running chkdsk /f every night would
pretty much allow a full working day of uptime.

I think I now know what the problem is but am unable to get to the
cause. I noticed that when the server begins to exhibit the problems
mentioned above, running chkdsk cleans up index entries in the file
system and more often than not we can continue to work without a reboot
and chkdsk /f. I have changed the array controller and one of the
disks from the mirrored set but this has not fixed the problem. I have
now noticed that every time I run chkdsk it always deletes index
entries in Index $I30. That discovery led me to this article
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885871 which got me questioning whether
the problem was a Windows 2000 issue rather than hardware.

Has anybody experienced similar problems / can anyone give me some
advice on how to troubleshoot before I spend any more money on
hardware?

Many thanks in advance,

Anthony


I have experienced somewhat similar problems - they were caused
by a corruption of the file system after a crash. Chkdsk found lots
of errors and fixed them but the problem persisted. Rebuilding the
file system fixed the problems permanently.

Here is what I would do:
1. Temporarily install an 80 GByte IDE disk.
2. Partition & format it the same way as your RAID array.
3. Boot the machine with a Bart PE boot CD.
4. Use xcopy.exe to copy the existing disk to the new disk.
Make sure to copy system files, hidden files, attributes and ACLs.
5. Disconnect the RAID array.
6. Boot the machine with the IDE disk.
7. Run it like this for a week.
8. If all is well, reverse the process, starting by repartitioning
and formatting the RAID array.

This is a zero-risk method: Nothing is lost if the IDE disk won't work.


.

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