Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!srhqla!demott!kdq
From: kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: What should I do when HD has lost clusters ?
Keywords: Hard Disk Drive, Lost Cluster
Message-ID: <267@demott.COM>
Date: 2 Jun 90 20:55:11 GMT
References: <10755@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt)
Organization: DeMott Electronics Co., Van Nuys CA
Lines: 29

In article <10755@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> wjin@cs.purdue.EDU (Woochang Jin) writes:
>I have a 42 M Fujizu MFM hard drive and when I 'chkdsk', it complains :
>11 lost clusters. convert to files ?

    A lost cluster is one that is marked as being in a file, but none of
the files on your system claim it.  This usually happens when a program
is sloppy about its scratch files, and doesn't handle things properly when
you control-c out. (or if you power off in the middle, etc.).

    First of all, you need to CHKDSK /F, the /F telling CHKDSK it's OK to
fix the problems it finds.  Second, when it asks you whether to convert the
lost clusters to files, answer no.  This will properly make those sectors
available to your system.

    The only time you answer yes, is if you've lost a file, and suspect that
the file is in those "lost clusters".

    Good Luck!


-- 

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Kevin D. Quitt         Manager, Software Development    34 12 N  118 27 W
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