Ophaned Files

[DarkSerge]

I was out to dinner with a friend and she mentions that her computer isn't starting up. Being the geek I am I had a look at it.

 

Upon restart, I let it run Chkdsk and in its error scanning it came up with a long list of "orphaned" files and a message for each one that sounds something like - orphaned file filename.something has been recovered to the folder 84445 (Or some message of this nature.)

 

After chkdsk, the computer started up and ran normally. Upon normal startup, a window popped up stating the computer recovered from an error, and the details it gave me said it was a Blue Screen error and further down the information window it gave a bunch of hexidecimal numbers and the location of a dump file.

 

Later this week I plan to take a thumb drive and copy the dump file so I can have a look at it (I have the Windows debugging tools installed on my XP machine.)

 

So I ask. What exactly is an orphaned file and what kind of things may cause it?

 

My friend's computer runs Windows 7. I have not looked at the dump file for any information yet but am hoping to do that later this week for more information.

[Guest LilBambi]

It sounds like you had it recover and mark the bad blocks too right during chkdsk?

 

If not, you might want to do that so it can move the recoverable ones to another area of the drive. Although..

 

Steve Gibson's SpinRite might be a good thing to do on that drive to make sure the drive is as good as it can be...before it fails.

[Tushman]

...

So I ask. What exactly is an orphaned file and what kind of things may cause it?

 

My friend's computer runs Windows 7. I have not looked at the dump file for any information yet but am hoping to do that later this week for more information.

 

Most often they occur because the operating system tries to save a file to a part of the disk with bad sectors or clusters. In which case, the operating system will look for another part of the disc that it can complete its file save operation. It would have been better if you had used the /r switch.

 

/r Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. The disk must be locked. /r includes the functionality of /f, with the additional analysis of physical disk errors.

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library...28WS.10%29.aspx

Edited October 31, 2011 by Tushman

[DarkSerge]

Thanks for the info. I don't have the computer here, so I'll have to get over to my friend's place this week to take a better look at it. It's a fairly new computer and I believe it could still be under warranty from Dell (it's not my computer so I'll have to have that checked on.)