Trying to defrag my disc using Norton. Report says I have list clusters and to run Norton Disc Doctor. I run NDD and it asks me to save or discard the lost chains. Whatever I try and do when NDD rescans it finds the same problems and asks me the same question. I've tried using scandisc and it keeps checking folders, FATS then folders FATS... and never finishes. Tried using Windows defrag but get told to use scandisc as there are errors on the drive. Help!!

Run scan disk in safe mode first and then delete the lost clusters and chains only if there are the same number of clusters as chains.(Probably files left over from previously deleted programs). If not convert the lost clusters into files and folders. After scan disk successfully fixes your problems, then run defrag..If unsure what to do with the problems scan disk finds, make sure you check the box to let scan disk automatically fix the errors... Hope this helps...Good Luck

If everytime you run Scandisk (or NDD), and it continues to find errors, you want to be very suspicious and very careful. The LAST thing you want to do now, (or ever on the first run) is to let either do an Automatic fix. There are errors that can NOT be fixed. The symptoms may go away, but the result will be corrupted files. This link does an excellent job of explaining why. http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/scandisk.htm Lost File Fragments/Clusters When a program is running that is in the process of either creating a new file, or updating an existing one, the changes are obviously being written to an area on your disk (clusters). BUT, those clusters do not get actually assigned to a particular file name until that program closes the file. Windows keeps track of all clusters, as to whether or not they are in use, and if in use, which file they belong to. (FAT table and disk directory) When an application is terminated (ctl-alt-del), or it fails on an error or you reboot your PC while that program is running, the clusters continue to be "in use" (in the FAT) and continue to be "not assigned" (not referenced from the disk directory). When Scandisk runs, it finds these "lost file fragments" and either creates CHK files or deletes them, depending on the option. In general, you can delete the files after they are created. The only time you would want to attempt recovery, is in the event that the file being edited or created, was extremely important and needed to be recovered. But, having said this, you still need to be careful. There can be situations on a failing drive where the FAT/directory is damaged, and scandisk "thinks" that a lot of your disk is comprised of lost file fragments. In this case you do not want to convert them to files, and you definitely don't want to delete them. So, if you have just gone through a bad shutdown, or had programs fall over on you, then you can expect to have scandisk find some fragments when it runs. But, it it ever finds "a lot", be suspicious. This is one reason why you do want to be careful running scandisk with autofix selected. You always want to review the errors found first, and then decide if you really want scandisk to try and fix them.

Thanks for the replies.Finally managed to get NDD to work. Defrag now keeps getting stuck. I will use Trevs tweak to try and sort this out. Previous scans showed I had a few bad clusters, so coupled with the comments in the replies I think a new hard disc is on the books. May have to post another request if I cannot find out how to clone my current HD.

Bad CLUSTERs?? or Bad SECTORs or Lost CLUSTERs It is the second one that indicates a potentially failing drive, and does indicate at least one area on it that is bad.

I got confused with the NDD fault. I have 15 bad sectors on my hard drive. Therefore I assume it is failing. If I install another drive, do they generally come with ghosting software to allow me to then use the new drive to boot up the system. I bought my machine from Mesh a few years ago. It came with a recovery CD which I do not think I can use to do a fresh install of ME. Any advice to point me in the right direction would be most welcome.

The bad sectors may or may not indicate a faiing drive. If more continue to be found, then definitely yes. But, you "may" be fine, although new drives are relatively cheap. I would "think" that you could use the Recovery CD to Restore onto the new drive to get your "fresh" install. Then, reinstall all your applications, and then just use Explorer to move over your data files, favorites, new fonts, etc, etc. I've never dealt with a Recovery CD, so hopefully someelse will comment. If not, then just open a new post and ask.