Requesting that chkdsk runs at boot time didn't work. I set autochk in the registry with the /P switch. Now chkdsk will run if I start up in the vga mode. The system partition F:, is FAT 16. Chkdsk skips this partition with the message that it can't be locked. I thought that this was taken care of by running at boot up. Autoexnt (from the resource kit) doesn't run until after a log on. That doesn't seem right either.

Have you tried the simple way? While in NT go to a cmd prompt. Go to the f: drive. Type chkdsk /f and when asked the question of do it at next boot answer yes. Shutdown and reboot.

Yes, that was my first try. Examination of the registry shows that it should happen on a reboot but that isn't the case. Running chkdsk from the vga startup mode produces the same error for the system partition - drive cannot be locked (or similar).

Umm first off isn't f: your BOOT partition and c: your system partition? That's how MS speak has them. Boot is where winnt/windows folder resides and system is where ntldr/ntdetect/boot.ini reside. If fat16 you may just want to use a regular 98 boot diskette with chkdsk on it. Otherwise: Here is a trick I read from someone else if you have a xp or 2000 OS cd. Your NT MUST be on service pack 6a or you can loose access to the file system completely. boot the xp or 2000 cd and go into recovery console. Run chkdsk from recovery console on the disk. exit when complete. It should fix any errors on the disk

wanderer, Thanks, the 2000 boot/recovery did the trick! Also, my termininology was not correct as c: is the system partition and f: is the boot partition.