I hope someone can help me.

A few days ago we had a storm. Not knowing the power had been going out all
day, I came home from work and turned on my computer. The power went out
about 30 minutes later. It came on about 5 minutes later and after about 30
minutes, figured it would be ok to turn the computer back on. The power went
out a 2nd time but only for 1 or 2 seconds. Not thinking anything of it, I
waited 15 minutes and then truned my computer back on. After anouther 30
minutes, the power went out again. I didn't turn the computer back on until
the next day. When I did, I get this Windows msg. saying that System C needs
to be checked and that the File is NTFS and needs to be checked. It gives me
10 sec. to stop the check, but strongly recommeds that I do the check. Since
I have no idea what this is, I stopped it. Can you tell me what this is and
is it safe for me to do?

Chelle30 wrote:
> I hope someone can help me.
>
> A few days ago we had a storm. Not knowing the power had been going
> out all day, I came home from work and turned on my computer. The
> power went out about 30 minutes later. It came on about 5 minutes
> later and after about 30 minutes, figured it would be ok to turn
> the computer back on. The power went out a 2nd time but only for 1
> or 2 seconds. Not thinking anything of it, I waited 15 minutes and
> then truned my computer back on. After anouther 30 minutes, the
> power went out again. I didn't turn the computer back on until the
> next day. When I did, I get this Windows msg. saying that System C
> needs to be checked and that the File is NTFS and needs to be
> checked. It gives me 10 sec. to stop the check, but strongly
> recommeds that I do the check. Since I have no idea what this is, I
> stopped it. Can you tell me what this is and is it safe for me to
> do?

It shut down 'dirty'. Let it check. It's checking to see if damage was
done and try and correct it if it was.

Now is a great time to point you to one of the easiest ways to find
information on problems you may be having and solutions others have found:

Search using Google!
http://www.google.com/
(How-to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html )

Next time - be sure to get the whole message - you can google for whole
messages. ;-)

"one of your disks needs to be checked for consistency"

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

perfectly safe, let it do it.

sometimes power surges cause file corruption on the hd.


"Chelle30" wrote:

> I hope someone can help me.
>
> A few days ago we had a storm. Not knowing the power had been going out all
> day, I came home from work and turned on my computer. The power went out
> about 30 minutes later. It came on about 5 minutes later and after about 30
> minutes, figured it would be ok to turn the computer back on. The power went
> out a 2nd time but only for 1 or 2 seconds. Not thinking anything of it, I
> waited 15 minutes and then truned my computer back on. After anouther 30
> minutes, the power went out again. I didn't turn the computer back on until
> the next day. When I did, I get this Windows msg. saying that System C needs
> to be checked and that the File is NTFS and needs to be checked. It gives me
> 10 sec. to stop the check, but strongly recommeds that I do the check. Since
> I have no idea what this is, I stopped it. Can you tell me what this is and
> is it safe for me to do?
>

Chelle30 wrote:
> I hope someone can help me.
>
> A few days ago we had a storm. Not knowing the power had been going
> out all day, I came home from work and turned on my computer. The
> power went out about 30 minutes later. It came on about 5 minutes
> later and after about 30 minutes, figured it would be ok to turn the
> computer back on. The power went out a 2nd time but only for 1 or 2
> seconds. Not thinking anything of it, I waited 15 minutes and then
> truned my computer back on. After anouther 30 minutes, the power went
> out again. I didn't turn the computer back on until the next day.
> When I did, I get this Windows msg. saying that System C needs to be
> checked and that the File is NTFS and needs to be checked. It gives
> me 10 sec. to stop the check, but strongly recommeds that I do the
> check. Since I have no idea what this is, I stopped it. Can you tell
> me what this is and is it safe for me to do?

The message IS a little misleading.

What the system is REALLY trying to say is "Buy an uninterruptible power
supply."

Chelle30 wrote:

> I hope someone can help me.
>
> A few days ago we had a storm. Not knowing the power had been going out all
> day, I came home from work and turned on my computer. The power went out
> about 30 minutes later. It came on about 5 minutes later and after about 30
> minutes, figured it would be ok to turn the computer back on. The power went
> out a 2nd time but only for 1 or 2 seconds. Not thinking anything of it, I
> waited 15 minutes and then truned my computer back on. After anouther 30
> minutes, the power went out again. I didn't turn the computer back on until
> the next day. When I did, I get this Windows msg. saying that System C needs
> to be checked and that the File is NTFS and needs to be checked. It gives me
> 10 sec. to stop the check, but strongly recommeds that I do the check. Since
> I have no idea what this is, I stopped it. Can you tell me what this is and
> is it safe for me to do?

In Windows, use the Start -> Help and Support menu to read up on
"chkdsk". Also search on "fsutil" to get a little info on the dirty bit
on a non-graceful shutdown.

Chelle30 <Chelle30@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I hope someone can help me.

>A few days ago we had a storm. Not knowing the power had been going out all
>day, I came home from work and turned on my computer. The power went out
>about 30 minutes later. It came on about 5 minutes later and after about 30
>minutes, figured it would be ok to turn the computer back on. The power went
>out a 2nd time but only for 1 or 2 seconds. Not thinking anything of it, I
>waited 15 minutes and then truned my computer back on. After anouther 30
>minutes, the power went out again. I didn't turn the computer back on until
>the next day. When I did, I get this Windows msg. saying that System C needs
>to be checked and that the File is NTFS and needs to be checked. It gives me
>10 sec. to stop the check, but strongly recommeds that I do the check. Since
>I have no idea what this is, I stopped it. Can you tell me what this is and
>is it safe for me to do?

At some point in those unexpected shutdowns, some disk process was not
completed when the power went off. The system now wants to look
around, find out what happened, and fix it.

NTFS is quite good at this. It's a journaling file system, which means
that it keeps track of what it's trying to do, so that it can undo it
or fix it somehow, if the process gets interrupted.

So let it do the scan. After the rough ride it had, it needs to make
sure everything is as it should be.

--
Tim Slattery
Slattery_T@bls.gov
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt