I've run chkdsk /r many times recently from a bootable recovery console disk. Errors are consistently found and corrected. My understanding is that these errors often spell doom for the hard drive. I've run WD's diagnostic several times and the hard drive checks out okay. This is a pretty fresh reinstall of XP Pro, so I'm wondering, what might be up? Thanks.
Is there a particular reason you keep running this utility? Do you have a problem you're trying to cure? Or are you just running it to be a good steward of system maintenance?
It seems a little sluggish lately, and not quite right, even though, as I mentioned, it is a recent OS reinstall. The reason I'm running it repeatedly is I read that if you get a report of one or more errors being detected and fixed, you should keep running it until it comes up clean. This person said that multiple passes are frequently required. Thanks.
virus/spyware perhaps? maybe run combofix. It worked for me when my system went berzerk. Although do so at your own risk.
Here you go: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/719963-solved-chkdsk-wont-complete-checking.html Another tip: get a copy of SpinRite; it's a great tool for stress-testing hard drives.
Get a freeware drive SMART monitoring utility, these folks have a free one: http://www.disk-monitor.com/