# Chkdsk says it "cannot continue in read-only mode" at command prompt



## diablo75

I've been having a lot of problems with a certain hard drive lately. So I went to dos to run chkdsk and got the following:

D:\>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Big one.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 4197.
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 4217.
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 4219.
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 4222.
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 5038.
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 5050.
File verification completed.

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.


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## Elvandil

That's normal. Chkdsk can't fix anything while XP is running. Run: chkdsk /f and choose "Y" to run it on next reboot.


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## Bob Cerelli

Is the D: drive where XP is installed?


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## diablo75

No, D is not where XP is installed.

I'll try the chkdsk /f option

Edit: I think that did the trick! Thanks!


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## Bob Cerelli

So it may even run without rebooting. If there is just data there you can also try including the /x switch to force a dismount. This works great.


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## Elvandil

It is irrelevant where XP is installed. To run chkdsk on your system partition, simply type:

chkdsk /f

and agree to run it on startup.
To run chkdsk at boot on another partition that gives you the above message because it is in use, type the same command with the drive letter specified:

chkdsk D: /f

The option exists to "unlock" the drive and terminate all handles to it so that chkdsk can be run without a reboot. But that is riskier and unnecessary since you don't ordinarily know what threads are running and the consequences of terminating them.

Mr. Cerelli is posting in this thread contrary to the site owner's instructions and can be ignored.


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## Bob Cerelli

Yikes......

To help clear this up, for example, since in this specific case XP is not installed on the drive in question, you could run chkdsk on the D: drive without rebooting. Just want to clear that up.


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