Error messages when you try to gain access to an NTFS volume

When you try to gain access to an NTFS file system volume, you may receive one of the following error messages at the command prompt or in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

• Command prompt
  
  Message 1
  C:\>F:
  The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable.
  Message 2
  C:\>F:
  There is not enough space on the disk.
• Internet Explorer
  
  Message 1
  F:\is not accessible.
  The disk structure is corrupt and unreadable.
  Message 2
  F:\is not accessible.
  There is not enough space on the disk.

If the volume that is damaged is also the system or boot volume, you may also receive the following error message when you start the computer (where the second parameter is 0xC0000032 DISK_CORRUPTION_ERROR): When you try to install Windows 2000 on the NTFS volume, you may receive the following message: If you boot to the Windows 2000 Recovery console and try to use the dir command to view the contents of the volume, you may receive the following error message: When you run the Chkdsk tool against the volume, the procedure finishes, no errors are detected, and no corrections are made. However, you cannot gain access to or boot from the volume and you receive the error message. Also, if you run the chkdsk volume_drive_letter: /p Recovery Console command against that volume (where volume_drive_letter is the volume drive letter), no errors are detected.

This problem occurs because the NTFS volume has an invalid or damaged record in either the $UsnJrnl file or the $LogFile file. Both of these files are internal files that are used only by NTFS; Chkdsk does not check the integrity of these two files. Chkdsk ensures only that the Master File Table (MFT) has entries for these files and that the entries are valid entries.

To resolve this problem if you receive a "stop 0x0000007b" error message when you start the computer, use one of the following methods.

Method 1

Use the Microsoft Windows XP or the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Recovery Console to repair the $UsnJrnl file. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 contain changes to Ntfs.sys that ignore the damaged entries in the $UsnJrnl file and automatically mount and correct damaged data stream files during a mount.

1. Restart your Windows 2000-based computer to the Recovery Console by using a Windows XP or a Windows Server 2003 operating system CD. Make sure that you load the correct third-party mass-storage device driver. For more information about how to obtain Windows XP Setup disks in order to restart to the Recovery Console, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   310994  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/ ) How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
2. Click Start, click Run, type Chkdsk.exe /r , and then click OK.
3. Restart your Windows 2000-based computer.

Method 2

Use the Fsutil.exe tool from a Windows XP CD-ROM to delete the Change/USN journal:

1. Copy the Fsutil.exe file from a Windows XP CD-ROM to the computer that you want to delete the Change/USN journal on.
2. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
3. Change to the directory that you copied the Fsutil.exe file to in step 1. For example, if you copied the Fsutil.exe file to the root folder of drive C, type cd c:\, and then press ENTER.
4. At the command prompt, type fsutil usn deletejournal /D driveletter, and then press ENTER, where driveletter is the drive that contains the Change/USN journal that you want to delete.
5. If you want to create a new Change/USN journal, run the chkdsk /f command on the drive that you deleted the journal from.

Method 3

Move that drive to another computer that is running Windows 2000 to make repairs.

You can also use Chkdsk to re-initialize the $LogFile file but not the $UsnJrnl file because not all NTFS volumes contain a $UsnJrnl file. A $UsnJrnl file is created on a volume only when a program that uses the file makes the first write request.

Chkdsk will only re-initialize the $LogFile file when you change the size of the log file by using the chkdsk volume_drive_letter: /f /l:new_size command. For example, if you type chkdsk f: /f /l:65536.

If the problem continues to occur after you change the $LogFile file size, contact Microsoft Product Support Services for more help with this issue. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

If Chkdsk runs and does not find any problems but you receive an "access denied" error message while you try to access the volume, there are incorrect NTFS permissions. You can use the following command while logged on as an administrator to give everyone "Full Control" of the root folder and subfolders. This also allows the volume to be accessible.