How to Disable Autochk if It Stops Responding During Reboot

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0

SUMMARY

When a Windows NT system is shut down improperly or stops responding, Autochk runs against any volumes that are marked as being dirty. If the operating system partition is marked dirty and Autochk tries to repair the volume, and if the damaged volume causes Autochk to stop responding, it is not possible to get back into Windows NT to perform recovery procedures. Additionally, if an extremely large volume becomes corrupt it could take many hours for Autochk to repair the volume (the time required depends on the size of the partition and the number and size of the affected files).

In order to get back into Windows NT, you can disable the drive whose partition/volume is causing Autochk to stop responding, then boot into Windows NT and rename Autochk.exe, which is located in the %systemroot%\system32 directory. Once Autochk.exe is renamed so it can't run, you can perform a normal shutdown, re-enable the problem drive whose volume caused Autochk to hang, then reboot the server. Once back in Windows NT, you can perform data recovery procedures by running a manual Chkdsk /F /R or by re-creating the partition and restoring data from a current backup.

If the volume/drive causing Autochk to hang cannot be disabled because it is the operating system drive or part of a hardware RAID 5 configuration, it will be necessary to perform the following procedure to replace the Autochk.exe file with a nonexecutable file also called Autochk.exe in order to bypass the Autochk process.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: This procedure should not be performed unless it is impossible to get back into Windows NT any other way in order to perform data recovery procedures. Bypassing the Autochk process simply to save time could cause additional corruption of the partition if you continue to use it without having it repaired by Autochk.

To replace the Autochk.exe with a nonexecutable file, perform the following procedure:

1. Modify the contents of the emergency repair disk (ERD) by performing the following steps:

   A. Find the hidden file called Setup.log on the ERD. B. In Setup.log, find the entry that references autochk.exe in the

         [files.WinNt] section (Where %systemroot% is your NT installation
         directory IE: WINNT35).  Change the line to the following:
   

         \%SystemRoot%\System32\autochk.exe="autochk.exe","99999","\",
         "ERD disk","autochk.exe"
   

   C. While using a text editor such as Notepad, create a file called

         Autochk.exe, enter any text in the file, then save the file as
         Autochk.exe in the root directory of the ERD.
   

2. Restart your computer with the three Windows NT 3.5x setup disks.

3. Choose "R" to repair your Windows NT installation.

4. Select only "Verify Windows NT System Files," then choose Continue.

5. If prompted for "Windows NT Workstation or Server setup disk #4," press the ESC key to allow you to continue with the repair process.

6. DO NOT SELECT TO REPLACE ALL FILES; ONLY REPLACE AUTOCHK.EXE.

7. After Autochk.exe is replaced with the file copied from the repair disk, press F3 to exit the repair process and reboot the computer. Autochk.exe will not run because it was replaced with the text file you created in step 1C above.

8. After performing this process, you will need to make another Emergency Repair Disk by running the RDISK utility. Choose Run from the Start menu, type RDISK and select UPDATE.

9. Replace the autochk.exe file that is on the system with the one on the Windows NT CDROM.