How to Run CHKDSK on a Shared Drive

• Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0 - Microsoft Cluster Server

SUMMARY

CHKDSK may be run on disk volumes under Windows NT to check or repair file system corruption. However, this action may not be performed if applications or processes have handles open to files or directories on the disk. As disks on the shared SCSI bus are handled differently than normal local storage and may be reserved by one of two systems, special steps may be required to run CHKDSK.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows NT checks local storage at startup to determine if CHKDSK needs to run. The operating system does not include disks on the shared SCSI bus in this scan. Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) performs similar checking when it attempts to mount volumes for devices on the shared SCSI bus. If you attempt to manually run CHKDSK on a disk located on the shared SCSI bus, you must ensure that no files or handles are open to the device.

If the device happens to be the quorum disk, you must designate another disk to be the quorum disk if you wish to manually run the utility. This action is necessary because the Cluster service maintains an open handle to the quorum log file. A simple system restart will not resolve this condition.

To run CHKDSK on a shared drive, perform the following steps:

1. If the disk is the quorum device for the cluster, follow the steps in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

         ARTICLE-ID: Q172944
         TITLE     : How to Change Quorum Disk Designation
   
   

2. Take any resources or shares offline that are located on or involve the disk. The Physical Disk resource must remain online.

3. If all applications and handles to the disk are closed, run the CHKDSK utility on the cluster node that owns the physical disk resource. For example, at a command prompt, type the following:

         chkdsk g: /f
   

4. If the disk was a quorum disk and you wish to change it back, follow the steps used in Step 1 to change the disk designation back to the original state.