Running chkdsk on a BOOTCAMP volume 2019 16" MacBook Pro - Prior to Cloning BOOTCAMP with WinClone

2019 16" MacBook Pro - Catalina 10.15.7 - 4TB NVMe SSD


Boot Camp Assistant install of Windows 10 (21H1)


WinClone 9


With a fresh BOOTCAMP install I can run chkdsk (no parameters) repeatedly without any errors.


If I run chkdsk /b (AS directed by Two Canoes) on the BOOTCAMP volume prior to cloning, one of three things occur  (not consistent)


     ONE - chkdsk /b seems to complete but when Win10 restarts I get the BSOD with the error:


                "Stop code: "BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO"

     TWO - chkdsk /b appears to mark 90% of the BOOTCAMP volume as having "bad sectors"


(TechTool confirms there are no issues with SSD.)



     THREE - chkdsk /b seems to complete but subsequent running of chkdsk reports"


                    "The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute is incorrect"

                    "The Volume Bitmap is incorrect."

                    "Windows has checked the filesystem and found problems."

                    "Please run chkdsk /scan to find the problems and queue them for repair"



Online research seems to indicate that running chkdsk /b includes the functionality of chkdsk /r (according to Microsoft) and that running chkdsk /r on todays SSDs has been known to erroneously marks sectors as bad when they are not.  In fact, most sources indicate that there is no reason to run chkdsk /r on an SSD as the SSD controller takes care of monitoring "bad Sectors' and marks them so they are not used.


If, on the other hand, I do a fresh Boot Camp Assistant install and run chkdsk (no parameters) and get repeated results without any errors and then run chkdsk /f to check the file system i am back to:


                    "The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute is incorrect"

                    "The Volume Bitmap is incorrect."

                    "Windows has checked the filesystem and found problems."

                    "Please run chkdsk /scan to find the problems and queue them for repair"


Running chkdsk /scan reports no errors EVERY TIME I run it.  I can alternate between chkdsk and chkdsk /scan and each time chkdsk reports the MFT error and chkdsk /scan reports that there are no errors. How can chkdsk report errors but chkdsk /scan NOT report errors??????


(For what it's worth. I also have a 2014 MBP - El Capitan (10.11.6) PCI SSD - BOOTCAMP install of Windows 10 (1709) and use an older version of WinClone (5). I run chkdsk /b on the BOOTCAMP volume, as WinClone requests, every time I do a clone and it runs without issue or errors... Something is clearly changed with a) newer versions of Windows 10 - b) newer SSDs that is causing these chkdsk errors???)


So....


My question for participants in this forum are:


Does anyone run chkdsk on a BOOTCAMP volume on an SSD with any regularity???

(I do ONLY because WinClone directs us to do so prior to cloning the BOOTCAMP volume)


If so, have you run into any issues similar to those I described above?


Any WinClone 9 users out there with a relatively new mac (with an NVMe SSD) running Windows 10 (21H1)??? Do you run chkdsk (or any other utility) to confirm the integrity of the BOOTCAMP volume prior to cloning??


I'd appreciate any insight or guidance Apple Communities user might have to offer.


Thanks


John


MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jul 30, 2021 8:04 AM

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3 replies

Jul 30, 2021 11:17 AM in response to John Kauble

My recommendation is to stop using chkdsk and let the underlying device drivers manage write caching and cache coherency. On mechanical disks, it still be worthwhile running it, but on SSD/Flash storage, this is not very beneficial.


Also, I have been using an external NTFS formatted partition to backup Windows, in addition to Winclone. This gives me redundancy and diversity of backups.


Microsoft should consider releasing a more modern version of NTFS and/or resurrect ReFS with better support. They can also learn from Apple's struggles with APFS.

Jul 30, 2021 9:04 AM in response to John Kauble

I stopped using chkdsk after SSDs (PCIe or NVMe) became the de-facto standard. NTFS is a very old file system, before the advent of SSDs of any kind. You may want to talk to Twocanoes about the recommendation to run chkdsk /b and why it is needed before cloning.


/b	Use with NTFS only. Clears the list of bad clusters on the volume and rescans all allocated and free clusters for errors. /b includes the functionality of /r. Use this parameter after imaging a volume to a new hard disk drive.


Jul 30, 2021 10:46 AM in response to Loner T

Hi LonerT


Thanks for responding. I've been trying to get support from Two Canoes for a week now. Sadly they only offer support for the non-pro version of WinClone via a forum that they do not seem to pay attention to any longer. They want chkdsk /b run before cloning to ensure there are "no disk errors or bad blocks" They original article from Two Canoes was originally published back in 2014 and last updated in 2016. I can't seem to get anyone at Two Canoes to respond to my request for updated info...


I'm about to try their Slack Channel and see if I have better luck.

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Running chkdsk on a BOOTCAMP volume 2019 16" MacBook Pro - Prior to Cloning BOOTCAMP with WinClone

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