Win 7 dirty drive: need help clearing

Ok, I'm at a loss on how to clear my drive of a dirty bit...which is locked. I had a unistall freeze and have had the problem since. Chkdsk said I have a unspecified error and to do a system restore.....but It will not let me do a system restore (says my disk is dirty). My drive does not show up to defrag.
and I can't do a back up.

This is what I know or have tried:

1) The computer runs fine..I ran system tools and everything checks out ok.
2) Ran norton deep clean...to make sure there is no virus.....none.
3) ran several reg. cleaners....did not help.
4) Ran sfc /scannow at command promt.....say everything is fine.
5) Task bars tells me I have a corrupt file: acrord32.exe
6) I have unistalled.....Norton nis, adobe (reader/flash), ms office, and re-installed. This did not help.

7) the file error message during chkdsk (when it worked) was c:\systemVolumeInformation\EfaData\SYMEFA.db
error in Index $130 for file 120205 unspecified error <696e647863686b2e 30d>

Please restore your system......which it won't let me.
Any way to fix this without starting over?

Thanks....drake

 

Try and use Windows 7 repair disk to try and do a system restore to a point before the drive was tagged as dirty and run chkdsk,,other than that,,,might have repartition the drive and start over...

"Remarks

A volume's dirty bit indicates that the file system may be in an inconsistent state. The dirty bit can be set because:

The volume is online and it has outstanding changes.


Changes were made to the volume and the computer was shut down before the changes were committed to the disk.


Corruption was detected on the volume.



If the dirty bit is set when the computer restarts, chkdsk runs to verify the file system integrity and to attempt to fix any issues with the volume. "


Fsutil dirty

Cheers
3Fees

 

interesting problem.

SYMEFA.db is a symantec file that comes with Norton. You say you already uninstalled Norton so I would finish the job.

Download Norton Removal Tool

|MG| Norton Removal Tool 2012.0.0.19 Download

Run it.

Disable system protection and wipe out your current restore points.

START > right click COMPUTER, choose PROPERTIES, on the left click SYSTEM PROTECTION click CONFIGURE and click the DELETE RESTORE POINTS.

Put your original Windows disk in your drive and reboot your computer. You may need to set your boot order to run from the DVD. Windows PE recovery environment will start and ask you if you want to repair your disk, say yes.

IF you do not have a Windows Disk, you can create one with a blank DVD. Click START > CONTROL PANEL > under SYSTEM AND SECURITY click BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER. On the left click CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISK and follow the prompts.

That should clear it up

 

Thanks for the replies.

I downloaded the norton removal tool and will try today. Cross your fingers.

I let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again.

 

most (all) of the linux-based partition editors/disk maintenance live distros like clonezilla and gpartd are able to fix up (chkdsk functionality) NTFS and thusly reset any of the many possible dirty bits that can be set.

If you're uncomfortable with a linux live distro, try booting onto dos mode and run chkdsk/scandisk (with the /f command line flag) from there.

Also look up the functionality of the fsutil command line tool.

Technet has more than a few articles on this.

You want to be careful though; unless you know precisely why you're in a dirty bit lockup and then manually reset the bits you can be setting yourself up for any number of failures including data loss.

 

I used the fsutil to check the disk....which tells me it is dirty. I set the fsutil to self repair on the drive.

Chkdsk won't run in safe mode....when I try it starts to run but stops and gives the error messages.

In safemode I ran sfc /scannow and it said all is OK.

The machine runs fine....I just can't backup, restore or defrag the hard drive.
I really want to fix this without a complete loss of data.....if I can.

 

sfc will do nothing for the integrity of a filesystem........

 

Yes I know...I was doing testing to confirm the depts of the problem.

I have not been able to clear the dirty bit yet......I may try ubcd4win next.