🚀 go-pugleaf

Thanks Paul,

I ran CHKDSK in administrator mode. I didn't need the /F option C:/ was
clean. I think my HDD may need to be defragmented. I'll do it after 'disk
cleanup' completes.

Microsoft must have tweaked their code. 'Disk Cleanup' and its options used
to show its progress. And now it is very slow. 'Task Manager' showed the
process used a LOT of resources.

This time I was patient. I went away and prepared a meal. When I came back I
could see that 'Disk Cleanup' was making progress. But at this time it is
not finished yet.

I like to keep a clean disk. Maybe defragmentation will make it go faster.

>> After last Windows 10 upgrade there were problems. I could do "Disk
>> Cleanup" but not completely. 'Clean up system files' no longer works. Nor
>> does 'Cleanup shadow copies and all but last restore point' work. 10 goes
>> into an infinite loop and the failing program needs to be ended in Task
>> Manager..Has anyone encountered this problem with a solution.
>> Thanks
>
> Did you take a backup image before the Upgrade attempt ?
>
> That's your best option.
>
> Running CHKDSK on C: , like from a booted DVD and the
> Command Prompt in the troubleshooting section of the DVD,
> might work. But it's just as likely to not be a structural
> problem as such, and a mistake was made in permissions,
> linkages or the like, somewhere along the way. CHKDSK can be
> destructive, and if other programs are looping, just imagine
> what a mess CHKDSK would make, if you were forced to "abort"
> CHKDSK before it was finished.
>
> If the partition is not "CHKDSK-clean" at the moment,
> then you might not even be allowed to make a backup of
> it. In which case, a "dd.exe" backup would be an option,
> and done from a live session of some sort. (I have a recent
> vintage 32-bit Macrium Rescue CD, that will run old
> 16-bit shit, like that dd.exe thing if I was desperate.
>
> In any case, I advise some degree of care, since I do not
> think this is going to be easy to repair. I had a problem
> with Windows.old myself here, where the "computer won"
> and "I lost". Cleanmgr is the way to go - if anything
> is going to remove Windows.old, it is cleanmgr, but only
> if sufficient materials still exist in there for it
> to be recognized as a Windows.old partition. Having a
> folder with that name, is not enough to trigger proper
> cleanup.
>
> Linux cannot help you too much at the moment, because
> you're probably not in a situation where you can afford to
> "prep" C: for examination under Linux. Since your other
> commands are "looping", I would expect just about any
> change to throw a wobbly, and you do want to be careful
> to not do a second destructive thing.
>
> I've run into one of those problems here too. System
> sick but still alive. Try a "second clever thing" and
> it locked up, and that was all she wrote. So while dodging
> one bullet was cool and all, the OS was not ready to
> accept a second "challenge" from me. That's why my
> first step would be imaging at the sector level
> (as sector level tools don't care that NTFS is fried),
> and then if it goes further downhill, you have something
> to restore later.
>
> How to use:
>
>    http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
>
> While the download page has newer stuff, I'm partial to this release.
> I don't really want to retest later compiles, for correctness.
> This version has a bug where the program doesn't stop transferring
> from a source USB stick. And you have to feed it a defining
> block size ("bs=") value and count value which total the
> entire drive size. I think USB as a dest, detects the end properly.
>
>    http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip
>
> You need spare disks at a time like this, to keep copies of
> what you've got. A USB stick would not be my first choice
> for rescue work. The biggest USB stick I've got is a slow
> 128GB one.
>
> *******
>
> THere are programs which copy the essential parts of an old
> OS, to a new installation. This is how you "transfer" a user
> to a new computer for example. But the programs (there are
> several brands) cost *$50 per each usage*. So rather than
> "owning" the software, you pay for each usage attempt. Which
> sucks! This is hardly practical for ordinary users. The software
> comes with Tech Support, so they're expecting trouble when you
> attempt it.
>
> But that's the only way I know of, if Windows is screwed up,
> the file system is cooked, and a Repair Install is not
> allowed to re-format C: and lay down a fresh NTFS. Only
> a Clean Install can do that, and then all your stuff is lost.
> And I know you need to keep the programs already installed
> on there. Unless you get very lucky, this could cost you
> some money. Laplink sells the program that has a per-usage
> charge. It has one or two competitors. Easeus might be one
> of them, but when I tried the Easeus "trial" version,
> it could not even properly list all the programs installed
> on C: . And that's a bad sign.
>
> So if you're going to repair it (if someone else has some
> ideas to help you), I would not proceed without a dd.exe
> sector-by-sector copy "just in case".
>
> *******
>
> If you want to study the infinite loop, try a copy of Process
> Monitor from sysinternals.com (bought by Microsoft). You stop the
> trace by unticking the box in the File dropdown menu. If cleanmgr
> is looping, you stop the trace and look at the collected trace
> to see what file it is stuck on. If it was, say, a named pipe
> in the Schannel crypto folder, then you would then have
> an opportunity to house clean before making a second attempt.
> In the case of a named pipe, the symptoms would be the running
> program would "freeze and not waste CPU cycles" and it may
> respond to control-C to exit (if a console program). I can't think
> of too many file system structures that actually loop.
> A Reparse Point loops, but because of the limited pathlength
> allowed, a "path too long" error happens in only a few seconds.
> If, however, you enabled the "64K path option", it may take
> a while longer to hit an error like that.
>
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon
>
> Study your ProcMon trace, for hints about which file it is
> tripping over, to be better able to address the root cause.
>
> And make a backup, dammit :-) A regular backup is unlikely to
> complete. Macrium will probably tell you that an attempt to
> run CHKDSK ran into errors, so it won't do a regular backup.
> You may have to resort to dd (sector by sector, do the entire disk).
>
>    Paul

Norm X wrote:
> Hi,
>
> After last Windows 10 upgrade there were problems. I could do "Disk Cleanup"
> but not completely. 'Clean up system files' no longer works. Nor does
> 'Cleanup shadow copies and all but last restore point' work. 10 goes into an
> infinite loop and the failing program needs to be ended in Task Manager..Has
> anyone encountered this problem with a solution.
> Thanks

Did you take a backup image before the Upgrade attempt ?

That's your best option.

Running CHKDSK on C: , like from a booted DVD and the
Command Prompt in the troubleshooting section of the DVD,
might work. But it's just as likely to not be a structural
problem as such, and a mistake was made in permissions,
linkages or the like, somewhere along the way. CHKDSK can be
destructive, and if other programs are looping, just imagine
what a mess CHKDSK would make, if you were forced to "abort"
CHKDSK before it was finished.

If the partition is not "CHKDSK-clean" at the moment,
then you might not even be allowed to make a backup of
it. In which case, a "dd.exe" backup would be an option,
and done from a live session of some sort. (I have a recent
vintage 32-bit Macrium Rescue CD, that will run old
16-bit shit, like that dd.exe thing if I was desperate.

In any case, I advise some degree of care, since I do not
think this is going to be easy to repair. I had a problem
with Windows.old myself here, where the "computer won"
and "I lost". Cleanmgr is the way to go - if anything
is going to remove Windows.old, it is cleanmgr, but only
if sufficient materials still exist in there for it
to be recognized as a Windows.old partition. Having a
folder with that name, is not enough to trigger proper
cleanup.

Linux cannot help you too much at the moment, because
you're probably not in a situation where you can afford to
"prep" C: for examination under Linux. Since your other
commands are "looping", I would expect just about any
change to throw a wobbly, and you do want to be careful
to not do a second destructive thing.

I've run into one of those problems here too. System
sick but still alive. Try a "second clever thing" and
it locked up, and that was all she wrote. So while dodging
one bullet was cool and all, the OS was not ready to
accept a second "challenge" from me. That's why my
first step would be imaging at the sector level
(as sector level tools don't care that NTFS is fried),
and then if it goes further downhill, you have something
to restore later.

How to use:

    http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

While the download page has newer stuff, I'm partial to this release.
I don't really want to retest later compiles, for correctness.
This version has a bug where the program doesn't stop transferring
from a source USB stick. And you have to feed it a defining
block size ("bs=") value and count value which total the
entire drive size. I think USB as a dest, detects the end properly.

    http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip

You need spare disks at a time like this, to keep copies of
what you've got. A USB stick would not be my first choice
for rescue work. The biggest USB stick I've got is a slow
128GB one.

*******

THere are programs which copy the essential parts of an old
OS, to a new installation. This is how you "transfer" a user
to a new computer for example. But the programs (there are
several brands) cost *$50 per each usage*. So rather than
"owning" the software, you pay for each usage attempt. Which
sucks! This is hardly practical for ordinary users. The software
comes with Tech Support, so they're expecting trouble when you
attempt it.

But that's the only way I know of, if Windows is screwed up,
the file system is cooked, and a Repair Install is not
allowed to re-format C: and lay down a fresh NTFS. Only
a Clean Install can do that, and then all your stuff is lost.
And I know you need to keep the programs already installed
on there. Unless you get very lucky, this could cost you
some money. Laplink sells the program that has a per-usage
charge. It has one or two competitors. Easeus might be one
of them, but when I tried the Easeus "trial" version,
it could not even properly list all the programs installed
on C: . And that's a bad sign.

So if you're going to repair it (if someone else has some
ideas to help you), I would not proceed without a dd.exe
sector-by-sector copy "just in case".

*******

If you want to study the infinite loop, try a copy of Process
Monitor from sysinternals.com (bought by Microsoft). You stop the
trace by unticking the box in the File dropdown menu. If cleanmgr
is looping, you stop the trace and look at the collected trace
to see what file it is stuck on. If it was, say, a named pipe
in the Schannel crypto folder, then you would then have
an opportunity to house clean before making a second attempt.
In the case of a named pipe, the symptoms would be the running
program would "freeze and not waste CPU cycles" and it may
respond to control-C to exit (if a console program). I can't think
of too many file system structures that actually loop.
A Reparse Point loops, but because of the limited pathlength
allowed, a "path too long" error happens in only a few seconds.
If, however, you enabled the "64K path option", it may take
a while longer to hit an error like that.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Study your ProcMon trace, for hints about which file it is
tripping over, to be better able to address the root cause.

And make a backup, dammit :-) A regular backup is unlikely to
complete. Macrium will probably tell you that an attempt to
run CHKDSK ran into errors, so it won't do a regular backup.
You may have to resort to dd (sector by sector, do the entire disk).

    Paul