Data Recovery Case File · Formatted & Logical Faults · Stop the Loop First
A Repair That Cannot Complete Is a Repair That Starts Again Tomorrow
His enquiry describes something running without anybody asking it to. A storage drive that has disappeared from the file browser, where "I kept getting a message about fixing the drive on start-up, but it never went higher than about 30% before" jumping and failing. An automatic consistency repair is being triggered on every boot, it cannot finish, and it writes to a failing drive each time it tries.
| Media | Secondary storage drive in a desktop machine — volume absent from the file browser; automatic consistency repair triggering at each start-up without completing |
| Reported situation | Machine booting normally from a separate system drive · secondary storage drive absent from the file browser · automatic repair message appearing at start-up · repair progressing partway and not completing · repair recurring on subsequent starts · contents required |
| Fault class | Volume flagged inconsistent with automatic repair recurring — repair activity writing on each attempt; drive read failures preventing completion |
| Equipment used | Automatic repair suppressed before any assessment · drive disconnected pending capture · Atola Insight Forensic error-rate assessment across the surface · imaged write-blocked under strict per-sector timeouts · structures rebuilt from surviving copies on the image |
The decode: what is running, why it recurs, and how to stop it
What the message means: the volume has been flagged as inconsistent, and the system runs a consistency repair automatically at start-up to resolve it. That is designed behaviour and on a healthy drive it works — a volume marked dirty after an unclean shutdown is checked, fixed and cleared.
Why it never completes here: the repair has to read the structures it intends to fix. On a drive with read failures it reaches a region it cannot read and stops, having made some changes and not others — which leaves the volume still flagged, so the same repair runs again next time.
Why that is worse than a single failed attempt: each run writes. Repairs work by altering structures to make them consistent, and a repair that gets partway through resolves inconsistencies by discarding entries it cannot reconcile. Doing that repeatedly compounds it.
Why it is particularly dangerous that nobody chose it: every other destructive action in this archive was accepted by somebody. This one happens on its own, at every start-up, whether or not the machine is being used for anything to do with that drive.
How to stop it, and this is the immediate action: disconnect the drive. A secondary storage drive can simply be unplugged, and the machine will boot normally from its system drive without it, which ends the loop entirely.
What to do if it cannot be disconnected: the repair prompt at start-up can be skipped by pressing a key within the countdown it offers, and the automatic check can be disabled for a specific volume from the command line. Both stop the recurrence without any further writing.
Why his machine still works normally: the system runs from a separate drive. That is fortunate — it means the affected drive can be removed entirely without disrupting anything, which is not true when the failing volume is the one the system lives on.
What the progress behaviour indicates: a repair that stalls at a consistent point and then jumps is one meeting the same unreadable region every time. The point at which it stops is where the read failures begin, which is useful information for the capture that follows.
On the bench
The automatic repair was suppressed before any assessment — a volume flagged inconsistent triggering a consistency repair at each start-up, which writes by design and, on a drive with read failures, halts partway having discarded entries it could not reconcile while leaving the volume still flagged, so the same repair recurs. The drive was disconnected pending capture, and imaging ran write-blocked under strict per-sector timeouts.
The outcome
The automatic repair suppressed before any assessment, the drive disconnected pending capture, and structures rebuilt from surviving copies on the image. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; where a drive has to be opened, 50% of parts and labour is payable upfront with the balance only on success — otherwise no recovery, no fee. The decode: that repair runs on its own, at every start-up, and it writes each time. It never finishes because it meets a region it cannot read — which leaves the volume flagged, so it starts again tomorrow.
Automatic repair running at every start-up
Disconnect the drive today — if it's a secondary drive rather than the one your system boots from, unplugging it ends the loop entirely and the machine will start normally without it. That matters because every other destructive action happens when somebody accepts a prompt, and this one runs on its own at every start-up whether or not you're using that drive. A consistency repair works by writing, and one that halts partway on a failing drive has discarded entries it couldn't reconcile while leaving the volume still flagged, so it runs again. If you can't disconnect it, the check can be skipped at the countdown or disabled for that volume.
Disconnect it — call Easy Data Recovery on 028 9002 0144; automatic repair suppressed before assessment, error rates measured across the surface, structures rebuilt from surviving copies on the image.
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Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.