Windows 10: Problems with Norton Security and Windows 10 2004 chkdsk /f

When I execute chkdsk /f for drive C: system upon reboot it never scans. It just counts down, says "scanning and repairing drive", then after a pause, it continues to windows. It doesn't actually show it scanning.

On a rare occasion when it does scan it does not reboot once it reaches 100%. I have to press the reset button.

It will scan each and every time for all the other non boot drives however. There appears to be some Norton process interfering with chkdsk on bootup for Windows 10 version 2004.

This is on a clean install. I deleted all partitions on the SSD before installing fresh. It didn't do this on 1909.

As a workaround, anyone having this issue can mark the drive as dirty and the scan will run upon reboot. Here is the command:

fsutil dirty set c: <------marks drive c: as dirty.

Change the drive letter if the drive you wish to mark dirty is different. Windows will still hang when the scan reaches 100% but just press reset and the OS will reboot normally. Scan results can be checked as usual in Event Viewer searching under the application of Wininit.

Try this yourself and see what I mean.

So I discovered the culprit!!! It is Norton Security Online!!! What I did to find this was do an "in place" upgrade. That is, I installed windows again and chose "keep my files and apps". Before I did this I uninstalled Norton as in the past Norton has been found to interfere with windows installation.

Well, upon completing the install I immediately tried chkdsk /f and it worked. Each and every time. It still "hung" at 100% and didn't boot into windows until I pressed the reset button, but it DID scan each and every time. So I then installed Norton and checked it again. Chkdsk /f did NOT work. It behaved exactly as previously stated.

So then I uninstalled Norton again and tested. Chkdsk worked again as expected. Each and every time. So it would seem the "in place" upgrade was unnecessary. There is something about Norton loading immediately at startup that is preventing chkdsk from running.

Also it would seem chkdsk is still somewhat broken in that once it reaches 100% it doesn't ultimately boot into windows and must be restarted via the reset button.

So to work around this issue I issued the fsutil dirty set c: command as stated in the OP. I then booted into safe mode and the scan runs as expected. It hangs at 100% and I press reset which then allows windows to boot into normal mode.

I guess I'm ok with the workaround but I hope Norton and Microsoft address these issues soon as this didn't happen with Windows 1909.

:)

 

Norton Security not loading with Windows 10 - Why?

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft community forums!

I would recommend you follow the below given steps and check if it fixes the issue.

I would suggest you to restart the Norton services from the services list, and set the Norton service to automatic.

Follow these steps to run Norton services:

Method 1:

Follow these steps to run Norton services

a. Press Windows key + R

b. In the run windows, type services.msc

c. It will open services windows

d. select norton services from the list of services

e. double click on it

f. At the top of the window, Make sure the service status is started and startup type is
automatic.

g.Click apply and OK.

If this does not fix the issue, try uninstalling and reinstalling Norton software and check if it helps.

If the above steps do not help , I would suggest you to contact Norton for further help.



Let us know the status.

 

chkdsk c: /F

We appreciate the response. I'm referring to Check Disk (chkdsk) utility tool. If you haven't tried yet, we suggest that you run a chkdsk by:

• Press Windows Key + X button to bring up the power user menu.
• In the power user menu, select the Command Prompt (Admin) option.Click Yes when you are presented with a UAC window requesting permission to launch the Command Prompt as Administrator.
• In the new Command Prompt window, type chkdsk E: /f /r /x. Here you should replace E with your drive letter.

This option will run chkdsk to check and repair disk errors in Windows 10. The “/f” parameter tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds; “/r” tells it to locate the bad sectors on the drive and recover readable information; “/x” forces the drive to dismount
before the process starts.

Keep us updated with the result.

 

Windows 10 and Norton

Hi Mike,

Sorry! The latest version of Norton Security 22.5.2 is compatible with Windows 10. I would suggest installing the latest version of Norton Security using the steps here:
www.norton.com/install. Sorry, I am not sure of the best way to restore the OS to the previous version. You can try the steps mentioned here: How to recover a previous build(s) or your original version of Windows using the Recovery or Rollback feature - Revised July 22nd, 2018.

Thanks!

Dinesh

Norton Support