So I know there are a lot of other postings on this forum and others about similar issues but I've tried many of the suggested fixes and none have worked for me so far. I'll give all my info so you don't have to ask about any recent software or modifications. I recently just installed windows 7 ultimate 32 bit on a brand new hard drive that I use to replace my previous smaller hard drive after it failed. Everything runs fine and I was able to put all of my personal files from my previous hard drive onto the new one. I originally did a disk clean up and degragmenter shortly after the fresh install and installing some of my other commonly used programs. The C: appeared and I was able to run the defragmenter. Later that day I tried to run the windows 7 back up program to back up onto some DVDs but it was running god awfully slow and I only have 40 gigs total (including whatever win 7 files). I stopped the back up after 16 hrs because it was still around 25 percent. I then downloaded and used EASEUS back up. I guess unlike during the windows 7 back up my computer could still fall asleep despite the EASEUS back up running and using my hard drive and dvd drive so nevertheless that backup stopped and I gave up on backing up and uninstalled that program. The next day I wanted to clean all unnecessary files and defragment and just suck it up and run the windows 7 back up but the defragmenter no longer detects my C: drive. I read the drive may be marked as dirty bit but I don't know what that means but I tried to run chkdsk anyway to see if that helped. I tried the tools, check errors button under the computer options, I tried the administrator command prompt for chkdsk, and I tried the command prompt options when booting to windows repair. Chkdsk never runs on restart. I checked the registry and under the bootexecute it has the autochkdsk with the C: and backslashes, r, and question marks like all the other forums say should be there. So I'm unable to run chkdsk on a win 7 computer that's 3 days old and seemingly can't run defragmenter because of it. I'm a little tech savvy but by no means an expert so any clear answers will be greatly appreciated.

From: http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/794318-solved-chkdsk-volume-dirty.html Go to a Command Prompt and type: CHKNTFS /X C: That'll disable and clear the dirty bit. Then run: CHKDSK /R Which will require a reboot and will take a long time to scan but will also scan for bad sectors on the drive. Then back at the command prompt re-enable the normal CHKDSK behavior by typing: CHKNTFS /D You may also want to run the manufacturer's diagnostics on the drive to make sure its not failing. CHKNTFS info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/160963 For a description of the dirty bit http://ask-leo.com/chkdsk_said_my_system_was_dirty_what_does_dirty_mean.html Jerry

I guess I should say first that I never got a dirty bit error or warning, I just saw in some forums that some people had that problem. It seemed like the other people did get that error when trying to run the disk defragmenter and it wouldn't run or complete for them. In my case I don't have that error message (at least not yet or I've never seen it) so should I still do this suggested fix? Also, would that do anything for the defragmenter issue? I don't know if the chkdsk not running and defragmenter not showing the c: drive are separate or a single issue since unlike the other people I never got that dirty bit message. Also, as far as I can tell I don't believe the drive is failing because everything else runs fine, just not chkdsk, and now the defrag doesn't show c: even though I just ran a defrag the other day. Thank you for the reply, I'll try the fix if you still think it's relevant.

Hello BlackPorsche28, Henestly, if it aint broke don't fix it. But if you really need to run chkdsk, try if from the Win7 recovery DVD. Cheers Miguel Fra / Falcon IT Services Computer & Network Support, Miami, FL Visit our Knowledgebase Sharepoint Site

The chkdsk I'm not as worried about, I mostly wanted to be able to run the disk defrag in the future again and I just thought maybe the chkdsk needed to be run based off of some other similar defrag problems some other people had. But you're right, for now I'm not too concerned. I just want to get it fixed so I can run both in the future. I'll try the recovery disk and see if that helps though, thanks!

This was marked as the answer by someone but my disk defragment problem still exists. Sorry for the long delay but I was away for the holidays. If someone in the Microsoft IT can help me figure out why the C: drive isn't detected in the disk defrag that'd be great. Like I said above, I never saw a "dirty bit" message or anything, I only guessed at that because other people had mentioned some things about that in other forums. It was there one day that I could do a defrag and a day or two later it wasn't. During that time I hadn't installed or deleted any random programs, only some software that I had previously had on my old hard drive. I tried uninstalling them in case something about them didn't agree but that didn't show the C: then. The disk cleanup shows the C: drive and the Computer icon does too, just not the disk defrag.

I have the same exact problem since I upgraded from Windows Vista 64 bit to Windows 7 64 bit.. I like to defrag often to keep my hard drive in top shape.. No c:/ to be found on my defrag window only D:/... I had both before.....This is very aggravating..Other than that, my C:/ drive is working just fine... I'm a defrag junky and need to defrag..........................

Were you able to figure out what was causing the problem by any chance? And for any of you windows/microsoft techs can you please help me. I'm still having the same problem with the chkdsk and the defrag. I'm not have any error messages or anything so the chkdsk isn't as much of a concern for me but the defrag should work (the chkdsk option would be nice too).

For defrag I suggest using CONTIG. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx download and intall Go to an elevated command prompt | navigate to the location of contig.exe | type CONTIG C:\ -s -q If contig shows some files to be still fragmented, then run defrag again. My experience has been that twice is necessary.

I just noticed that you said no C: This could be because Win 7 is using C for recovery. Informative is: Run DISKMGMT.MSC This will show what letters are assigned to what drives.