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Vista is just too smart for its own good. I spoke with a member friday evening that said after setting up Vista home premium his computer would give him an error to Scan and Fix his IPOD. However when he would plug his IPOD into his wife’s Windows XP machine there was no error.
I was able to recreate the error by forcibly ejecting my own ipod from a Windows XP machine. The reason for the error is that his IPOD was formatted FAT32 on Windows XP; this can affect thumbdrives, cameras, smart cards. What happens is the device was not properly dismounted by Windows XP and there is an archival bit set that Vista needs to reset before it will stop reporting there is an error.
At this point if you don’t read anything else read this: don’t click the “Scan and Fix” button.
Instead open up a command line prompt by clicking on the windows logo key and then clicking on the command prompt icon:
At the command prompt type the following command.
chkdsk (device drive letter): /f
for instance my ipod was mounted at drive l so I typed
chkdsk l : /f
Once the chkdsk process is completed you should not see the “Scan & Fix” dialog for your ipod or other device again.
- Mark Flavin
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45 responses so far ↓
1 Johnny Appleseed // Feb 24, 2008 at 3:10 am
So, what happens if we click the ’scan and fix’ button? Does it wipe your iPod? You aren’t specific but that must be what happens. Can you please confirm? Thanks. JA.
2 Mark Flavin // Feb 26, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Sorry Johnny there if you click Scan and fix it will not hose your ipod it just takes forever and does not fix anything. I should have been clearer thank you for asking for the clarification.
3 Justin K. // Mar 2, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I went to do run the chkdsk, but I got the following message: “This type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK does not available for RAW drives.” Any ideas on how to deal with this?
4 Mark Flavin // Mar 4, 2008 at 12:39 am
Justin you don’t say it but I am going to assume you are having other issues with your ipod then just checkdisk. If your IPOD is working and itunes and everything else is working then I would leave it as it is however when you get the raw format message typically the ipod is not accessible via itunes or playable so if that is the case read on.
First off if you are recieving a RAW format message that means your IPOD file system was corrupted. Before doing anything else check to see if it is under warranty if so then I would take it back and return it.
Failing that you could also try doing a soft reset in which you essentially reboot the ipod instructions can be found at http://www.reset-ipod.com/. If that does not work and it then you can plug the ipod in Right-click on the ipod disk when it is mounted choose Format, then chose “Quick format” after it is done the iPod will be FAT32 and should work properly. Please don’t format unless nothing else works as you will lose everything on the IPOD.
5 Carlos Lares // Mar 6, 2008 at 4:53 pm
It Works , nice Job.
Thanks
6 Mark Flavin // Mar 6, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Awesome glad to hear it.
7 JoE // Mar 7, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Worked great. Thanks.
8 Julie Rodriguez // Mar 15, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Hi. I’m having the same message pop up and no matter which choice I make it goes to the dreaded blue screen. I tried the chkdsk option but got this message - cannot open volume for direct access. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance!
9 Mark Flavin // Mar 15, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Julie are you saying that when you plug your Ipod into your computer you get a blue screen?
Are you using an IPOD shuffle? If so that uses a flash drive which can have the error that you describe.
My suggestion is to make sure you have all the windows updates installed, you can go to http://www.update.microsoft.com/to check. After doing that also make sure you have the latest version of itunes installed by going to http://www.apple.com/itunes/ afte you have installed both restart your computer so that the new ipod service can startup and plug in your ipod.
If you get the error message try and do the checkdisk option if that does not work or if you get a bluescreen. Then using itunes try to restore your ipod (note you will lose all the music on your ipod doing this so make sure you backup your playlist).
Open iTunes.
Click the button in the sidebar that says “YOUR_IPOD’S_NAME”
Click the tab at top that says “Summary”
Click the button that says “Restore”
Choose “Use Newest Version” when you are prompted for restore options - this will restore your iPod to the newest iPod software available
Wait for the computer to restore the iPod.
After it has restored the ipod should work without giving you the error but you will need to replace all your music and playlists.
10 Rick N. // Mar 23, 2008 at 12:36 pm
This worked perfectly. Thanks for the help.
11 Hector Mayorga // Jul 19, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Well my friend I tried everything (reset, updates, check, etc)…but I can not fix my mini ipod issues. So frustrating
some items:
- I have an incon in my pc (safely remove hardware) that dont go away
- after reset the ipod..I tried to sync the songs and it syncing for 3 or 4 minutes (around 150 songs) and it appear a “attempting to copy the disk failed. the disk could not be read or written to”
- I just get the Iphone 2.0 update…im not sure if this is the reason????
- I am not sure when “do you want to want scan and fix ipod (E)” appears but it is annoying :)…by the way try to fix it …nothing happened
- I pluged the ipod to a different pc (xp) and i could use the remove hardware icon..and i had like 20 songs in the ipod. But when I tried in home all begins again.
if you have any solutions besides put the ipod in a box to alaska ..please let me know. Thanks!!
12 Mark Flavin // Jul 19, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Hector have you tried plugging the device into a new usb port? Sometimes that will fix these kind of issues.
13 Hector Mayorga // Jul 19, 2008 at 12:16 pm
yes…tried 4 different ones
14 Mark Flavin // Jul 19, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I would try downloading an re-installing itunes. If that does not work then you may have to restore your i-pod to factory settings. Try reinstalling itunes and let me know if that works.
Also check out the following support page
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1207
15 Ana // Jul 19, 2008 at 4:01 pm
This solution worked for me. Thanks for your help!
16 Cory // Jul 21, 2008 at 6:09 am
how long does this process take?
17 Cory // Jul 21, 2008 at 7:20 am
This is really pissing me off I cant seem to fix it.
18 Cory // Jul 21, 2008 at 7:21 am
nvm lmao as soon as i think its not working it works
thanks for the info.
19 Xavier // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I tried your solution, but at the command prompt I received this error: Cannot open volume for direct access.
hmmm . . . .
20 Sean // Jul 31, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Hi, whenever i try to open up “chkdsk /f” there is a screen that pops up very briefly and then disappears. Little help please.
21 Mark Flavin // Jul 31, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Sean you need to open a command prompt first. Click on start then run and type cmd and press enter. From the command prompt type chkdsk /f
22 Sean // Jul 31, 2008 at 6:10 pm
haha yea i just discovered that bit…but when i do enter chkdsk /f in the command prompt i get “Access Denied as you do not have sufficient privelages. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode.” …..no idea what that means
23 Mark Flavin // Jul 31, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Just hold ctrl-shift and hit enter after typing cmd in the run box.
24 Sean // Jul 31, 2008 at 6:22 pm
ah man i feel dumb, im not at all really computer savvy, so..wheres the run box :]
25 Sean // Jul 31, 2008 at 6:45 pm
well i really feel dumb bout askin where the run box is but yea, i put cmd in it…clicked on it…and it took me to where i was, at the command prompt window…but its still telling me that “access denied” message when i enter in chkdsk /f
26 Bob // Aug 3, 2008 at 1:12 pm
When I try this with my ipod mounted at drive M, I get an error message:
Cannot open volume for direct access.
27 Bob // Aug 3, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Actually, I figured this one out for Vista:
First, you have to run Command Prompt as Administrator.
Then, you have to make sure that your iPod is syncing with iTunes. (You may have to manually sync it)
Then you can run the chkdsk program.
28 Sean // Aug 3, 2008 at 2:03 pm
…well, i did the whole run as administrator and i typed in “chkdsk /f” but it told me my disk is NTFS, so i went and tried reformat it and i couldnt cuz it said it would erase all the data on the disk and that would suck…alot
29 Sean // Aug 3, 2008 at 2:06 pm
…it did in total say:
“The type of this file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)”
..i said no,but yea, help
30 Sean // Aug 3, 2008 at 2:38 pm
ok i made some progress and read around and entered in “chkdsk f/ f:” and that got the command prompt to see that it was a FAT32, but it says now:
“Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk may run if this is dismounted first. ALL OPENED VOLUMES TO THIS HANDLE WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)
i haven’t answered it yet, cuz i dont know what the means
31 Sean // Aug 3, 2008 at 3:48 pm
well i did some more research on the stuff im gettin back … and well turns out all i had to do was exit itunes, and so i ran the “chkdsk/f f:” and it worked!!! im so excited
thanks for your guidance when you could..thanks!
32 Nakia // Aug 11, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I can’t get this to work. It says “Cannot open volume for direct access.” Am I doing something wrong?
33 Ken // Aug 21, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I get the “file system is RAW…” error when I try the “chkdsk N: /f /r” fix. iTunes and my iPod are functioning perfectly. I have v1.3 on the iPod and 7.7.1.11 on iTunes. I regularly sync up my ipod to get podcast, download music, redo playlist etc. Everything works as advertised but I still get this message — which does not appear on my windows XP laptop.
I know you told one guy to leave it as it is but this is annoying as hell. Every time I plug it in I have to wait a minute for the error message to pop up and click ignor. If I don’t it will never sync.
34 Mark Flavin // Aug 21, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Ken
Make sure you have your iPod set to “manual” sync in iTunes.
Connect your iPod to you computer.
Go in iTunes preferences and select the “iPod” tab.
Check the box for “manual” sync.
After that close out iTunes and retry the fix
35 stace // Aug 22, 2008 at 3:56 am
hi, i did exactly as i was told but when i did it, this came up:
‘chkdskF:’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
please help!
36 Mark Flavin // Aug 22, 2008 at 6:36 am
The command is
chkdsk [drive-letter-of-ipod] : /f
To find the drive letter of your ipod:
Click on the Window’s Orb (start button in XP)
Click on “Computer” and the drives will be listed look for the one labeled iPod.
37 Cam // Aug 29, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Thank you for this solution! It worked perfectly, as soon as I made sure to exit iTunes before opening the command window.
38 JR // Sep 6, 2008 at 7:33 pm
That worked great, and resolved an irritating error message that I have been living with for months.
Thank You!
39 ChipR // Sep 11, 2008 at 6:20 am
Ok - I ran the “chkdsk g:/f” and it starts to check the disk. It reports finding files “cross-linked on allocation unit” and then reports the cross link to be resolved by copying. It also reports a bunch of “the size of ……….(insert file name a location)…… entry is not valid”. So it goes through a bunch of these two messages and the sends an error message in a window labeled “Windows - Wrong Volume” and in the window is states the following:
“Exception Processing Message OxcOOOOO12 Parameters Ox75F6023C Ox75F6O23C Ox86BCD78C Ox75F6O23C”
The iPod then crashes (locks up) and has to be reset to get working again and for the computer to find it again.
Any thoughts?
40 lorie // Sep 17, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Hi, I have 2 ipods with this error in Vista.
Both synchronise perfectly in iTunes BUT have the “RAW file” notification when I try to chkdsk in DOS in order to remove the Vitsa error. I have followed your instructions to the letter & changed iTunes preferences to manual sync. but STILL get the RAW disk reading after I close iTunes.
I hope to sell these iPods to people at work, as working - fully functional, but I need the Vista Error removed before I can do so.
Your assistance has been invaluable to date and I’d love to see your thoughts on the continuing problem checking iPod disk in RAW format (when iPod works perfectly).
Cheers
41 Koen // Sep 24, 2008 at 6:06 am
worked ok for me. Thanks for the information.
42 Tim // Oct 5, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Excellent! Thanks!
43 Sarah // Oct 6, 2008 at 10:12 am
Hurrah for Mark Flavin! Thank you so much! That had been bugging me for ages, the setting iPod sync to manual was the key piece of info missing from your initial post however (for people like me anyhoo)
44 Mark Flavin // Oct 6, 2008 at 10:14 am
Sarah I am really happy it worked for you. When I originally wrote the piece I forgot that most people do not set their ipods to Manual sync and thus skipped the step.
45 bethan // Oct 11, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I have an 80GB classic ipod, I set it up on my old pc, which was windows xp. It is working perfectly and is only about 2 months old. I now have a new computer which is Vista. I get this error message everytime I plug in my ipod.
My ipod is set to manage songs and videos manually, not to sync.
I no longer have access to my old computer and do not have any of the music backed up because of this, so am anxious not to lose anything.
If i follow your instructions stated at the top of this thread, will it wipe any info from my ipod?
Many thanks.
You must be sick of being asked about this!
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