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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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.
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.
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?
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.
It Works , nice Job.
Thanks
Awesome glad to hear it.
Worked great. Thanks.
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!
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.
This worked perfectly. Thanks for the help.
Well my friend I tried everything (reset, updates, check, etc)…but I can not fix my mini ipod issues. So frustrating
some items:
…by the way try to fix it …nothing happened
- 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
- 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!!
Hector have you tried plugging the device into a new usb port? Sometimes that will fix these kind of issues.
yes…tried 4 different ones
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
This solution worked for me. Thanks for your help!
how long does this process take?
This is really pissing me off I cant seem to fix it.
nvm lmao as soon as i think its not working it works
thanks for the info.
I tried your solution, but at the command prompt I received this error: Cannot open volume for direct access.
hmmm . . . .
Hi, whenever i try to open up “chkdsk /f” there is a screen that pops up very briefly and then disappears. Little help please.
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
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
Just hold ctrl-shift and hit enter after typing cmd in the run box.
ah man i feel dumb, im not at all really computer savvy, so..wheres the run box :]
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
When I try this with my ipod mounted at drive M, I get an error message:
Cannot open volume for direct access.
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.
…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
…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
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
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!
I can’t get this to work. It says “Cannot open volume for direct access.” Am I doing something wrong?
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.
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
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!
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.
Thank you for this solution! It worked perfectly, as soon as I made sure to exit iTunes before opening the command window.
That worked great, and resolved an irritating error message that I have been living with for months.
Thank You!
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?
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
worked ok for me. Thanks for the information.
Excellent! Thanks!
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)
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.
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!
Hi
I downloaded some Nvidia drivers to a flash drive on a laptop using XP, then plugged it into my vista desktop and the drivers werent there. Later I plugged it in again for something else, and it came up with the scan and fix thing. I clicked scan and fix, hoping it’d show up my nvidia drivers, but instead it deleted a folder on the flash drive. Some of the files in this folder were quite important and I can’t recover them, I’ve tried using 2 different programs for recovery of deleted files.
I’ve done all of this…..then,
“The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)”….
Don’t know what this means?
iTunes is not open, when I plug in the iPod I get the: Do you want to scan and…Message, I say no and then iTunes starts and frezzes!
I think thats all I’ve done. Although I think I did do the scan and fix button the first time. What do I do? Nothings working!
Thanks Josh
worked for me!
thanks a lot for the tip!!!!!!
Hey I have an 80 gb ipod classic that i bought from a friend and when i plug it in to my computer i used to get the scan files message but i did get that taken care of, but the ipod has never shown up in my itunes and i cant figure out why. Sometimes right when i unplug my ipod the itunes screen will swith to the ipod screen as if it were plugged in and an error will show up saying my ipod cannot be synced because it cannot find the required file
never mind i got it all figured out