Glo Glo and Win 8.1

BobC · 05-06-2015, 06:10 AM

Every time I connect my Glo to my Win 8.1 PC, Windows displays a message that there may be an error on the drive and offers to scan and correct it. This never happened on Win XP and even if I do scan the drive it shows no errors.

Am I the only one with this problem or is it some weirdness with Win 8.1 ?

BobC

dordale · 05-06-2015, 03:10 PM

Different--but similar.

This happens to me with my Sony PRS-350 every time I connect it to my Windows 7 computer. The first time or two, I told my computer to scan the drive, but nothing showed up. Now I just choose ignore and everything works fine. All of my other readers connect to my computer without any problems.

eschwartz · 05-06-2015, 03:25 PM

This is a classic problem with Windows, any version. It will occasionally get it into its head that your drive *might* have problems, and mark it with the hidden dirty bit. The only way to fix it is to reformat your drive -- I've never had any luck clearing it by scanning.

You can also clear the dirty bit by editing the raw drive with a hex editor. Needless to say, this is involved and risky. Here be dragons.

I have been ignoring this problem on all of my removable drives/ereaders/etc, for years now -- because I can't be bothered to copy all my files and reformat my drives just for a Windows-specific idiocy.

JSWolf · 05-06-2015, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

This is a classic problem with Windows, any version. It will occasionally get it into its head that your drive *might* have problems, and mark it with the hidden dirty bit. The only way to fix it is to reformat your drive -- I've never had any luck clearing it by scanning.

You can also clear the dirty bit by editing the raw drive with a hex editor. Needless to say, this is involved and risky. Here be dragons.

I have been ignoring this problem on all of my removable drives/ereaders/etc, for years now -- because I can't be bothered to copy all my files and reformat my drives just for a Windows-specific idiocy.

I've always let Windows check the drive and it's always reset the bit that says the drive needs to be scanned. So the solution is to allow Windows to scan the drive and it will fix things if need be and reset that bit.

PeterT · 05-06-2015, 04:14 PM

I agree with JSWolf here. I've never heard of the need to reformat to clear the dirty bit.

Feher · 05-06-2015, 04:39 PM

I am always able to solve this problem by doing this:

Right click on Drive -> Properties -> Tools -> Error Checking -> Check now -> "Automatically fix file system errors"

eschwartz · 05-06-2015, 05:13 PM

Maybe it depends on actually finding errors?

@JSWolf, @PeterT,

All I know is, scanning for errors has never ever cleared the dirty bit for me. Which is silly because none of my drives/ereaders has ever actually had a problem, dirty bit notwithstanding.

Perhaps I should mail you one of my flashdrives and let you try it, if you think I am hallucinating...

@Feher, never worked for me... and I have tried across every (recent) major version of Windows, numerous times, cli, GUI, automatic resolution or not, etc... I was interested in the phenomena.

murg · 05-06-2015, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

All I know is, scanning for errors has never ever cleared the dirty bit for me. Which is silly because none of my drives/ereaders has ever actually had a problem, dirty bit notwithstanding.

Maybe it's your magnetic personality...

dordale · 05-06-2015, 05:39 PM

I don't know "dirty bits" from "clean bits"

but my experience with my PRS-350 is the same as eschwartz. I've told Windows to run it's scan/clean and the next time I plug the 350 in, I get the same message. No apparent problems with the drive--and it's been doing this for over a year now.

Ripplinger · 05-06-2015, 05:44 PM

I have that annoyance with a lot of my flash drives, and having Windows 7 check it and correct errors (which Windows never finds any to correct) does absolutely nothing to stop it from happening the next time I use the flash drive. I just always tell Windows to ignore it and do nothing now since the drives always check out fine and work perfectly. I do wish there was a way to disable the nagging about the drives though.

eschwartz · 05-06-2015, 07:02 PM

Oh, there is a way. Just follow the above link and modify the actual raw drive with a hex editor.

Fun fact: Windows includes a cli tool to set the dirty bit, i.e. mark a drive as problematic... but no way to do the opposite.

A potential solution -- you can do a hack that stops Windows from checking drives for errors. Of course, if there really is a problem then

PeterT · 05-06-2015, 09:37 PM

Would |OU want a user able to say a drive was error free; that all on disk structures WERE valid? If so best of luck.

There IS a command line tool to reset the dirty bit; while not as sexy as fsutil it's called chkdsk.

eschwartz · 05-07-2015, 12:06 AM

Well, yes I do indeed want the user to be able to have control over his computer. I have had tremendous luck ever since I switched to linux. It is the moronic fools who keep using Windows that cause problems every time I have to plug my flashdrive into their computer to help them (because G-d knows I wouldn't lower myself to use Windows myself).

And unless you completely slept through most of what I said in this thread, you might have noticed when I said doing a disk scan didn't work. I don't really understand why you think the CLI backend would be any luckier, although rest assured it was indeed among the various random experiments I tried.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Perhaps I should mail you one of my flashdrives and let you try it, if you think I am hallucinating...

This is actually starting to sound rather tempting, despite that it was a joke...

davidfor · 05-07-2015, 04:06 AM

I see this happen with my devices occasionally. I always tell Windows to fix it and it does. I don't think Windows has ever reported a problem, but I know that at that point, I eject it and reconnect, I won't get the error again.

Why does it happen? Usually, I blame it on unplugging a bit quickly when I eject. Or not paying attention and seeing that the eject didn't happen because I had something else open on it. This has been happening on my old Win7 laptop and my new Win8.1 laptop. I don't think the frequency has changed.

For BobC, I would connect without calibre of the Kobo desktop running and let Windows check the partition. Then eject, wait for the device to show the home page and connect again. If Windows prompts about a dirty disk again, repeat, but if it keeps doing it, then there is a problem. At that point, I would find another machine and see what happens. If the same thing happens, the Glo HD is faulty. If it is OK, it's probably the Win8 machine.

eschwartz · 05-07-2015, 11:32 AM

davidfor, I have the exact same experience as you, except Windows keeps bothering me. These days I don't bother with checking for errors and I don't always bother to use Eject, but I did try most thoroughly back when I still cared.

It happens on most of my flash storage devices, and it does not matter which computer I use. Accoring to your logic, all my flashdrives, and my Kindle, have failing memory? Of course, I checked with linux tools and that doesn't seem to be the case...
I believe the common factor is the OS from Redmond.

05-06-2015, 06:10 AM	#1
BobC Guru Posts: 691 Karma: 3026110 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Lancashire, U.K. Device: BeBook 1, BeBook Pure, Kobo Glo, (and HD),Energy Sistem EReader Pro +	Glo and Win 8.1 Every time I connect my Glo to my Win 8.1 PC, Windows displays a message that there may be an error on the drive and offers to scan and correct it. This never happened on Win XP and even if I do scan the drive it shows no errors. Am I the only one with this problem or is it some weirdness with Win 8.1 ? BobC

05-06-2015, 03:25 PM	#3
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	This is a classic problem with Windows, any version. It will occasionally get it into its head that your drive might have problems, and mark it with the hidden dirty bit. The only way to fix it is to reformat your drive -- I've never had any luck clearing it by scanning. You can also clear the dirty bit by editing the raw drive with a hex editor. Needless to say, this is involved and risky. Here be dragons. I have been ignoring this problem on all of my removable drives/ereaders/etc, for years now -- because I can't be bothered to copy all my files and reformat my drives just for a Windows-specific idiocy. Last edited by eschwartz; 05-06-2015 at 03:28 PM.

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05-06-2015, 03:10 PM	#2
dordale Wizard Posts: 1,731 Karma: 3472866 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Sony PRS-650 & 350; Kindle Voyage; Kobo Aura HD, Aura One, and Forma	Different--but similar. This happens to me with my Sony PRS-350 every time I connect it to my Windows 7 computer. The first time or two, I told my computer to scan the drive, but nothing showed up. Now I just choose ignore and everything works fine. All of my other readers connect to my computer without any problems.

05-06-2015, 04:14 PM	#5
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,357 Karma: 78877538 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	I agree with JSWolf here. I've never heard of the need to reformat to clear the dirty bit.

05-06-2015, 04:39 PM	#6
Feher Addict Posts: 248 Karma: 1502286 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Onyx Boox M92; Onyx Boox i86ML; Kobo Aura H2O; Dasung Paperlike	I am always able to solve this problem by doing this: Right click on Drive -> Properties -> Tools -> Error Checking -> Check now -> "Automatically fix file system errors"

05-06-2015, 05:13 PM	#7
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Maybe it depends on actually finding errors? @JSWolf, @PeterT, All I know is, scanning for errors has never ever cleared the dirty bit for me. Which is silly because none of my drives/ereaders has ever actually had a problem, dirty bit notwithstanding. Perhaps I should mail you one of my flashdrives and let you try it, if you think I am hallucinating... @Feher, never worked for me... and I have tried across every (recent) major version of Windows, numerous times, cli, GUI, automatic resolution or not, etc... I was interested in the phenomena.

05-06-2015, 05:39 PM	#9
dordale Wizard Posts: 1,731 Karma: 3472866 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Sony PRS-650 & 350; Kindle Voyage; Kobo Aura HD, Aura One, and Forma	I don't know "dirty bits" from "clean bits" but my experience with my PRS-350 is the same as eschwartz. I've told Windows to run it's scan/clean and the next time I plug the 350 in, I get the same message. No apparent problems with the drive--and it's been doing this for over a year now.

05-06-2015, 05:44 PM	#10
Ripplinger 350 Hoarder Posts: 3,574 Karma: 8281267 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2	I have that annoyance with a lot of my flash drives, and having Windows 7 check it and correct errors (which Windows never finds any to correct) does absolutely nothing to stop it from happening the next time I use the flash drive. I just always tell Windows to ignore it and do nothing now since the drives always check out fine and work perfectly. I do wish there was a way to disable the nagging about the drives though.

05-06-2015, 07:02 PM	#11
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Oh, there is a way. Just follow the above link and modify the actual raw drive with a hex editor. Fun fact: Windows includes a cli tool to set the dirty bit, i.e. mark a drive as problematic... but no way to do the opposite. A potential solution -- you can do a hack that stops Windows from checking drives for errors. Of course, if there really is a problem then

05-06-2015, 09:37 PM	#12
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,357 Karma: 78877538 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	Would \|OU want a user able to say a drive was error free; that all on disk structures WERE valid? If so best of luck. There IS a command line tool to reset the dirty bit; while not as sexy as fsutil it's called chkdsk.

05-07-2015, 04:06 AM	#14
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	I see this happen with my devices occasionally. I always tell Windows to fix it and it does. I don't think Windows has ever reported a problem, but I know that at that point, I eject it and reconnect, I won't get the error again. Why does it happen? Usually, I blame it on unplugging a bit quickly when I eject. Or not paying attention and seeing that the eject didn't happen because I had something else open on it. This has been happening on my old Win7 laptop and my new Win8.1 laptop. I don't think the frequency has changed. For BobC, I would connect without calibre of the Kobo desktop running and let Windows check the partition. Then eject, wait for the device to show the home page and connect again. If Windows prompts about a dirty disk again, repeat, but if it keeps doing it, then there is a problem. At that point, I would find another machine and see what happens. If the same thing happens, the Glo HD is faulty. If it is OK, it's probably the Win8 machine.

05-07-2015, 11:32 AM	#15
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	davidfor, I have the exact same experience as you, except Windows keeps bothering me. These days I don't bother with checking for errors and I don't always bother to use Eject, but I did try most thoroughly back when I still cared. It happens on most of my flash storage devices, and it does not matter which computer I use. Accoring to your logic, all my flashdrives, and my Kindle, have failing memory? Of course, I checked with linux tools and that doesn't seem to be the case... I believe the common factor is the OS from Redmond.

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