A week late, but still...

Due to a close encounter with an immovable object last week, I was unable to post my normal Thursday update about my Windows Secrets column. Of course, once they're published, the columns go into a permanent archive from which they're always accessible. The folks at Windows Secrets put my columns in the paid-content section, which is an honor-system deal: You make one voluntary payment--- you decide how much--- and gain access to all the Windows Secrets content for a full year. It's actually a pretty reasonable deal.

Windows Secrets is normally published 4 times a month, on Thursdays. Some months have 5 Thursdays (this month, for example), which gives me a chance to catch you up with the missing post from last week's issue, still available in the archives.

The lead article was/is "What to do when Chkdsk won't finish the job."

A reader asked: "Chkdsk won't run with Windows open, nor at reboot; it reports that it's unable to obtain direct access to the volume. Windows support techs suggested I boot from a Windows XP install CD and run Chkdsk from there. I did, but Chkdsk stops after quickly reporting one or more unrecoverable errors on the volume. I ran OEM drive diagnostics and it passed all tests. The Microsoft techs are suggesting I replace the drive because there's something very wrong with it. Trouble is, my laptop is running fine, with no program glitches, no delayed write errors, no data corruption, or any other symptom of an ailing drive. I have a recent drive image plus a full backup of all files. Any suggestions?"

There actually are a number of steps to try before giving up and replacing the drive, and I'll walk you through them all in the lead article.

Other reader questions answered in that issue:

Steve Roach's Vista question actually affects all versions of Windows: "I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 on a 100GB partition. My applications and Documents folders are also on this partition. Media files are on a different partition. Over the course of the day, my percent used varies from 47GB to 62GB. I'm not adding or removing programs. What's causing this? How can I manage it?"

Aaron Groom's Wi-Fi setup is stuck in first gear: "I run wireless on my at-home office PC. Typically, I would get 1.5–3Mbps transfer rates to my networked storage drives. I recently went on vacation and cleaned out my office to have it painted while I was gone. When I set up my PC again upon returning home, my wireless-transfer speed dropped to 512Kbps or less. Everything is set up as it was before I left, and my home wireless router has not moved or been reconfigured. Any 1) idea what could cause this and 2) general ideas to boost my transfer rate?"

Rich Rauth wants to move one of his default Vista folders: "My Vista install really works great. I'd like to clean up some of the mess made when I transferred files from my old XP machine to the new computer, which came with Vista Business. One issue is how to get the Documents folder to reside on a second, roomier 1TB hard drive. It was easy in XP, but not so with Vista."

Again, access to all my columns, past and present, is by a kind of honor-system principle: You decide what the content is worth, and whatever you decide to pay lets you in to *all* the weekly paid-edition content (not just my columns) for a full year.

Full info (you start by signing up for the spam-proof free version) here: http://windowssecrets.com/

Thanks for checking this out!