Question : Problem: 2TB NAS Checkdisk

I have a NAS running windows 2003 server appliance edition.  It started out with 1TB of storage.  It is set up as a Raid 5.  Every time it reboots it would start up CheckDisk.  Because of the massive storage(and the amount of time it would take for checkdisk to run), I have been bypassing the checkdisk every time it reboots.  We just recently upped the 1TB of Storage to 2TB(4x500GB drives), by replacing 1 drive at a time and letting it rebuild each individual drive.  After all drives were replaced, we rebooted the NAS.  Now it does not give an option to bypass Checkdisk.  It went through file verification(Stage 1) fairly quick, but it has been on Stage 2(verifying indexes) for 6 hours and has not shown a progress percentage yet.  The NAS is a PowerVault 745N.  Why can I not bypass checkdisk?  Will I have to let it run its course and how long can I expect it to take?  Any insight to this situation is greatly appreciated.

Answer : Problem: 2TB NAS Checkdisk

It might be too late by now, but you can run chkdsk with the /i switch, and it can reduce run times 50-70%. Read this article on Microsoft for the instructions: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314835

Autochk runs at boot time when the dirty bit is set on the volume. You can check the dirty bit using fsutil, but autochk will still need to run at boot to clear it if it is set. The command is fsutil dirty query .

So perhaps running chkdsk /c /i from the recovery console would be your best bet, that is, if it hasn't finished running already.