Everything Hangs When Accessing Tracking.log in System Volume Information Folder

[Guest Charles Law]

I have Googled extensively for help on this, but although there are many,

many reports of this problem, none of the solutions work for me, and no one

has offered an explanation for the problem.

 

All was well with my recently re-installed Windows XP SP3 set-up. I used

Acronis Disk Director 10 to move some partitions around and resize them.

Later, when I rebooted, all seemed fine, but when I started Disk Director

again it hung on one drive. I left it for a while (10 minutes) and noticed

that it had moved to another drive and hung there. Eventually, having left

it for an hour or more, it showed the GUI, but doing anything with the

problem drives caused another hang.

 

I then tried OO Defrag, and noticed that it stopped when trying to access

the file tracking.log in the System Volume Information folder on the problem

drive. That's when I started Googling, and found how many people were

getting the same problem. Suggestions varied, but one suggested deleting the

file and allowing XP to recreate it on reboot. I did that but the problem

remained.

 

If I right-click the file in Explorer and select Properties, then Explorer

hangs and I have to reboot.

 

If I start the computer in Safe Mode the problem does not occur, I can

access the file normally, and run Disk Director.

 

I have tried deleting the partition and recreating it but the problem

still exists. I have tried FIXMBR but that doesn't help either.

 

I'd really like to understand what the actual problem is. The system behaves

normally in every other way, but I can't run my partition and defrag tools

anymore.

 

Some have suggested this is a ZoneAlarm problem (which I do use

incidentally), but I have stopped the ZoneAlarm service and still have the

problem.

 

I normally run with System Restore turned off, but I have tried enabling it

and disabling it and it makes no difference.

 

Please can someone tell me what the cause of this problem is, and how to fix

it.

 

Thanks

 

Charles