Old Hippie Brand Computers

How to Run Scandisk

This is for Windows XP but other Windows operating systems are similar but may not work as well and may have to be run in safe mode to be effective.

Errors in disk media and in the file system can cause a wide range of Windows problems, ranging from an inability to open or save files to blue-screen errors and widespread data corruption. Microsoft Windows XP is capable of recovering automatically from many disk errors, especially on drives formatted with NTFS. To perform a thorough inspection for errors, you can manually run the Windows XP Check Disk utility, chkdsk.exe. Two versions of this utility are available— a graphical version that performs basic disk-checking functions, and a command-line version that provides a much more extensive set of customization options.

To check for errors on a local disk, follow these steps:

Open the My Computer window, right-click the icon belonging to the drive you want to check, and then choose Properties.

On the Tools tab, click the Check Now button.

In the Check Disk dialog box select both options.

Automatically Fix File System Errors. Select this option if you want Windows to automatically repair any file system errors. If this option is not selected, the Check Disk utility reports any errors it finds but does not change them. This option is the equivalent of running the Chkdsk command with the /F switch, as described later in this section.
Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors. Select this option to perform an exhaustive check of the entire disk, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information stored in defective locations. Note that selecting this option automatically repairs file system errors as well, even if the previous option is cleared. This option is the equivalent of running the Chkdsk command with the /R switch.

If you simply want to see a report of file system errors without making any changes to disk structures, leave both boxes unchecked.

Click the Start button to begin the disk checking process. The green progress bar provides feedback as the error-checking tool goes through several phases.
If you selected the Automatically Fix File System Errors option on a drive that currently has open files, Windows is unable to run the utility immediately and will give you a message confirming this. Click on Yes and the check disk utility will run on the next system boot.
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