Chkdsk, the reality

While using the 9x systems CHKDSK was known as scandisk. There is no scan scandisk in XP at all. (Nor was scandisk present in 2000 either to be accurate about such things.) Instead it's now called CHKDSK and offers a whole myriad of new options hitherto unseen in the likes of computing. (Well, I made that last bit up; It was also on 2k and NT too.)

Anyhow...

1. Double click on "My Computer"
2. Right click on the drive in question
3. Select "Properties"
4. Click on the "Tools" tab
5. Click on the "Check Now" button
6. Tick the "Automatically fix file system errors"
7. You might as well tick "Scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors"

You can then reboot if you'd like or you can just wait until the next time you reboot and it will have been scheduled if you followed the on-screen prompts.

You can also run CHKDSK from the command line. In most cases (where you're checking the install drive) you will want to follow the instructions below:

1. Click the Start button
2. Click Run
   (or skip #1 and #2 and simply press "WinKey + R")
3. Type cmd
4. Click OK
5. At the command prompt type chkdsk (see below for "switch" information)
6. Press the "Enter" key on your keyboard
7. Agree to schedule it for the next restart
8. Restart and get a cup of coffee

For a list of available switches you can check this link:
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP

Now here is where we differ from a lot of other sites.

It is claimed that the running of the /r switch implies the /f switch. This is true but NOT always in actuality. It is our recommendation that your command line look this:

It will take no additional time and will insure that the process has been run. Sometimes, in the years in the trenches, it seems that's skipped for no reason that we can name nor lay a rudimentary reasoning to. So, if you have no other reason to use the switches that way, then do it simply because we advised you to.

The article mentioned above:
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
contains more information on the subject.

OS: XP > General
Date: 11/15/05

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