Scandisk is a utility used in MS-DOS and Microsoft windows as well. It is used for checking and repairing the file systems and the bad clusters that are available in the hard drive. First, it was introduced in the MS-DOS 6.2 version, it was a simple and purely text based program, chkdsk. Scandisk has a more user friendly interface as compared to chkdsk and MS-DOS, more of command line and other configurations as well. It also has the ability to recover all the physical errors from the disk. Unlike chkdsk, scandisk will repair the crosslinked files as well. You must learn how to run scandisk as it can help you in many ways.
From Windows 95 onwards, scandisk started using the graphical interface, although the text interface was available for using the single tasking mode. However, scandisk cannot check the NTFS disk drive and hence it is not available for computers that run on NT based version. Here are some simple steps on how to run scandisk on different operating systems.
Windows XP
- The first step will be opening ‘my computer’ in windows XP. Now, you will have to find the icon from the hard drive where you want to run the scandisk. If you want then you can use scandisk on the primary hard drive, secondary hard drive or external hard drive. You will have to right click on the icon from the hard drive and choose the option ‘properties’.
- From there you will have to select the option ‘tools’. The scandisk utility will be activated from the box of error checking, which is present at the top of the tools tab. To start scandisk you will have to click on the ‘check now’ button.
- Note that both the boxes must be displayed. You will have to choose the ‘automatically fix file system error’ box. This option will start the first basic scan in the drive, which will only take a few moments.
- Now you must put a check on the “scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” box for a more detailed scan. With this check, windows XP will take nearly 10 hours or longer than that for running the scandisk depending on the size of the hard drive your system has. Run the detailed scan if you notice a problem with the performance of the hard drive. For regular checks, you can run the basic check and run the longer checks occasionally.
- Now, press the ‘start’ button for starting the scandisk. Wait for sometime for Windows to finish the scandisk and view the report. Scandisk will give you all the details of the errors that were found and fixed. Now, you will have to click on the ‘close’ button once you finished viewing the report.
Command prompt
- The first step will be to run MS-Dos prompt. You can easily access the prompt from the boot screen once you see the option ‘press any button for MS-DOS’ or you can click on the ‘start’, ‘run’ and then type ‘cmd’ in the text box of run and hit ‘enter’.
- Now you will have to type ‘c:’ without any of the quotation marks. Then start typing ‘cd\windows\command’ without quotation marks.
- Wait for some time for the ‘c:/windows/command:’ to appear on the screen. Now, you will have to type ‘c:scandisk’ and then press the ‘enter’ button. Let scandisk complete the entire operation and then you will have completed the task.
- You will have to use the alternate chkdsk method in windows XP and windows vista. For the XP users, go to ‘start’, then ‘run’ and type ‘cmd’, press ‘enter’, and type ‘chkdsk’. For Vista users, click on ‘start’, ‘all programs’, ‘accessories’ and ‘command prompt’. After this, you will have to type ‘chkdsk’, hit ‘enter’, and allow the program to run.
Windows Vista
- All the important functions in Vista can be accessed only through the ‘start’ option. Unlike the earlier versions of Windows, it will not be located under programs. You will have to left click on the Vista button for selecting the option ‘computer’.
- Choose properties and then right click on the hard drive where you want to run the scan and a drop down menu will come up on the screen. You will have to scroll down on the ‘properties’ option and right click again.
- Now, choose the tab, which says ‘tools’ and a small menu will appear. Choose the menu, which says ‘error checking’.
- Depending on the user settings, Vista will ask you permission for running the program. You will have to grant the permission and then a new window will open up. The window will show a message; Windows is not able to run the program currently. It will give you two options to restart the system now or to schedule a future time to restart.
- Now, you will have to reboot the computer at a desired time and Vista will start performing a scandisk check. If possible, run the scandisk error check at least once in a month.
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