chkdsk utility

How to Run 'chkdsk' utility

Windows XP has chkdsk utility (check disk) to check the Hard Disc Drive for Error and problems. In computer systems Hard Drives are more susceptible to errors and problems. The reason is Hard Drives are the only major Mechanical device with moving parts. Hard Drives store data on Magnetic plates. Drives has read heads that is moved by motors to specific location on the magnetic plate. The plates rotates at the speed of thousands of revolutions per seconds. Disks are accessed whenever a program is opened, whenever some data is written. Even when we are not working and idle windows will do some background processing and disk drive is accessed constantly. Due to this constant usage the drive will wear out. Power failure is another reason that affects the Hard Disk Drive. The Windows XP Chkdsk utility comes to our rescue.

Previously in Windows 98, Scandisk was the utility that checks file system corruption and bad sectors on the disk. Widows XP was shipped with advanced version, chkdsk.

chkdsk will fix most common errors in file system.

How to open / use chkdsk utility?

You need not install or download chkdsk. In windows xp computer, open My Comuter, Right click the drive you want to check, Click properties, in the tools tab, Click 'Check Now'.

You will get a dialog box with two check boxes. 1. Automatically fix file system errors. 2. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

Check the two options and click start. Chkdsk will now check your drive for errors and if any errors is found, it will attempt to fix it. It will also try to repair bad sectors.

If you run chkdsk on Driver "c:" with Windows installed on it, chkdsk will run in read only mode



In that case you will get the following message,

The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed only by restarting windows. Do you want to schedule this disk check to occur next time you restart the Computer?
Give YES if you want to schedule disk check while restarting computer. If you give yes, when you boot the computer next time, disk check will run automatically, it will make correction on the disk.

How to run dskchk in command line?

To run chkdsk in console mode open command window (start->run->type cmd and give ok) and type chkdsk and press enter.

the current drive will be checked for errors. If you want to check another drive specify it as a parameter, for example give chkdsk d: to check drive D.

Here is the usage of Chkdsk

CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]]


volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
filename FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation
.
/F Fixes errors on the disk.
/V On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file
on the disk.
On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
(implies /F).
/L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number
of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current
size.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
(implies /F).

/I NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.

/C NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
structure.

The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by
skipping certain checks of the volume.

If chkdsk stops / hangs / freezes, retry with /F option. Restart the computer and try again.
At some times windows will not boot properly and you will get a blue screen error of some kind. Try using chkdsk utility. Some time this fill fix the problem and you can boot in to windows. Boot with Windows XP bootable CD. Select the Repair option (with R key). You will get into recovery console. Login with Administrator user name and password. At command prompt type 'chkdsk'. The drive C: will be checked. Type Exit to reboot.