Name of real good Disk Checker needed

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I’ve never used a hard disk checker and could use some advice about installing one that will diagnose and repair if necessary. Preferably one that will show what it’s doing.

I await words of wisdom from the throne of computer knowledge.

Gloria

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I’ve never used a hard disk checker and could use some advice about installing one that will diagnose and repair if necessary. Preferably one that will show what it’s doing.

I await words of wisdom from the throne of computer knowledge.

Gloria

If you have Windows installed, you already have one. Try “chkdsk.exe”. Open a command prompt and type “chkdsk /?” (without the quotes). That will detail all of the different options and switches that you can use with chkdsk.

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I’ve never used a hard disk checker and could use some advice about installing one that will diagnose and repair if necessary. Preferably one that will show what it’s doing.

To add to what John says, I always use
CHKDSK C: /F /V /R
(and you have to reply Y to the “Can’t do this at the moment – do you want to do it on the next reboot?”-type message)
or
CHKDSK D: /F /V /R
for the D: drive, and so on.

Beware that running CHKDSK can take a _l_o_n_ g_ time, often several hours, depending on disk size and the amount of checking needed, so be very patient!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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To add to what John says, I always use
CHKDSK C: /F /V /R
(and you have to reply Y to the “Can’t do this at the moment – do you want to do it on the next reboot?”-type message)
or
CHKDSK D: /F /V /R
for the D: drive, and so on.

Beware that running CHKDSK can take a _l_o_n_ g_ time, often several hours, depending on disk size and the amount of checking needed, so be very patient!

I’m very glad you mentioned the time it will take to run. I don’t have hours to sit and watch it run. Forgetting about using chkdsk is now on the table, in fact, it’s at the top of my list.

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Forgetting about using chkdsk is now on the table, in fact, it’s at the top of my list.

Sorry to say this Gloria, but that’s a big mistake. The longer you put it off, the more complicated the problems can become, possibly even eventually require wiping the drive and starting over. If files or directory entries get corrupt, cross-linked or other problems, continuing to use the drive in that condition can compound the problem

Now, Batcher is right, in that SOMETIMES running chkdsk can take a long time, but you should DO IT, not put it off. I have three drives in my machine and I run chkdsk on each one every Saturday prior to doing my backup imaging. It never takes more than 5-10 minutes for each. As Batcher said, the C: drive will seem to take the longest because it requires a bootup to do it.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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I’m very glad you mentioned the time it will take to run. I don’t have hours to sit and watch it run. Forgetting about using chkdsk is now on the table, in fact, it’s at the top of my list.

Run it overnight. You don’t have to sit and watch it run.

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Run it overnight. You don’t have to sit and watch it run.

I would like to thank all you gentlemen that replied. I have printed all the information provided and have reconsidered my last post. I will run it over night but I have a question about using the command prompt.

How do I get the prompt to defer to the C: drive instead of Documents & Settings? Never having done something like this before successfully I need the information before I can procede.

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How do I get the prompt to defer to the C: drive instead of Documents & Settings?

In the command prompt window enter (without quotes) “cd ” and press enter.

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How do I get the prompt to defer to the C: drive

Create a shortcut on your desktop as I have on mine:

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Create a shortcut on your desktop as I have on mine:

How do I reach DOS Prompt Properties? Sorry to be so ignorant but that’s what I am when it comes to DOS. That was way before my time on a computer.

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How do I reach DOS Prompt Properties?

On your desktop, right-click in an empty spot and select New, Shortcut. In the coming window, put CMD.EXE and continue out. You should end up with a shortcut on your desktop like this clip shows. I have then right-clicked on this new shortcut and selected Properties to get the screenshot you see. In this screen, enter the information from my previous example. You can RENAME the shortcut as I have to DOS Prompt (which is really a misnomer) or anything else you’d like. (If you leave the shortcut as created, it will open in the Windows folder.)

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I have a question about using the command prompt.
How do I get the prompt to defer to the C: drive instead of Documents & Settings? Never having done something like this before successfully I need the information before I can procede.

Not sure whether this problem was related to running CHKDSK!
But if it was, the answer is that you don’t need to make the current directory to be the root using
CD C:
because the CHKDSK program is found in the path and will run ok from any current directory.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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To add to what John says, I always use
CHKDSK C: /F /V /R

What do “/F /V /R” check?

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According to Chkdsk:

/F: Fixes errors on the volume. The volume must be locked. If Chkdsk cannot lock the volume, it offers to check it the next time the computer starts.

/R: Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /f ). If Chkdsk cannot lock the volume, it offers to check it the next time the computer starts.

/V: On FAT. Displays the full path and name of every file on the volume. On NTFS. Displays cleanup messages, if any.

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According to Chkdsk:

/F: Fixes errors on the volume. The volume must be locked. If Chkdsk cannot lock the volume, it offers to check it the next time the computer starts.

/R: Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /f ). If Chkdsk cannot lock the volume, it offers to check it the next time the computer starts.

/V: On FAT. Displays the full path and name of every file on the volume. On NTFS. Displays cleanup messages, if any.

Many thanks.

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To add to what John says, I always use
CHKDSK C: /F /V /R

Now, if someone would like to explain to me (though I know how to use chkdsk) why they use both parameters /f and /r in Windows Normal mode, and at the same time explain to this Swede the meaning of the English word “implies”, I would be grateful.

Thank you.

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You can always set it off before you go to bed, and come back in the morning. The information about the CHKDSK results for the boot drive is held in the Application Event Log.

“When Autochk runs against a volume at boot time it records its output to a file called Bootex.log in the root of the volume being checked. The Winlogon service then moves the contents of each Bootex.log file to the Application Event log. One event log message for each volume checked is recorded as follows:
Event ID: 1001
Source: Winlogon
Description: This includes file system type; drive letter or GUID, and volume name or serial number to help determine what volume Chkdsk ran against.
Also included is whether Chkdsk ran because a user scheduled it or because the dirty bit was set. “

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Thank you John and Batcher. I will try it Batcher’s way first, if that fails then I’ll try John’s. One of them is sure to work.

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Thank you John and Batcher. I will try it Batcher’s way first, if that fails then I’ll try John’s. One of them is sure to work.

BOTH will work.

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BOTH will work.

I went to command prompt and changed to the C drive by typing CD C:
At the C prompt I typed chkdsk c: and a message appeared that read: chkdsk is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. I tried it both ways and the same message appeared.

What did I do wrong?

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I went to command prompt and changed to the C drive by typing CD C:
At the C prompt I typed chkdsk c: and a message appeared that read: chkdsk is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. I tried it both ways and the same message appeared.

What did I do wrong?

You added a backslash somehow (if you now typed what you did at the command prompt), that should not be there.

If you do as you have been told here that should not happen. For a start, some told you about the help; “chkdsk /?” will give you an explanation about the different parameters – but also (as always) the syntax.

Remember: if you use chkdsk (or in the UI check disk) without parameters it will be in read only mode, i.e. it will only check but not repair.

So, you have for read only mode (no switch parameter) and no need for “C:” :
chkdsk C:

For more examples use /? or see, for example, this [post=”603616″]post[/post].

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I went to command prompt and changed to the C drive by typing CD C:
At the C prompt I typed chkdsk c: and a message appeared that read: chkdsk is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. I tried it both ways and the same message appeared.

What did I do wrong?

Gloria,
Have you read ANY of the previous posts, or did you actually do a “chkdsk /?”. Do you see in ANY of these posts or in the results of “chkdsk /?” where there was ANY command that read “chkdsk c: ” ?

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