CHKDSK

I have been asked recently about hard drive errors and the best way people can tell if they are getting one. I recommend that if you really believe you have a disk error that you take it to some IT support so they can diagnose it for you, or if you want to do a quick check at home you should use CHKDSK.

CHKDSK is a command in Windows that lets you check for errors on your hard drives, it will also repair errors. CHKDSK creates and displays a status report for a disk based on the file system, it also lists and corrects errors on the disk. Used without parameters, chkdsk displays the status of the disk in the current drive.

You can access CHKDSK in two different ways in Windows, maually or through My Computer;

Manually

• Click Start and then Run
• Type cmd in the run box
• In the cmd box type in the following commands to start a CHKDSK scan;
  • chkdsk c:
  • chkdsk c: /f /r (if you want CHKDSK to fix errors and find bad sectors use this command)
• You will usually need to reboot so that the CHKDSK program will lock the disk and run correctly.

When used under Windows with the /F or the /R parameter when there are open files on the disk (for instance if running it on the boot disk) CHKDSK suggests it be run on the next restart. If the user agrees, it will execute autochk.exe when the computer is restarted, which will run the CHKDSK code.

My Computer

• Open My Computer (or just Computer in Vista)
• Right click on the C Drive icon and click Properties
• In the (C:) Properties box click on the Tools tab
• Click on the check now box (you may need to say yes to permission)
• Check both boxes and click on Start
• It should now fix file system errors and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors

Sometimes the check still fails, giving the error "Cannot open volume for direct access" on startup, due to an application (anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, and the like) that locks up the partition before CHKDSK can access it. This has been improved in Service Pack 2, but still happens occasionally.

One fix is to set the "/SAFEBOOT" option in the boot.ini tab after running msconfig. This puts the system in a minimal/low-resolution mode temporarily, though, which can be disconcerting but doesn't mean that anything is broken.