CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 1: What are Operating Systems and How Do They Work?       9  File Structure            9  Checking for Disk Errors

Scandisk 1 File Attributes

The process is somewhat different under Windows NT, 2000 and XP. The graphical Scandisk tool has been replaced by a CDI based tool called Checkdisk¹¹. This is a more powerful tool than Scandisk, but most importantly, it supports the NTFS file system, which Scandisk does not. To run it, first open a command console by typing “cmd” at the Start – Run prompt. Next, type “chkdsk” at the command prompt. Checkdisk will run, providing you with a percentage complete progress report as it works. When complete, a summary will be displayed.

It is extremely important to know that running Checkdisk in this manner only reports errors on the disk. To actually fix errors Checkdisk must be run with the /F switch, which produces another major difference between it and Scandisk. If you attempt to run Checkdisk on the C drive, you will most likely be warned that it cannot proceed.

To fix disk structure errors, Checkdisk must lock the drive so that it has “exclusive access” – in other words, absolutely no other programs must write to the disk at the same time, including the operating system. If the drive cannot be locked, Checkdisk will ask whether it should perform the check at the next reboot when exclusive access can be guaranteed. This occurs during the graphical screen part of the Windows boot sequence. It is completely harmless to run on a working drive, so feel free to answer yes to the above prompt and reboot to see Checkdisk run.

Scandisk 1 File Attributes