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TECH TIPS - HARD DISK
Using
Scandisk
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| Scandisk
is a disk utility included in Windows 9x which repairs minor problems
and errors on hard disks and floppy diskettes. |
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Scandisk is used to repair
damage caused to your hard drive. Your hard drive contains a FAT
table (File Allocation Table) which keeps track of all files and
their proper location on the hard drive. When this file is severely
damaged it can cause one's computer not to boot. This file can be
damaged when your machine crashes or is shut down improperly.
If you ever have a crash
normally you see a limited DOS version of scandisk automatically
when your machine reboots. It attempts to fix any problems that
the crash may have caused when the machine was not shut down properly.
The windows version of this utility is much more powerful and can
save a computer user from hours of frustration if it is run on a
regularly scheduled basis.
Severe problems with
hard drives include bad sectors which are essentially "pot
holes" on your hard disk. A thorough scan of a drive with ScanDisk
will mark these bad sectors and prevent any data from being written
to these bad sectors.
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Scandisk should be used
when your PC has symptoms such as:
- Stalling at the Windows startup screen.
- Experiencing increased amounts of wait time in accessing files.
- Applications crashing or the "blue screen of death"
- Before defragmenting your hard drive. (Make this a link to Defrag
Page)
- After a system crash.
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We suggest you run a
Standard scan of your hard drive volume(s) once per week.
We suggest you run a
Thorough scan of your hard drive volume(s) once per month.
It is also a good practice
to run Scandisk after a system crash.
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- Click the
button and select Accessories 
System Tools.
- Double-click Add Scheduled Tasks, the Sheduled Task Wizard appears.
- Click Next.
- Scroll down the list of applications, click ScanDisk and click
Next.
- Select Weekly under Perform this task, click Next.
- Select a day of the week and time in which your computer is
normally turned on and click Next.
- The final screen will
have a summary of the scheduled scandisk task, click Finish.
In order for the scheduled
task to work your computer must be powered on and running windows
at the time you chose to run the task.
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| When
your machine boots, when you see Starting Windows 9x quickly press
the F8 key. If you never see starting Starting Windows 9x, reboot
your machine and press the F8 Key continuously until the DOS boot
screen appears and select choice 3 Safe Mode. |
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- Turn off your screensaver. Click the
button and select Settings|Control Panel. Double-click the Display
control panel. Click the Screen Saver tab and click the down arrow
under Screen Saver and select None.
- Right-click on each icon and select close, exit, or pause until
as many applications as possible
have been removed from the system tray.
Example of System Tray 
- Click the button and select Programs
Accessories
System Tools
ScanDisk.
- Click Start:
- The following window appears.
If it is not already highlighted as above click on the C: drive.
The Standard radio button should be selected and a check should
be in the box beside Automatically Fix Errors.
- Click Advanced.
The following screen appears:
- Click Start.
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If there are
no errors:
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If ScanDisk
finds errors:
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Click Close and the operation in now complete.
Click Close and repeat steps 3-6 until no errors are found.
You have now completed a Standard scan of your hard disk using
Scandisk for Windows.
NOTE: You must scan each hard disk volume on your computer,
so if you have more than one hard disk volume, i.e. a C: drive
& a D: drive, both must be scanned.
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A thorough scan of your
hard drive will take a considerable amount of times, sometimes well
over an hour. The amount of time it takes is dependent upon the
size of
your hard drive and the amount of files on the drive. We recommend
you perform a thorough scan of your hard drive(s) when you will
be away from your computer
for a few hours or so.
- Turn off your screensaver. Click the
button and select Settings
Control Panel. Double-click the Display control panel. Click the
Screen Saver tab and click the down arrow under Screen Saver and
select None.
- Right-click on each
icon and select close, exit, or pause until as any applications
as possible
have been removed from the system tray.
Example of System
Tray
- Click the
button and select Programs
Accessories
System Tools
ScanDisk.
- Click Start.
- The following window
appears.
- Under Type of Test select the Thorough radio button and if a
check is not already present, click once in the box beside Automatically
Fix Errors.
- Click Start.
NOTE: This process can
take as little as one hour, but dependent upon the condition of
your hard drive it could take considerably longer.
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The following screen appears
when the Advanced button is clicked.
Double Click the 
Icon.
The following window appears.
Click the Startup Disk tab.
The following window appears.
Click Create Disk.
The following window appears.
WARNING: Diskette
will be completely reformatted. All files on the disk will be lost.
1.Insert a diskette and click
OK.
When the progress meter reaches
100% your bootable Windows 98 diskette with CD-Rom support will be ready
for use.
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Tips & Tricks
Clean up your hard disk drive with
ScanDisk
Through normal use of your computer, your
hard disk drive can become cluttered and a bit messy. And folders
can become cross-linked, file names can contain invalid or unknown
characters or become damaged, and file names can become
disassociated with their files. ScanDisk can fix these and other
problems for you. It's also a good idea to run ScanDisk on a regular
basis: once a week for Standard, and once a month for Thorough.
Here's how to use ScanDisk:
- Click the Start
button.
- Point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System
Tools, and then click ScanDisk.
- Click the drive you want to scan, and
choose either the Standard or Thorough test.
- Click Start.
- The Standard test checks the files and folders on
the selected drives for errors.
- The Thorough test will give you further options. It
performs the Standard
test plus checks your hard disk drive for physical damage.
You can even specify to scan areas of your disk containing
only data files, or just the areas with system files, or
both.
- Both Standard and
Thorough have a set of
Advanced
options that help you to deal with lost
file fragments, invalid files, and files that overlap the
same disk space. You can also choose to keep a log file of
what ScanDisk finds.
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| Examine Recovered Files |
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Troubleshooting and
Resource Guide
for Windows 95/98/
Millennium:
Maintaining Your PC
Using ScanDisk for
Healthy Hard Drives
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Use this handy search tool to locate individual words or terms of interest on this page.
 ScanDisk is found in System Tools with the Defrag utility. Use it frequently to maintain a well-organized hard drive. ScanDisk will take a good bit of time, especially if you have it perform a surface scan. (It says it'll take "about 5 minutes;" hah.) Like Defrag, it can "hang" for a long time while actually working behind the scenes. Hands off for at least an hour before you consider shutting it down. Like Defrag, ScanDisk doesn't do well when other programs are running simultaneously. Shut
'em down. This includes screen savers.
 One method I've seen for setting your ScanDisk configurations goes like this: Select the Standard radio button and enable Automatically Fix Errors. Click on Advanced and, under Log File, pick Replace Log; for Cross-Linked Files, select Delete; click Free under Lost File Fragments; under Check Files For, check "Invalid dates and times;" and disable "Check host drive first," unless you've compressed your hard drive. This is a good configuration for maximizing ScanDisk's efficiency.
In a related note, here's how one Win ME guru recommends that ME users handle
ScanDisk. Go through the Advanced menu and set the following options: Set Display Summary to Always, to confirm that ScanDisk is doing its job. Set Lost File Fragments to Free, to avoid the annoying buildup of
FILE???.CHK files that are almost always worthless and unrecoverable anyway. Set Cross-Linked Files to Delete; these files are hopelessly damaged (if you find yourself with a lot of cross-linked files, you should think about letting a program such as Norton Utilities fix them). Check all the other check boxes. ScanDisk will remember these settings and use them again.
Be warned: ScanDisk has no Undo feature. Once it makes a change, that change is there to stay.
If you constantly have problems with ScanDisk not completing its run, try rebooting Windows in Safe mode and running ScanDisk from there (restart Windows, then press F8 when you see the words "Starting Windows 95" appear; with Win 98/ME, restart Windows and immediately press and hold the Ctrl key until the Startup menu appears). Chances are good that whatever program is interfering with ScanDisk won't load under Safe mode.
If ScanDisk finds a number of cross-linked files, you've got problems. Before letting ScanDisk try to repair the problem, make sure you back up your files. Otherwise you'll lose something.
If ScanDisk finds a few lost clusters or file fragments, you're usually safe in letting the program wipe them out. If you're unsure, have ScanDisk save them to a file and use a word processor (not
NotePad) to look these files over. If it finds lots of lost clusters or file fragments, chances are it has rearranged your file structure in a way you won't like. If you have a number of "Dir00001," "Dir00002," etc, or "File0001," "File0002," etc, you've got problems. Those directories and files were the result of ScanDisk's ham-handed attempt to fix major problems on your drive. It's doubtful that you can properly restore the original file structure.
If ScanDisk finds unstable sectors on your hard drive, that drive's days are numbered. Buy a new hard drive and transfer everything to the new disk.
Do a quick scan every day. Once every two weeks or so, do a more thorough full scan of all drive partitions. You can't scan too much.
ScanDisk is not a cure-all; it can only repair minor problems. The last time my computer crashed, ScanDisk repaired things enough to let me reaccess Windows (I ran ScanDisk from the C: prompt), but it didn't fix anything. It did let me get to my programs and back up critical files, though.
If your PC crashes while the printer is running, errant data from the printer data spool can quickly jam your hard disk with electronic
gobbledy-gook. Expect Scandisk to remove a great deal of gunk in .CHK files.
Speaking of
.CHK files, sometimes Scandisk yanks entire files and renames them with the .CHK extension. Here's two ways to (sometimes) identify and restore these mysterious files. The easiest way is if you already know what the file might be: for example, Scandisk does its thing, you come up missing a .GIF file, and you have a
.CHK file that looks to be about the same file size. The file is probably named FILE0000.CHK; rename it FILE0000.GIF and try to open it with your usual graphics viewer. If it opens, fine. If not, delete it. The second way comes into play when you're not sure what the
.CHK file might be. Open the mystery file in WordPad and note the first few characters of the file. They might identify the file type: BM indicates a .BMP file; GIF, a .GIF file,
JFIF, a .JPG or .JPEG file; MZ, a program; PK, a .ZIP file. Don't save the file in WordPad! Rename it using the proper extension and try to open it using the proper application. If it opens, great. If not, delete it.
You can save yourself time and effort by automating your ScanDisk usage, by adding a few command-line switches to the appropriate Shortcut. After this, you can simply click the button and watch ScanDisk do its thing. To do so, right-click the Start button and choose Open or Explore. Locate the ScanDisk Shortcut, which lives in your Windows/Start Menu/Programs/Accessories/System Tools folder. (To make a shortcut for your desktop, right-click the ScanDisk icon, drag it to the desktop, and choose either Copy Here or Create
Shortcut(s) Here.) Press Alt+Enter to open the Properties screen, click the Shortcut tab, then click at the end of the command line in the Target box. Then add the appropriate command switches (separated by spaces) to make ScanDisk perform as you like. Switches are as follows: For scanning a particular drive, type its letter followed by a colon (A:, C:,. etc.). For scanning all (non-networked) drives, don't type any drive letters, just type /a. For ScanDisk to start and stop without your input, type /n. Using this switch will not stop ScanDisk from stopping to report errors; if you don't want the error information, start ScanDisk and check Automatically Fix Errors. Let ScanDisk run to get this choice set. To make ScanDisk run in Preview mode - find the errors but not fixing them - use /p. Warning: Preview can mislead you into thinking that the errors have been fixed when in fact they have not. Your command line might look something like this: C:\WINDOWS\SCANDSKW.EXE C: D: /N , to make ScanDisk scan drives C: and D: and automatically exit when finished.
ScanDisk is a slow and not-so-thorough 16-bit program. Many experts recommend letting ScanDisk alone and instead purchasing Norton Utilities or McAfee's (formerly Helix's) Nuts&Bolts and using their more sophisticated scanning/repairing utility. However, ScanDisk won't create problems for you, while these programs sometimes will. My suggestion: try them out after performing a complete backup, be ready to uninstall them, and save your receipts.
Win95 OSR2, along with Win 98/ME, has the annoying feature of automatically running Scandisk after every "nonstandard" shutdown (i.e. when a program crashes or you "warm-boot" the system). You may not want this to happen. If not, you'll have to edit MSDOS.SYS to stop it from "autoscanning." Go through Windows Explorer and turn off MSDOS.SYS's hidden, read-only, and system attributes (explained elsewhere on this page). Open Notepad or another text editor and open
MSDOS.SYS. Search for the [OPTIONS] section and add the line AUTOSCAN=0. Save the file, reset the attributes, and reboot your computer. Your Autoscan default setting is 1, which checks for a bit in the boot drive's Master Boot Record, which is reset every time Windows shuts down normally. A "nonstandard" shutdown does not reset the bit, which causes Scandisk to trigger upon the next bootup of the system. If you want Scandisk to run every time you boot up, change the line to read AUTOSCAN=2. Or, do it the easy way: download TweakUI from Microsoft's PowerToys site at www.microsoft.com/Windows95/downloads/contents/
WUToys/W95PwrToysSet and let it do the dirty work (access it through Control Panel and use the Boot tab). This is useful for the truly paranoid among us, or if your hard drive is showing signs of going belly-up. Remember, an unusual shutdown often means trouble, which means that running Scandisk is a good idea. Win 98 users, you should have a version of TweakUI on your Windows CD -- look for the TWEAKUI.INF file. It probably isn't the most recent version, though.
Infrequently, ScanDisk refuses to shut down, denying access to the computer. This is even more annoying when ScanDisk automatically fires up after an unusual shutdown and denies you access altogether, even to Safe Mode, without shutting down ScanDisk before it completes its duties. Again, TweakUI is the answer. Crank up
TweakUI, go through the Boot tab, check the box that says "Function keys available," and restart your computer. Press F8 when you get the "Windows is starting" message and choose Safe Mode. If this still doesn't work, you'll need to go back into TweakUI and check the "Always show boot menu" box. You can uncheck this later. Now restart your computer; you can run both ScanDisk and Defrag in Safe Mode.
Win XP users, Microsoft jettisoned the venerable Scandisk for you guys. You can either use
CHKDSK, which is even older, or use Microsoft's Error Checking feature. Access this feature by doing the following: In Windows Explorer, right-click the drive you want to check, and select Properties from the context menu. Now select the Tools tab. Under Error Checking, click "Check Now." If you want the scan to check the disk sectors or attempt to make repairs, select those options and click Start. Close Windows Explorer when you're done.
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Step 1: Fixing the error |
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If ScanDisk finds a lost file fragment, it gives you the option of converting it into a file, in case you can recover some information from it. This tutorial explains how to look at a converted file and try to recover information from it. Skip this tutorial if you have not used ScanDisk to recover lost fragments. |
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| Step 2: Go to the top level |
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ScanDisk always puts converted files in the top level of your disk, and gives them a name that contains a number. It uses the names FILE0000.CHK, FILE0001.CHK, and so on. Start Windows Explorer and go the top level of the disk that contains the files. In the example, we find one file called FILE0000.CHK. Double click the file to start it. |
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| Step 3: Select WordPad |
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Since the file type was changed to CHK, Windows doesn't know what application to use for the file. And since we don't know what the file is, we don't know what application to use either, so we'll start with WordPad. Scroll down to WordPad, select it, and click OK. |
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| Step 4: Look at the contents |
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Scroll through the file in WordPad, and see if you can find a clue to the nature of the file. You may have to look through a lot of garble to find these clues. In this case, we recognize some text from a document we've been writing in Word, so we'll try to import it as a Word document. When you are finished, exit WordPad. |
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| Step 5: Rename the file |
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Exit WordPad, and back in Windows Explorer, rename the file to give it the extension of the file type you are trying. In our case, it's .DOC for a Word document. If you weren't able to figure out the file type by looking in WordPad, you might try a few file types you have been working with lately. If you've worked on JPEG files, try
.JPG. For bitmaps, try .BMP, and so on. |
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| Step 6: Confirm rename |
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Windows may warn you about changing file extensions. In our case it's OK because the whole problem is that we're trying to figure out what the correct extension is supposed to be. Confirm the file rename. |
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| Step 7: Try to import the file |
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Double click the file to attempt to start it in the application you're trying. In this case, Word can't read the file directly. We're able to see enough of the document to confirm it's the one we were working on, so we'll just go back to the last saved version and make recent changes again. In other cases we might restore a file from backup, go back and try a different file type, or just delete the file. Close the application, and Windows Explorer, when finished. |
ScanDisk & Defrag
Windows comes with two programs which are essential for maintaining top PC performance.
They are ScanDisk and Defrag.
ScanDisk scans your hard disk and can repair all kinds of errors, including ones you don't even know you have.
Defrag will "Defragment" your hard drive and eliminate "gaps" that may have been left where files were deleted. It will also realign all the files on your hard drive, making the disk more quickly and efficiently accessible.
If these programs haven't been run in a long time (or never run at all) they may very likely stop running and display error messages. The first step in circumventing these problems is to always run ScanDisk before running Defrag because the former will fix errors that keep the latter from working properly.
Let's start by running ScanDisk, which can be run in the following modes:
(A) Windows, (B) DOS, (C) Safe Mode, (D) Windows XP Mode.
(A)
Windows:
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Go to Start, Run and type SCANDISK, where you'll find Standard and
Thorough. Choose the latter and be sure "Automatically Fix Errors" is checked.
NOTE:
Caps have been used for emphasis only. Typing ScanDisk, Scandisk, or scandisk brings the same results.
Alternative ways of accessing ScanDisk in Windows are as follows:
...or...
Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and click ScanDisk.
...or...
Double-click My Computer and right-click your C-drive icon. Choose
Properties and click the Tools tab. Finally, click "Check Now."
...or...
Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and click Maintenance
Wizard to set up a schedule where ScanDisk and Defrag will run automatically
in the future. I have my settings scheduled to run each program weekly
at 4:00 AM (an hour at which I wouldn't normally be at the computer).
(B) DOS
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- Run ScanDisk in DOS by going to Start, Shut Down, Restart in DOS. At the
C:\Windows prompt, type SCANDISK and press Enter. Six items will be displayed to
be checked. The first five will be checked automatically, and you'll be told about the
disposition of any errors that might have been found.
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Finally, you'll be asked if you want to run the sixth item, Surface Scan.
This one can take
a long time, so I usually do it when I expect to be away from the PC for a few hours.
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- When finished running ScanDisk in DOS, type EXIT and press Enterr to return to Windows.
(C) Safe Mode
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Go to Start, Shut Down and click Restart. When the PC begins to restart, hold down
your Esc*
key while the rebooting takes place. This will put your PC into
"Safe Mode,"
whereby it bypasses a number of different "Start" options, such as printer and scanner
drivers, which may be running in the background and interfering with running ScanDisk
or Defrag.
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After running ScanDisk and Defrag in Safe Mode, go to Start, Shut Down and turn
your PC off. Turn it back on again and it should reboot into the regular Windows mode.
Occasionally it may take two or three shutdowns to get back to Windows.
*On some computers the F8 key is used instead of the Esc key.
(D) Windows XP Special Instructions
In WinXP, the word SCANDISK has mysteriously disappeared and been replaced by the words CHECK, ANALYZE and/or CHKDSK (the latter being a throwback to pre-Windows DOS commands). In any case, they all mean your hard disk will be "analyzed" before you can run DEFRAG, the program which defragments your hard drive and realigns its files so they can be accessed more easily and efficiently.
Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Click the Analyze button, and then click Defragment after the analyzing has been completed. However, if you click the Defragment button first, you'll be told your disk is being "analyzed," after which defragmenting will begin.
Another approach is to go to Start, My Computer, and right-click Local Disk C. Click Properties, Tools and you'll find buttons for Check Now and Defragment Now. Having done this, you'll be told that these programs can't run without rebooting your computer, and asked if you'd like to run them the next time you restart.
If this all sounds rather convoluted, there is yet another approach. You can go to Start, Run and type CHKDSK. Click OK and WinXP's equivalent to SCANDISK will commence in a DOS window.
Some final notes on ScanDisk and Defrag.
The main thing that keeps these utilities from running successfully is having other programs running in the background, including your ScreenSaver and Anti-Virus program. Turn off the former by right-clicking your Desktop and choosing Properties. Go to ScreenSaver and choose None.
Turn off your Anti-Virus software by right-clicking its icon (on your Taskbar near the digital clock) and choosing Disable. It will come back on the next time you restart your computer.
Finally, press your Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys simultaneously and look at the window this brings up. You'll see a list of programs, including Explorer. The others, with the cryptic names, should each be clicked, followed by clicking End Task. When Explorer is the only file left, exit this window and run ScanDisk or Defrag in any of the Windows modes described above.
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