IF01011
SCANDISK
Scandisk is a Microsoft utility that
was purchased originally from Norton which is now
Symantec. Scandisk is designed to check
the integrity of a computer hard disk drive to verify that there are no
significant issues which could cause issues with your computer data.
MS-DOS
SCANDISK
Scandisk was first available in MS-DOS
6.2 and was available ever since. If you are running
MS-DOS 6.2 or 6.22 and would like to run scandisk, follow the below steps.
- If you are in Windows 3.x, click File and
then Exit to get to the MS-DOS prompt.
- From MS-DOS, type CD\DOS and press enter.
- From the C:\DOS> type scandisk and press
enter which should begin running scandisk on the computer.
Finally, some computer manufacturers
have changed the installation directory of where scandisk is located; if you are
unable to run scandisk from the DOS directory, go to the WINDOWS directory by
typing CD\WINDOWS.
WINDOWS 3.X SCANDISK
If you are running Windows 3.x and
MS-DOS 6.2 or above please refer to the
MS-DOS scandisk section
for information on how to run scandisk.
WINDOWS 95/98 SCANDISK
Windows 95 improved the functionality
of scandisk, as did Windows 98; to run scandisk from Windows, follow the below
steps.
- Click Start
- Click Run and type scandisk in the run
box
- Click ok
- Within the scandisk window select the
drive that you wish to be checked.
- Choose the option between standard and
through. It is recommended you run standard first, if you encounter issues
with scandisk then run the through scan.
- Finally, click start to begin scandisk.
In addition, Windows 95 OSR2 and
Windows 98 will run scandisk automatically if the computer is shutdown
improperly to check to see if the hard disk drive encountered issues when the
computer was improperly shutdown.
MS-DOS SCANDISK SYNTAX
Below is a listing of available
switches in MS-DOS scandisk 6.2 and above. It is important to note that these
commands will not work in Windows 95 and above.
scandisk [ drive: | /all]
[/checkonly | /autofix [/nosave] | /custom] [/fragment] [/surface] [/mono]
[/nosave] [/nosummary]
/all -
Checks and repairs all local drives at once.
/checkonly
- Checks drive for errors but will not make repairs.
/autofix
- Fixes errors without asking you first. Saves lost clusters by default as files
in the drive's root directory. Cannot be used with /checkonly or /custom.
/custom
- Runs Scandisk using the settings in [custom] section of the scandisk.ini file.
Cannot be used with /autofix or /checkonly.
/surface
- Automatically checks surface after other areas are tested without prompting
you first. When used with /custom, will override any /surface setting in
[Custom] section of scandisk.ini.
/fragment
- Checks individual files for fragmentation. Must specify a drive, path and file
name; cannot use any other switches.
/mono
- Uses a monochrome display instead of color.
/nosave
- Deletes all lost clusters found by Scandisk. Can be used with /autofix.
/nosummary
- Prevents display of full-screen summary after each drive. Use with /autofix to
prevent prompts for undo diskette.
WINDOWS ME SCANDISK
Like Windows 95 and Windows 98 Windows
me has scandisk located in the same location, to run Scandisk in Windows ME
follow the below instructions.
-
Click Start
-
Click Run and type scandisk in the run
box
-
Click ok
-
Within the scandisk window select the
drive that you wish to be checked.
-
Choose the option between standard and
through. It is recommended you run standard first, if you encounter issues
with scandisk then run the through scan.
-
Finally click start to begin scandisk.
WINDOWS NT SCANDISK
Windows NT is not shipped with
Microsoft Scandisk. However, various third-party companies offer utilities that
can scandisk and check your hard disk drive for you.
Symantec a well respected computer
company offers such a program.
WINDOWS 2000 / XP SCANDISK
Keep in mind that if Windows 2000 and
XP is a networking operating system and it's possible that the privileges to run
scandisk may have revoked by the system administrator. To run Scandisk I
recommend you follow the recommend steps.
-
Double-click My Computer
-
Highlight a local hard disk drive by
clicking on it once.
-
Right click the highlighted local drive
-
Click properties
-
Click the tools tab and click check now
to check the drive for errors.
The computer will need to
restart in order to run scandisk in a
safe mode.
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