Windows98 Windows2000 WindowsXP
If you are having hard drive problems, eg people have told you to fdisk/format, low level format etc etc because your drive has bad sectors or other errors please read on BEFORE you take the drastic step of wiping all your data off the drive.
Restart your computer and when the computer beeps, or when you see the text saying "Starting Wndows 98", press the F8 key on the top row of your keyboard. This will bring up a menu. From this menu choose the option saying "Command Prompt Only" (do not confuse this with "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only")
At the command prompt (the black screen) C:\> type in "SCANDISK C: /nosave /autofix /surface /summary /time" without the quotation marks and press enter. Scandisk will scan your drive and attempt to fix any problems that it finds. If scandisk does NOT find any errors restart your PC by switching it off and then on again. Let windows start, then click start, programmes, accessories, system tools, scandisk.
1. Check thorough
2. Check the Automatically fix errors.
3. Click the Advanced button
4. Check Only if Errors Found, Replace Log, Delete, Convert to Files, Invalid File Names, Invalid Dates and Times
5. Click OK
6. Click Start
Let scandisk run again and let it fix any and all errors it finds. Repeat this until scandisk does not find any errors on your hard drive. Scandisk will have then marked any bad sectors on your drive as unuseable.
Click start, run, type CMD and press enter. At the command prompt type CHKNTFS C: and press enter. This will reply with a DIRTY or a NOT DIRTY response. Type CHKDSK C: /F /R /X and press enter, let it run until it finishes and gives you some statistics. Double click My Computer, right click drive c:, click properties, click tools, click error checking. Check the two boxes and click start. This will more than likely give you an error and tell you it cannot continue, do you want to schedule a scan on the next reboot of the pc. Select Yes. Restart the pc and let chkdsk run its full disk check. This will check the drive for any errors and attempt to repair them.
Click start, run, type CMD and press enter. At the command prompt type CHKNTFS C: and press enter. This will reply with a DIRTY or a NOT DIRTY response. Type CHKDSK C: /F /R /X and press enter, let it run until it finishes and gives you some statistics. Double click My Computer, right click drive c:, click properties, click tools, click error checking. Check the two boxes and click start. This will moe than likely give you an error and tell you it cannot continue, do you want to schedule a scan on the next reboot of the pc. Select Yes. Restart the pc and let chkdsk run its full disk check. This will check the drive for any errors and attempt to repair them.
There is another utility thatyou can use in Windows XP. This is the FSUTIL.
1. click on your start menu and open the run dialog.
2. type "cmd" and return (note: dont enter quotes)
3. Next type "fsutil dirty query c:"
4. If the return message indicates that the volume is dirty go to step 5
5. Next type "chkdsk c: /f /x"
6. After that finshes repeat step 3.
7. Double click My Computer, right click the C: drive and select Properties, click tools, Error Checking.
8. Check the 2 boxes marked "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"
9. Click Yes if it gives you a warning and asks you if you want to schedule a chkdsk on the next restart.
10. Restart your PC and let CHKDSK run a thorough check of your drive.
11. When windows loads, click start, run and type "CMD"
12. Repeat step 3. If it says your drive is NOT DIRTYor CLEAN then you should have no more problems with your drive.