The Hindu Business Line : Check hard disk errors

When I boot my PC, sometimes there is a message that says my hard disk needs to be checked for consistency. This is followed by scan disk runs, after which many files are shown to be deleted. The PC works OK after that. Then it shows many files deleted. After that it becomes ok. I suspect hard disk error. What software can I try to fix the problem?

S. Srinivasa raghavan

In Windows FAT32 volumes, if the system was shut down improperly or switched off abruptly due to power cut, on booting you are likely to see a message saying the hard disk needs to be checked for consistency and the chkdsk runs automatically. In Windows XP, it will flag the volume as “dirty” and attempt to check it on reboot. You can check the state of the dirty flag for your drive. To do this, at the ‘Command’ prompt type “fsutil dirty query c:”. In normal state it shows “volume - c: is NOT Dirty”.

To check for hard disk errors, you may use the Check Disk utility (chkdsk.exe) that is bundled with Windows 2000/XP OS (in Windows 9x, you run scandisk). This tool checks for file system errors and bad sectors on the hard disk and tries to repair problems such as those related to lost clusters, cross-linked files and directory errors. To use Chkdsk, you must log on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

To run Chkdsk, at the ‘Command’ prompt, click Start - Run, type cmd and click ok. To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, at the ‘Command’ prompt, type chkdsk and click ok. Please note: Chkdsk might not accurately report information in read-only mode. To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, at the ‘Command’ prompt, type “chkdsk volume:/f” (example chkdsk D:/F) and click ok. You may use this option for routine checks. It is advisable not to interrupt the Chkdsk process when it is running.

All files must be closed for the Chkdsk to run. If the volume is currently in use, a message box will prompt you to indicate whether or not you want to reschedule the disk check for another time. To repair errors, locate bad sectors and recover readable information, at the ‘Command’ prompt, type “chkdsk volume:/r” (example chkdsk D:/R) and press Enter. This option may be used if serious disk problems are suspected. Please note that this may take several hours depending on volume size, system speed and so on.

To run chkdsk in the Windows GUI mode, open My Computer — right click the drive you want to check – click Properties – select the Tools tab – click the “Check now …” button under Error-Checking. This will prompt the Check Disk dialog box. Here you may see two check boxes — “Automatically fix file system errors” (equivalent to chkdsk command with /F) and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” (equivalent to chkdsk command with /R).

Sometimes you may be prompted with “Convert lost chains to files?”. If you press Y, Windows saves each lost chain in the root directory (say c:\) as a file with a name such as FILE001.CHK, FILE002.CHK. When chkdsk ends, you can check these files to see if they contain any data you need. If not, you may simply delete the files. If you press N, Windows fixes the disk but does not save the contents of the lost allocation units.

Hard drive manufacturers also have free, downloadable diagnostic utilities that attempt to repair bad sectors. For example, Samsung Diagnostic 1.25, Maxtor Powermax 4.23 (Maxtor/Quantum hard drives), IBM - Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.14, SeaTools (Seagate) and so on.

Solution from M. Sampath

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