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Using Scandisk
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. 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.
ME
users can create custom shortcuts for ScanDisk to simplify
its use. Right-click the Start button and choose Open or
Explore. Locate and select ScanDisk (by default it's in
Start Menu \ Programs \ Accessories \ System Tools. You can
make a copy of the shortcut by right-clicking and dragging
the icon to wherever you want it -- Desktop, Start Menu, or
wherever, and choosing either "Copy Here" or "Create
Shortcut Here." Next, press Alt+Enter to open the icon's
Properties box, click the Shortcut tab, and then click at
the end of the command line in the Target box. You can
assign whatever drive you wish to be scanned automatically
through this shortcut by adding a space and then the drive
letter (i.e. C:) and repeat for any other drives you wish
scanned. To scan all local non-networked and nonremovable
drives, skip the drive-letter parameter and instead just
type the switch /a (as always, preceded by a space). If you
want ScanDisk to start and stop without prompting you, enter
the /n switch. Using the /n switch won't stop ScanDisk from
stopping to report errors. If you don't want this info,
start ScanDisk and check "Automatically fix errors." Run
ScanDisk to make this setting stick. If you'd rather
ScanDisk run in Preview mode -- i.e. find errors but not fix
them -- use the /p switch. Remember, sometimes Preview mode
indicates that errors are fixed when, in fact, they are not.
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