| |
|
Using
Scandisk
- March 2009:
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.
|
|
