Scandisk

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You need to run Scandisk once a week or two to keep your file system healthy.  Scandisk is available from your start menu; but before you run it, you will need to shut down all tasks that are running on your computer and which could interfere with proper completion of the task.  Therefore, I recommend that you run the following registry program and then restart your PC in order to get scandisk to run without interference.

1. Click here to save the Scandisk Registry Program to disk.

2. Save the program in a location where you can always find it.  Click here for advice on this.

Technical Information:

Scandisk checks your hard disk for problems that inevitably occur such as:

• Cross-linked files
  Two files are using the same space on the hard disk.  Scandisk makes copies of the two files in separate locations.

• Lost clusters
  There is data on the disk that the computer can no longer access.  This data should be deleted because it is taking up space that should be made available to files. 

These problems can be caused by a number of things, such as:

• Power failure or turning off the computer without properly shutting down.
  Windows does not always save your data to your hard disk right away.  It uses random access memory (RAM), which is much faster than your hard disk, as a temporary storage area, and then "flushes the cache" when necessary to store data to your hard disk.  Any data that is temporarily cached in RAM will be lost or corrupted if the computer is powered down unexpectedly.

• "Locking up" or "Freezing"
  The operating system may become unstable and fail to properly store your data for a number of reasons:

  • Too many programs running at once
  • Ill-behaved programs or programs performing illegal operations
  • Absence of a surge protector for your computer's power supply

What the Scandisk Registry Program does:

A link to the registry program to start Scandisk or Disk Defragmenter is added to the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

This added link will be deleted from your registry automatically once it has run once.  You will need to run the Scandisk Registry Program each time you want to run Scandisk, so do save the Scandisk Registry Program in a location where you can always find it.