Like other XP beginners I'm sure, I went looking for Scandisk, which wasn't there. In keeping with the NT/2000 tradition, XP does disk checks differently from Windows 9x, and under different names, Chkdsk or Error- checking, as I found out soon enough.
One path to the disk checking tool goes like this:
- Double-click My Computer on the Desktop (or choose it from the Start Menu)
- Right-click the disk you want to check and choose Properties
- Click the Tools tab at the top and choose "Check Now..." under Error Checking
- Take your pick of the checkboxes that appear and click the Start buttonIf you mark off one or both of the repair options, Windows XP will ask if you want to schedule a disk check for the next reboot. You can answer Yes or No but, unless you leave the two checkboxes empty, Chkdsk won't even do a scan while XP is up and running. It's either a repair on restart or none at all.
I like this route to Chkdsk a little better:
- Start Menu / Run... / type chkdsk /f c: / press ENTER
The /f stands for 'fix', c: represents the system drive or partition on which Windows XP is installed. In my case (maybe yours too) it's drive C. Again, XP will want to schedule a scan/repair for the next reboot.
