Www.AdviserXP.

com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

STOP ERROR TUTORIAL

December 13th 2007

By Ian Stuart Rutter - A+, N+, MCP

© 2007 Ian S Rutter All Rights Reserved

http://www.adviserxp.com/XP-maintenance.html

1
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

NOTICE
© 2007 Ian Stuart Rutter - All Rights Reserved
This free ebook provided by www.adviserxp.com (the "Site") is an online information service. PLEASE READ THIS
DOCUMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE ACCESSING OR USING THE EBOOK OR SITE. BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SITE, YOU
AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY
THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE EBOOK OR SITE. www.adviserxp.com YOU CANNOT
MODIFY THIS AGREEMENT AT ANY TIME. ANY SUCH MODIFICATIONS WILL COME FROM www.adviserxp.com AND SHALL
BE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON POSTING OF THE MODIFIED AGREEMENT ON THE SITE. YOU AGREE TO REVIEW THE
AGREEMENT PERIODICALLY TO BE AWARE OF SUCH MODIFICATIONS AND YOUR CONTINUED ACCESS OR USE OF THE
SITE SHALL BE DEEMED YOUR CONCLUSIVE ACCEPTANCE OF THE MODIFIED AGREEMENT.

1. Copyright.

The entire contents of the Site are protected by international copywrite. The owner of the copyrights www.adviserxp.com.
YOU MAY NOT MODIFY THE MATERIAL FROM ANY EBOOK THAT BELONGS TO www.adviserxp.com or DOWNLOADED FROM
www.adviserxp.com
You may print, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, or distribute, in any manner, the material from
the ebook and site, including text, graphics, code and/or software, and download portions of material from the
different areas of the Site solely for your own non-commercial use provided that you agree not to change or delete
any copyright or proprietary notices from the materials. IF you do such actions then you MUST acknowledge that all
information that you have taken from www.adviserxp.com belongs to www.adviserxp.com and YOU MUST give
credit to www.adviserxp.com

This report is for informational use only be assured that every attempt has been made to make the information provided
as accurate as possible and verified. But aware that due to changes in the future which are out of www.adviserxp.com
control, some information could be deemed outdated and all attempts to rectify the information will take place.

2. Use of the Site.

You understand that, except for information, products or services clearly identified as being supplied by
www.adviserxp.com www.adviserxp.com does not operate, control or endorse any information, products or services
on the Internet in any way unless otherwise stated. Except for www.adviserxp.com identified information, products
or services, all information, products and services offered through the Site or on the Internet generally are offered
by third parties, that are not affiliated with www.adviserxp.com You also understand that www.adviserxp.com
cannot and does not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading through the Site will be free of
infection or viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other code that manifest contaminating or destructive properties. Only
be assured that all precautions will be taken to prevent such manifestations. You are responsible for implementing
sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for accuracy of data input and output,
and for maintaining a means external to the Site for the reconstruction of any lost data.

YOU ASSUME TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK FOR YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND THE INTERNET. Www.adviserxp.com
PROVIDES THE SITE AND RELATED INFORMATION "AS IS" AND DOES NOT MAKE ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
REPRESENTATIONS OR ENDORSEMENTS WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR
NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE)
WITH REGARD TO THE SERVICE, ANY MERCHANDISE INFORMATION OR SERVICE PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICE OR
ON THE INTERNET GENERALLY, AND www.adviserxp.com SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY COST OR DAMAGE ARISING
EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM ANY SUCH TRANSACTION. IT IS SOLELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO EVALUATE
THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS AND USEFULNESS OF ALL OPINIONS, ADVICE, SERVICES, MERCHANDISE AND OTHER
INFORMATION PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICE OR ON THE INTERNET GENERALLY. Www.adviserxp.com DOES NOT
WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE SERVICE WILL BE
CORRECTED.

3. Trademarks

Microsoft Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All
trademarks are the properties of the respective owners.

2
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

Chkdsk is a maintenance program that checks the actual physical structure of your hard disk or disks,
and can only be run by someone with administrative powers, or by someone who is being supervised
by the OS's Administrator. I will show you two ways to use chkdsk, Graphical and Command Line
(cmd/DOS).

Chkdsk lists and corrects errors on the disk that you have chosen to check. It is a very simple, but
powerful tool to use.
Used without parameters, chkdsk displays the status of the disk in the current drive.
First, the Graphical way of using chkdsk.

Double click My Computer, right click C: select properties.

3
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

Select the Tools tab, you will see this screen.

Select Check Now...

The Options will have no checks or black squares. Just click them so that a tick appears.
Click START.

You will get the message.

If you click Yes, then the next time you boot up it will do the chkdsk before a complete reboot.

4
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

And this is what you will see.

The second way of using chkdsk is by using the Command Line or cmd for short, which will take you
into a DOS environment.
Using chkdsk in its very simple form all you do is. First – Chkdsk in Command line or DOS mode.
Click Start,

Run

5
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

Type chkdsk

Using chkdsk in this way, it will take you to a DOS screen and do some very quick checking of
the Hard Drive, or Partion.
Stage 1 – Verification of files

Stage 2 – Verification of indexes

6
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

Final stage – Verification compete.

Simple!

Chkdsk Parameters
Chkdsk comes with a host of extra commands or parameters that you can add at the end of typing
chkdsk.
Syntax
chkdsk [volume:][[Path] FileName] [/f] [/v] [/r] [/x] [/i] [/c] [/l[:size]]
This might look complicated but it is in fact a simple and powerful string, which incorporates certain
actions if you add a certain letter or letters to the string.
Parameters
volume: Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name.
[Path] FileName : Specifies the location and name of a file or set of files you want chkdsk to check
for fragmentation. You can use wildcard characters (that is, * and ?) to specify multiple files.
/f : Fixes errors on the disk. To use this, the disk must be locked. If chkdsk cannot lock the drive, a
message appears that asks you if you want to check the drive the next time you restart the computer.
/v : It displays the name of each file in every directory as the disk is being checked.
/r : This searches and locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. Again, the disk must be
locked.
/x : Can only be used with NTFS. It forces the volume to dismount first, if necessary.
/i : Can only be used with NTFS. Performs a less vigorous check of index entries, reducing the amount
of time needed to run chkdsk.
/c : Can only be used with NTFS. Skips the checking of cycles within the folder structure, reducing the
amount of time needed to run chkdsk.

7
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

/l[:size] : Can only be used with NTFS. Changes the log file size to the size you type. If you omit the
size parameter, /l displays the current size.
/?: Displays help at the command prompt.
Example
chkdsk c: /f /v /r
You can use the letters in any combination, BUT, when you use parameters instead of the simple
way you may get this.

The reason for this, is that presently you are using your computer and to do the actions
requested the Windows has to shutdown, restart and take over for the chkdsk to continue.
You will see a screen like this.

Once chkdsk has finished, Windows will continue to boot into your desktop.

8
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

Checking a locked drive at restart

If you want chkdsk to correct disk errors, you MUST have open files on the drive CLOSED. If files
are open, you will get the following error message:
'Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule
this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)'
If you choose to check the drive the next time you restart the computer, chkdsk checks the drive and
corrects errors automatically when you restart the computer. If the drive partition is a boot partition,
chkdsk automatically restarts the computer after it checks the drive. (See above picture)

Reporting disk errors

Chkdsk examines disk space and disk use for the file allocation table (FAT) and NTFS file systems.
Chkdsk will provide information specific to each file in a status report or log. The status report shows
errors found in the file system. If you run chkdsk without the /f command-line option on an active
partition, it might report spurious errors because it cannot lock the drive. You should use chkdsk
occasionally on each disk to check for errors.

Fixing disk errors

Chkdsk will correct disk errors only if you specify the /f command-line option. Chkdsk must be able
to lock the drive to correct errors. Because repairs usually change a disk's file allocation table and
sometimes cause a loss of data, chkdsk sends a confirmation message similar to the following:
'10 lost allocation units found in 3 chains.'
'Convert lost chains to files?'
If you press Y, Windows saves each lost chain in the root directory as a file with a name in the format
Filennnn.chk. When chkdsk finishes, you can check these files to see if they contain any data you
need. If you press N, Windows fixes the disk, but it does not save the contents of the lost allocation
units.
If you do not use the /f command-line option, chkdsk sends a message if a file needs to be fixed, but it
does not fix any errors.
If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes) or a disk with a very large
number of files (for example, millions of files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over
several days) to complete. The computer is not available during this time because chkdsk does not
relinquish control until it is finished.

Reporting bad disk sectors

Bad sectors reported by chkdsk will be marked as bad when your disk is first prepared for operation.
They pose no danger.

9
Www.AdviserXP.com – Microsoft Windows XP Maintenance – Chkdsk

Understanding exit codes

The following lists the exit codes that chkdsk reports after it has finished.
Exit code Description
0 No errors were found.
1 Errors were found and fixed.
2 Disk cleanup, such as garbage collection, was performed, or cleanup was not
performed because /f was not specified.
3 Could not check the disk, errors could not be fixed, or errors were not fixed
because /f was not specified.

Enjoy!
Stuart - A+, N+, MCP
www.adviserxp.com

10