Running a Scan Disk for Windows XP

Periodically it's a good idea to run both a disk scan and to defragment your hard drive. This keeps your computer running more efficiciently. How often you run these maintainence tasks depends on how often you save or delete files and programs to your hard drive: the more you save/delete, the more often you should run maintainance.

Note: You will not have the use of your computer while it is running a disk scan. Depending on the speed of your computer, this process can take around 30 minutes. You can set your computer up to run its scan while on a break.

To start a scan disk,

• Open up the My Computer window.
• Click on the C: drive icon to select it.
• Click on File, Properties, then select the Tools tab.

The first option is Error-checking.

• Click on the Check Now... button.

• Click in the boxes to Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
• Click on the Start button.

The following warning message appears.

• Click on Yes.

You now have the option of continuing to work or to start the scan by restarting your computer.

When the scan is complete, the computer will return to the log in window you see at startup.

After running a scan disk, you can continue with your computer maintainence by also defragmenting your hard drive.

Page last updated 07/21/04. Send questions or comments to helpdesk@cwu.edu.