Double click on the My Computer icon. Right mouse click on the [C:] drive. Select properties from the drop down box options.

A dialog box named [C:] Properties will appear (Verify that the free space is at least 100MB, if not remove any unneeded documents or applications and empty the Recycle Bin. To empty recycle bin, right mouse click on the desktop icon and follow select appropriately. If your Drive does not have enough room to operate swapping files, it will crash eventually). Select the Tools tab on the upper left corner.

Select the check now button from the "error-checking status" section.

Select automatically fix file system errors and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

A dialog box labeled Checking Disk C:\ will appear. Select Yes. This will enable your computer to run Scandisk once it is restarted.

Restart your computer. A message will appear that Scandisk will start in 15 seconds. Do not press any keys. Note: You may wish to restart you computer at a convenient time as scandisk can take up to 45 minutes or more to complete depending on the size of your hard drive.