Using Scandisk

ScanDisk is found in System Tools with the Defrag utility. Use it frequently to maintain a well-organized hard drive. ScanDisk will take a good bit of time, especially if you have it perform a surface scan. (It says it'll take "about 5 minutes;" hah.) Like Defrag, it can "hang" for a long time while actually working behind the scenes. Hands off for at least an hour before you consider shutting it down. Like Defrag, ScanDisk doesn't do well when other programs are running simultaneously. This includes screen savers.

One method I've seen for setting your ScanDisk configurations goes like this: Select the Standard radio button and enable Automatically Fix Errors. Click on Advanced and, under Log File, pick Replace Log; for Cross-Linked Files, select Delete; click Free under Lost File Fragments; under Check Files For, check "Invalid dates and times;" and disable "Check host drive first," unless you've compressed your hard drive. This is a good configuration for maximizing Scandisk’s efficiency.

In a related note, here's how one Win ME guru recommends that ME users handle ScanDisk. Go through the Advanced menu and set the following options: Set Display Summary to Always, to confirm that ScanDisk is doing its job. Set Lost File Fragments to Free, to avoid the annoying buildup of FILE???.CHK files that are almost always worthless and unrecoverable anyway. Set Cross-Linked Files to Delete; these files are hopelessly damaged (if you find yourself with a lot of cross-linked files, you should think about letting a program such as Norton Utilities fix them). Check all the other check boxes. ScanDisk will remember these settings and use them again.

ME users can create custom shortcuts for ScanDisk to simplify its use. Right-click the Start button and choose Open or Explore. Locate and select ScanDisk (by default it's in Start Menu \ Programs \ Accessories \ System Tools. You can make a copy of the shortcut by right-clicking and dragging the icon to wherever you want it -- Desktop, Start Menu, or wherever, and choosing either "Copy Here" or "Create Shortcut Here." Next, press Alt+Enter to open the icon's Properties box, click the Shortcut tab, and then click at the end of the command line in the Target box. You can assign whatever drive you wish to be scanned automatically through this shortcut by adding a space and then the drive letter (i.e. C:) and repeat for any other drives you wish scanned. To scan all local non-networked and nonremovable drives, skip the drive-letter parameter and instead just type the switch /a (as always, preceded by a space). If you want ScanDisk to start and stop without prompting you, enter the /n switch. Using the /n switch won't stop ScanDisk from stopping to report errors. If you don't want this info, start ScanDisk and check "Automatically fix errors." Run ScanDisk to make this setting stick. If you'd rather ScanDisk run in Preview mode -- i.e. find errors but not fix them -- use the /p switch. Remember, sometimes Preview mode indicates that errors are fixed when, in fact, they are not.