Home Vista Drive Errors Check For Drive Errors
Search MS Office A-Z   |   Search Web Pages/ Design A-Z

Check For Drive Errors

WinXP. Once again, start out under the Tools tab in your drive’s Properties panel. There’s an Error-Checking section; click Check Now, Automatically Fix File System Errors, and Start. Your PC will test your hard drive or SSD. If the brief diagnostic doesn’t turn up any issues, click OK, and you’re done.

On the other hand, if the scan does encounter anomalies, click Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors and Start. This starts a more detailed drive check. If it can’t launch the scan while Windows is running, click Yes to schedule it for the PC’s next startup. Reboot your system.

Vista. The WinXP directions hold true, except that Automatically Fix File System Errors will be enabled by default. If Vista can’t scan the drive you selected while it’s in use, click Schedule Disk Check and reboot your PC. Vista politely tells you the results of the scan, even when nothing is wrong.

Win7. Follow Vista’s directions. One notable change: Win7 may be able to scan a volume in use, such as the boot drive, without rebooting. If a button labeled Force A Dismount appears, close all other applications and click it.

Every drive develops a bad sector now and then. It’s nothing to worry about, as the drive will simply deactivate that area and replace it with a spare. Granted, you’ll need to replace any corrupted files from backup.

However, if more errors show up over time, the drive may be failing. Use a third-party diagnostic utility such as Seagate’s free SeaTools (www.seagate.com/support/seatools) to give the drive an in-depth scan.

Home Vista Drive Errors Check For Drive Errors
Search MS Office A-Z   |   Search Web Pages/ Design A-Z