The Check Disk (or chkdsk) tool can be used to find, and attempt to fix, faulty sectors on a computer's hard drive. It can be a good tool to include in your computer maintenance repertoire, or to use when you suspect your hard drive may be deteriorating (so you can then back up your data and fast!). In this article I will discuss how to make use of this tool.

In Vista, the Check Disk tool is similar to in previous recent versions of Windows such as XP. It can be accessed both from the command line or from the GUI depending on your preference, and I will discuss both here.

To access Check Disk the GUI way, double-click My Computer and look for the partition/drive that you want to check. In most cases this will be C:, and you can then right-click on this drive and choose Properties. From there, go to the Tools tab and click the button for Check Now (1). At the next screen, you will see 2 options: one for finding and attempting to recover faulty sectors, and another for attempting to fix errors. It is a good idea to leave these checked off (they correspond to the /F and /R options at the command line and will try to fix any problems they find if possible). Click the Start button, and you will likely be asked to schedule a disk check when next possible (since the disk is in use) (1) . Click the appropriate button, and the next time your computer is restarted the check will run. It can take a long time so it is a good idea to run it when you have up to an hour to do so.

To access Check Disk from the command line, go to Start, Accessories and right-click on the option for Command Prompt, then choose "Run as Administrator". This will open a command prompt window from which you will run the command. You can enter in 'chkdsk /f /r C:' (minus the quotes) here and press Enter. If you would like it to complete faster, you could opt for simply 'chkdsk /f' depending on how exhaustive you would like the check to be (1). If you would like to read about all of the options available you can enter 'chkdsk /?' - this is the standard way in Windows to bring up a help menu corresponding to a command-line command, and will show a list of available "switches" with a description of each.

Once you have entered the command correctly, you will likely be warned that the disk is in use and asked if you would like to schedule a check (this happens when you choose the /f or /r options (3). Enter 'y' here and press Enter, and the check will occur at the next startup. While the tool runs, a window will be displayed showing its progress and, at the end, will show the results.

References:
1)http://www.howtogeek.com/how to/windows-vista/guide-to-usin g-check-disk-in-windows-vista/
2)http://www.vista4beginners.c om/Check-Disk
3)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /CHKDSK

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