Microsoft ScanDisk
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SCANDISK or ScanDisk is a utility in MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows systems which checks and repairs file systems and bad clusters on the hard drive. It was introduced in MS-DOS version 6.2. Previous versions of MS-DOS supplied only the simpler, purely text-based program CHKDSK.
ScanDisk included a more user-friendly interface than MS-DOS CHKDSK, more command-line and other configuration options,[1][2] and the ability to detect and sometimes recover from physical errors on the disk.[3] Unlike CHKDSK, ScanDisk would also repair crosslinked files.[4]
In Windows 95 onwards, SCANDISK also had a graphical user interface, although the text interface continued to be available for use in single-tasking ("DOS") mode.[5][6]
SCANDISK can't check NTFS disk drives and therefore isn't available for computers running NT based (including Windows 2000, Windows XP, etc.) versions of Windows: a newer CHKDSK is provided instead (not to be confused with the older MS-DOS CHKDSK).
SCANDISK can still be run in Windows XP and can still be used to fix removable drives such as Floppy Disks.
On Unix-like systems there are tools like "fsck_msdosfs" to do the same task.[7]
See also
References
- ^ ScanDisk command-line options
- ^ MS-DOS 6.2 SCANDISK.INI
- ^ This replaced and improved upon the limited ability offered by the MS-DOS Recover utility.
- ^ How to repair crosslinked files with CHKDSK notes that users with MS-DOS 6.2 or later should use Scandisk to repair the errors.
- ^ Windows 95 Documentation
- ^ Description of Scandisk for Windows from the Windows 98/Me documentation.
- ^ "fsck_msdosfs". 091108 freebsd.org
External links
- Description of ScanDisk for Windows (Scandskw.exe) in Windows 98/Me – Microsoft TechNet article
