Windows system maintenance.

Any, even the most good and reliable thing needs care. The computer is no exception to this rule. With regular and frequent use, the computer sometimes accumulates some system "garbage", which is useful to periodically clear and eliminate. You may not immediately feel that there are problems, but if it becomes noticeable that the computer is running slower, and at the same time there is not enough space on the hard drive, some files refuse to load, and programs refuse to work, then it's time to start cleaning.

Most of these problems can be avoided, and the influence of others can be noticeably weakened, if you regularly engage in preventive and "cleansing" activities. Moreover, if some errors occur, the stability of the system may be compromised, which can lead to the accumulation of errors, and as a result, important files may be corrupted.

Check disk

Information on a hard drive is stored in a rather complex way, although this provides both quick access to information and the ability to easily access free space for creating new files.

In short, information about the storage location of files is concentrated in a special area of ​​the disk. The way this information is represented and accessed is called a file system. IN WindowsXP different file systems are used: systems based on file allocation tables(FAT16 AndFAT32) or system NTFS.

Every time a file needs to be opened, such as when a program is started, the operating system accesses the tables file system to find out where your data is actually stored on the disk.

Such a system is only good if it works perfectly. Indeed, if somehow the correspondence between what is written in the table and what is actually on disk is broken, the consequences of this can be unpredictable: access to necessary information may not be possible.

Could this happen? Unfortunately yes. Although the operating system itself usually handles the hard drive quite neatly and correctly, the same cannot be guaranteed for any other program, especially when difficult situations arise. In particular, there is a high probability of errors occurring when the computer shuts down incorrectly (for example, as a result of a sudden power outage), when the system “freezes” for some reason, when the connection is interrupted unexpectedly during data transfer via the modem, when trying to set an unacceptable for the controller drive main bus frequency motherboard during the "overclocking" of the processor.

In this case, a number of problems specific to each particular file system may arise. The annoying thing about these problems is that you may not find them until it's too late. It is possible that these errors will manifest themselves in the form of a reduction in the volume hard drive, partial corruption of information in files and other unpleasant effects with an unobvious reason. In general, it is much better if there are no problems.

Detect problems and prevent future troubles in advance possible by performing regular checks. IN Windows XP The mechanism for performing such a check is very simple. Open the window My computer and select the drive you want to check. Click on its icon right click and select the item from the context menu that opens. Properties. On the tab Service press the button Run a check on the panel Disk check.

A dialog box will open Check disk options. It is recommended to check the box Automatically

correct system errors . If set and checkbox Scan and repair bad sectors, the program will check the physical state of the disk surface.

Before starting a disk check, it is recommended to close all running programs in order to exclude the possibility of accidental access to the disk. But even in this case, the operating system may consider some of the disks busy. In this case, you will see a message prompting you to perform a disk check after the system reboots. If you accept this offer, Check Disk will be performed during the restart of the computer.

How often should you check the disk health?

Weekly checks are more than enough. If you regularly find that there are no problems, then you can check even less often. But if some unpleasant event occurred: incorrect shutdown Windows a power surge, a “freeze” of the machine, then after a reboot, immediately check it, suppressing future problems “in the bud”.

Disk Checker

Disk Checker is a utility for checking media for bad spots and fixing any errors found. Listed program features:

· checking the entire surface of the disk using low-level access,

· file check,

· S.M.A.R.T information output. For hard drives,

· checking floppy disks and CD / DVD, as well as network and RAM disks.

The utility can be used as a tool Reserve copy, since it is able to create disc images compatible in format with such well-known packages as Diskcopy, WinImage, DiskDupe, including burning CD-ROM / DVD. ISO files. It is possible to format disks. The program supports parameters command line, and also integrated into context menu Windows for quick launch checks.

IN computer science any information is represented in the form of a numerical code, which is called binary. The smallest unit of information representation - bit. Information is processed in groups of 8 bits - bytes.

Bytes are encoded and text, and music, and drawing. A computer must be able to distinguish one kind of information from another. To do this, a special header is placed before a group of bytes, which explains what these bytes stand for. And in order for the computer to determine where the header bytes end and the data bytes begin, the header and data must have a well-defined format. For different types information in different formats. For example, if this is a black and white picture, then each byte after the header determines the brightness of each next point, and if it is a color picture, then the color of one point can determine not one byte, but several bytes.

Neither a bit nor a byte can be stored as information, since it is not clear what they mean (letters, notes, colors, etc.). You can save any sequence of bytes by adding a header (name) to it. After registering in the computer, this sequence of bytes will be called file.

File is the smallest unit of information storage containing a sequence of bytes and having a unique name. By the name of the file, the computer determines where the file is located, what information it contains, in what format it is written, what programs it can be processed.

Data in the form of files is stored on magnetic disks - hard or floppy. Each file on the disk has its own address. When a file is opened, the drive head moves to the desired location on the disk and reads the specified file into RAM. To unambiguously determine the location of any file, disks must have a clear physical and logical structure. This structure is created in the process formatting disk.

Formatting is divided into low-level formatting (physical) and formatting top level(logical).

Low-level formatting breaks the disk into tracks- concentric circles, numbered from the edge to the center. The outer track (zero) contains service information.

To increase the amount of stored information, hard disks consist of several magnetic disks, the surfaces of which are serviced by separate heads. But conventionally they consider that this is still one disk, which has not 2 sides, but 8 or 16. Each of these disks is also divided into tracks. Tracks with the same number are called cylinder. Information is written to the disk along the cylinders - from the edge (zero) to the center.

The tracks, in turn, are divided into sectors. Sector and is minimum block information that can be written to or read from a disk. At the beginning of each sector there is a service area, followed by a data field and a control code field. The heading indicates the number of the cylinder, head and sector itself. It may also contain a note about the defective sector, which serves as an indication of the impossibility of using it for data storage. The reliability of these indications is checked using a control code. Sector headers are written during operation low-level formatting for the entire track at once. Standard size sector data fields - 512 bytes.

When formatting the top level, the following actions are performed:

1. The data area is marked using an electromagnetic field created by the recording head of the drive. The markup is used to write and read information, correct the speed of rotation of the drive. The disk data area is divided into clusters– groups of adjacent sectors. A cluster is the minimum size of an addressable space. Each cluster has its own number. The cluster size (number of sectors) is selected as a multiple of the power of 2, depending on the volume of the disk and the size FAT. A file on the disk is allocated an integer number of sectors, but not less than one. If a file occupies more than one cluster, then all clusters occupied by the file are organized into chain of clusters.

2. The boot sector is written. It contains a table describing all disk parameters, as well as a short program used in the procedure. bootstrap OS. If the disk is being prepared as a system disk, then there will be an OS boot program. If not, there will be a program that, when trying to boot from this OS disk, will display a message that this disk is not a system disk.

3. Recorded FAT- a file allocation table in which the computer remembers the addresses of recorded files. If you need to read a file, then the computer finds its address in this table by its name and transfers the magnetic head of the drive to the right place to read it. If the file allocation table is corrupted, the information on the disk will be lost. Physically, of course, it will remain there, but it will not be possible to address it. That's why FAT duplicated for reliability. In case of any damage, the computer itself restores this table from a copy. Thanks to this, you can work with a computer for years and not lose information. MS DOS and Windows use file systems FAT16 And FAT32. File address in FAT16 written as a two-byte number (16 bits), i.e. there are 2 16 different addresses in total. This means that the maximum number of files on a disk is 65536. Modern hard disks have very large volumes, and they do not have enough addresses. If the disk size is, for example, 2 GB, then the cluster size will be 32 KB (2GB/65536). This is much larger than the sector size (512 bytes). No matter how small the file is, it will still take up a whole cluster, and all unused sectors in it will simply disappear. IN FAT32 the address is written as a four-byte number. It is clear that in this case there are more addresses, and the cluster sizes are smaller. Irrational losses are reduced.

Video editors, converters, DVD burning.
Program overview

Programs for testing CD/DVD/Blu-Ray discs (part 1)

When we hear the phrase "counterfeit products", the first associations are with DVDs and movies. Unfortunately, when buying a DVD disc, we can almost never guarantee its quality. In this regard, the question arises of testing this disc. There are many both paid, for example, Nero, and free utilities to check the quality of DVD discs. One of them - VSO Inspector Vso-Software allows you to determine the characteristics of a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drive, obtain information about the inserted disc (both blank and recorded), and perform surface analysis for read errors.

Free program VSO Inspector fully Russified, has a volume of about 3 MB, works with all operating systems Windows before 7 inclusive. Download latest version programs can be downloaded from the download page of the developer's website by clicking on the link Download Latest version.

Program installation VSO Inspector takes place in normal mode, and before completion you will be offered to familiarize yourself with the main features of testing disks. The main window of the program is shown in Figure 1:

Fig.1. The main window of the disk test program VSO Inspector

Bookmark Device the main parameters of the disk drive (disk drive) are displayed: general information, options, the ability to read and write various disks, etc. (Fig. 1).

Next bookmark, Carrier, will provide information about the CD / DVD / Blu-ray disc (blank) inserted into the drive: media type, manufacturer, number of layers, maximum read / write speed, etc. - Fig. 2:

Fig.2. Disk parameters tab (blanks)

Bookmark Scanning you can check the quality of the discs: perform a surface scan and test the files if the disc contains recordings. The testing process is reflected in the diagram and numbers in the corresponding colored cells: Good, Bad and Errors. To select a test, check the box next to the desired item and click the button Start. In the presence of errors and bad sectors, testing the disk surface can take a long time - see Figure 3.

Fig.3.

At the end of the scan, a summary of the test results is displayed, which can be saved as a file - button Save. Unlike similar programs, VSO Inspector allows you to check not only the quality of the surface, but also errors in the information already recorded on the disk - point File testing. In addition, you can view detailed information on each sector of the disk - tab View sectors(Fig. 4).

Fig.4."View disk sectors" tab

Thus the program VSO Inspector- a good tool for testing disks. It should be borne in mind that the presence of errors on a rewritable CD / DVD does not mean that they should be thrown away. Sometimes after performing a full (not quick) erase, for example, using a program Nero, the errors disappear and the disc can be used again.

The laser disc has undergone significant changes since its inception, evolving from a CD with a data capacity of 650 megabytes to a capacious Blu-ray capable of storing up to 50 gigabytes and more. However, despite such obvious progress, the optical media has not gotten rid of many of the problems and shortcomings that have plagued it from the very beginning. For example, after burning another disc (even if the recording drive that was used was completely new), it is impossible to say with absolute certainty that all the data was correctly copied to the disc. Another inconvenience of working with optical media is related to the growing volume of information. It has become much more difficult to navigate on which of the disks to look for a particular program or document. And finally, the most important "cons" laser disc- loss of data due to mechanical damage (scratched disc surface) or as a result of a write error. However, so far there is no serious alternative to optical media, so it is necessary to look for ways to solve these problems, at least partially. Utilities with which you can evaluate the status of disks and recover data from them will be discussed in today's review.

CDCheck 3.1

CDCheck works with different types checksums - MD2, MD4, MD5, Adler32, CRC32, SHA (1, 256, 348, 512), Tiger (128, 160, 192), etc. Before burning a disc, the program can analyze the contents of the future media for compatibility recorded on CD /DVD data with ISO image standards. Data verification can be performed both by checksum and by the "source-copy" principle. At the end of the scan, the program can launch an external anti-virus scanner, checking the content for viruses. CDCheck allows you to set the priority of a job, and also has the function of data recovery by repeatedly reading disk sectors. Upon reaching a certain percentage of reliability, which can be set in the program settings, the data can be considered restored.

By processing the data with the CDCheck program, you can monitor the detailed statistics of the process: the average speed of reading data, the estimated time of data processing, the number of files and folders checked. The utility supports the command line and provides detailed information about the used CD/DVD/BD media.

DiskInternals CD & DVD Recovery 3.5

The operation of recovering damaged or deleted data is greatly simplified thanks to the step-by-step wizard that is included in the program. Following his instructions, you must select the media whose contents are not available, and then specify the parameters of the files to be restored. So, for example, for a more accurate data search result, you should determine the approximate size of the files being reanimated, as well as indicate the approximate time of their creation. These criteria are of particular importance when analyzing a rewritable disc that has many "traces" of old information once recorded on the medium. CD & DVD Recovery determines the location of the lost data on the disc and can work with long file names. The program provides access to files from any track, even if the session on the disk was not correctly closed.

CDRoller 8.0

The simplest example of such a situation is a damaged DVD with a movie recorded on it. As you know, the content of the DVD-video format usually looks like the Video_ts folder, where the menu and navigation files are located, as well as large files with the .vob extension, which contain video and sound. If the unreadable area of ​​the disk is in the place where the vob file was recorded, this file will be partially damaged, resulting in the loss of a large fragment of the video. You can partially restore the remaining video. First, you can use additional tools that can fix errors in the code of the video file. However, if the damaged area is large, then such utilities will not be able to cope with the recovery. Other programs capable of fixing the video file will use re-compression, which will inevitably lead to loss of original quality. The CDRoller utility can solve this problem faster and more efficiently than many other programs. After copying readable data from such a disk to the hard drive, CDRoller will analyze the vob file and divide it into separate fragments (movie scenes), saving them in the MPEG format familiar to the DVD video standard, without quality loss. In this case, you can simply exclude the scene with the fragment where the defect is present, and record new disk with surviving data.

Thanks to the built-in burning module, the procedure for burning a disc can be performed directly in the CDRoller. The program allows you to burn recovered files and folders, videos, as well as ISO image files.

The tool for cataloging discs built into the program uses the so-called short images (Short CD/DVD Image). In fact, these are not real images, but only data about the contents of the indexed disk - a list of all files and directories on the disk, with the structure preserved. Each time a new disc is read, the program can automatically create such a short image and write it to a certain folder, thus making up a library of all discs. In the future, if you need to quickly find a specific file, you can use CDRoller to search the entire library of images. The data search tool is very flexible, search query can be refined using various search criteria. So, for example, you can set the minimum and maximum size of the searched file, define the search subject (for example, only folders, files, or both), specify the date of creation, etc. Another feature of CDRoller is the ability to work with audio CDs. Despite the relative durability of audio CDs, sometimes one tiny scratch is enough to stop a CD player from playing a particular track or even recognizing the disc. In order to save the recording, the program uses digital data reading (Digital Audio Extraction). During the audio reading process, the CDRoller can use jitter correction, as well as apply sector rereading to detect errors or loss of synchronization. Readable tracks can be immediately converted to various formats digital sound- WAV, MP3, MP2, OGG, etc. The program can encode audio CDs on the fly, without creating an intermediate WAV file. In order to evaluate the quality of the optical media, CDRoller performs a series of tests (the test can be launched by selecting a drive from the list of available devices and using a keyboard shortcut), choosing a test method depending on the type of recorded data. The program checks the file ISO system 9660, and also performs a disk surface check, after which it displays a detailed generated report on various media properties - the number of detected sessions, the program in which the recording was made, the size of the file allocation table, the list of unreadable folders, etc. .

Please note that this check cannot be applied to disks with the UDF file system. Error detection on optical media with such a file system is performed automatically. This data recording format is actively used various models DVD camcorders, DVD recorders, and packet writing applications such as Roxio Drag-To-Disc and Nero InCD. Users who have to deal with such discs often encounter a situation where the captured and recorded video does not play back. Typically, data write errors occur during session close. They can be found when working with devices of the most different manufacturers- Lite-On, Thomson RCA, Philips, Panasonic, etc. In most cases, CDRoller allows you to partially or even completely restore this data.

ISOBuster 2.5

The secret of IsoBuster's popularity lies, first of all, in the fact that this program understands all existing file systems that are used today for writing data. The utility works with the contents of images, with its help you can mount images and extract data from them, as well as directly run files. The program supports all formats popular programs for burning discs such as CDRWin, CloneCD, DiscJuggler, BlindWrite, WinOnCD, NTI, Plextools and many more. IsoBuster can also be used to create an exact image of the original disc, and the image can be written to .iso, .bin, .tao formats, created with cue markup and an .md5 checksum to determine data integrity.

The program allows you to check the status of the media (in this case, you can not even extract the data to the hard drive) and can compile lists of files containing reading errors. If the program detects bad sectors when reading a disk image, IsoBuster can collect statistics on bad areas of the disk and save it to a separate file. In the event that restrictions are imposed on the file system (for example, FAT), the created image files can be split into parts, the size of which is specified in the IsoBuster settings.

Conclusion

Goal of the work: Learn the program for diagnosing CD / DVD drives VSO Inspector.

Theoretical information:

The installation of the VSO Inspector program proceeds as usual, and before completion you will be asked to familiarize yourself with the basic features of testing disks. The main window of the program is shown in Fig.

Rice.

The Device tab displays the main parameters of the disk drive (disk drive): general information, options, read and write capabilities for various disks, etc.

The next tab, Media, will provide information about the disc (blank) inserted into the CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive: media type, manufacturer, number of layers, maximum read/write speed, etc.

Rice.

Rice.

On the Scan tab, you can check the quality of discs: perform a surface scan and test files if the disc contains recordings. The testing process is reflected in the diagram and numbers in the corresponding colored cells: Good, Bad and Errors. To select a test, check the box next to the desired item and click the Start button. In the presence of errors and bad sectors, testing the disk surface can take a long time.

At the end of the scan, a summary of the test results is displayed, which can be saved as a file - the Save button. Unlike similar programs, VSO Inspector allows you to check not only the quality of the surface, but also errors in the information already recorded on the disk - the Test files item. In addition, you can view detailed information on each disk sector - View Sectors tab.

Rice. "View disk sectors" tab

Thus, the VSO Inspector program is a good tool for testing disks. It should be borne in mind that the presence of errors on a rewritable CD / DVD does not mean that they should be thrown away. Sometimes, after performing a full (not quick) erase, for example, using the Nero program, the errors disappear and the disc can be used again.

Conclusion: In the course of practical work, I got acquainted with the program for diagnosing CD / DVD drives VSO Inspector, studied how it works.

Programs and utilities for testing CD / DVD drives

Goal of the work: Familiarize yourself with programs and utilities for testing CD / DVD drives.

Progress:

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2000/XP

This program tests CDs for errors!

CD/DVD Diagnostic

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2000/XP:5/5 - 1.1Mb

Shareware $64.95

Enough useful program, intended mainly for obtaining information about CD-R/CD-RW/DVD discs (regular ones are also tested). Disc content, manufacturer, disc type, number of tracks, blocks, disc recording format, etc. are displayed. Disks can be checked for errors. On CD-RW discs, the program may try to recover inaccessible files. Supports both IDE and SCSI drives!

CD/DVD Capabilities Viewer

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP - 148K

This program allows you to view the capabilities of your CD/DVD drives, including the CD-Writer and DVD-Writer.

CDRom Drive Analyzer

OS: Win95/98/NT - 243K

With this program, you can test the performance of a CD-ROM. It can also be used to check the quality of the CDs themselves. During testing, a graph is built that can be saved in .bmp format. Digital results can also be saved separately.

OS: Win95/98/NT/DOS/Unix - 63K

This program measures the speed of sector-by-sector CD-ROM reading.

OS: Win95/98/N:

Program from Ziff-Davis. Measures the speed of a CD-ROM. Gives a complete picture of performance! Quality product!

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP - 219Kb

DISCInfo shows various information about IDE/SCSI devices and their capabilities. The amount of information is not very large, the most valuable information is about CD / DVD drives. In addition, the program can automatically search updated versions firmware for the respective devices.

OS: Win98/Me/NT/2k/XP - 3.5Mb

Download 64-bit version for Windows XP/2003 x64

DVDInfoPro displays various information about CD/DVD drives and the discs they contain. In addition, the program also contains such functions as a disc reading speed test and a test for errors, the function of erasing and formatting DVD-R/RW & DVD+R/RW discs, etc.

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP - 1Mb

DVD Identifier displays various information about DVD (DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, DVD+RW DL, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM) and Blu-Ray (BD- R, BD-RE) discs inserted in the drive. In particular, information about the manufacturer, supported speeds, disk type, etc. is displayed.

OS: Win95/98/NT - 165K

And this program measures the speed of DVD-ROM "a! Measures the data transfer speed, processor load, access speed, etc. when working with DVDs!

OS: Win95/98/NT4/2000 - 585Kb

Another program for testing CD- and DVD-ROM. Performs the usual tests for such programs.

Intel Media Benchmarks

OS: Win95/98 - 20Mb

The program evaluates the performance of the processor when executing algorithms that are used in the processing of multimedia data.

Multimedia Mark 99

OS: Win95/98 - 12.9Mb

Another successful program from Futuremark Corporation, the developer of 3DMark. Tests multimedia performance "in real conditions".

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP-471K

This program measures the speed of CD- and DVD-ROM "a. Estimates data transfer speed, CPU load, access speed, etc.

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP - 219Kb

This program shows various information about CD-ROM drive, loaded disc, configuration disk drives, as well as the operating system, installed applications for burning discs, etc. All information can be saved or printed.

PassMark SoundCheck

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2000/XP - 351K

SoundCheck is designed to test your computer's audio system. The ability to record and play sounds with different frequencies, etc. is being tested. During operation, all information is displayed both in digital and graphical form.

RightMark 3DSound

OS: Win9x/Me/2k/XP - 1.9Mb

RightMark 3DSound is a sound test that has the following features: DirectSound diagnostics: output of hardware-supported functions by a given DirectSound device; checking for support for EAX1, EAX2, EAX3; checking the quality of sound source positioning when using DirectSound3D, including vertically; the possibility of tests with EAX2, EAX3, as well as with the presence of occlusions and obstructions; measurement of processor load with a different number of DirectSound and DirectSound3D streams, as well as with reverb enabled; special statistical processing of the results of measuring the CPU load, issuing not only the average value, but also the characteristics of the spread of values.

OS: Win9x/Me/2k/XP - 628Kb

The RightMark Audio Analyzer program is designed to test the acoustic characteristics of sound cards, as well as other audio equipment. Testing is carried out by reproducing test signals and recording these signals that have passed through the studied audio path. This requires from sound card ability to work in duplex mode. Tests of frequency response, SOI, noise level, dynamic range and interpenetration of stereo channels. Based on the test results, marks are given ("good", "bad", etc.), you can also see both digital results and graphs! The program comes with a detailed description

RightMark Audio Analyzer

Acoustics Test Edition

OS: Win9x/Me/2k/XP - 378Kb

Edition of the RightMark Audio Analyzer program intended for testing acoustic systems. RMAA-AE is based on the same measurement code version as RMAA. Two types of test signals are available in the program for testing the frequency response of acoustics: musical noise and floating sine. To obtain high-quality measurement results, a special measurement microphone (eg BEHRINGER ECM8000) and a card with a perfectly flat frequency response are required. The methodological error of the program algorithms is +/-0.1 dB.

OS: Win95/98/NT - 188K

This program is designed to check the quality of CDs. During the scan, the file system is monitored, the correct opening of files, and the search for bad sectors. The program has a rather pleasant non-standard interface, customizable in Russian or English language. The test report is written to a separate file.

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP - 2.2Mb

SoundCheck is designed to test your computer's audio system. It performs tests on playback and recording, MIDI, audio CDs, and more. In addition, the program can give advice on troubleshooting various problems in the sound system.

OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP - 1.2Mb

VSO Inspector displays various information about installed CD/DVD drives, their characteristics and media read/write capabilities various types. You can also get information about the disk and its possible read / write speeds on this drive. The recorded disc can be checked for readability. All information can be saved as a report or a screenshot.

Windows XP CD-R/RW Properties

OS: WinXP - 260Kb

Windows XP CD-R/RW Properties displays basic information about the CD-R/RW drives installed in the system, as well as the discs inserted into them.

ZD Audio Winbench 99

OS: Win95/98 - 3.89 Mb

Audio system diagnostic program. There are tests that determine the load on the processor and several subjective tests.

Conclusion: In the course of practical work, I got acquainted with programs and utilities for diagnosing CD / DVD drives.

CHKDSK- standard application For hard checks disk for errors, detect bad sectors on the hard disk, fix file system errors. The CHKDSK application (short for Check Disk - "Check Disk") is built into the operating Windows system.

The Chkdsk.exe program finds file system errors, bad sectors on the hard drive, and fixes the detected problems. If the disk file system error check finds problems, the CHKDSK check runs when the computer is turned on.

When using Chkdsk.exe in different Windows versions, there are some differences:

• In Windows XP, the chkdsk utility finds file system errors and repairs bad sectors on a disk.
• In Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, at default settings, CHKDSK finds file system errors but does not fix them. To fix file system errors and check disk sectors, you must manually set certain parameters.

Problems in the Windows operating system affect its performance. File system errors occur in the following situations:

• Due to a power outage - if the computer is suddenly turned off, an unexpected system failure may occur (to prevent such situations, use UPS - uninterruptible power supplies).
• If the system is infected with malware.
• Due to computer hardware failure.

Bad sectors may appear on the surface of the hard drive. When checking a disk with using chkdsk, faulty bad sectors hard disk are marked as damaged, the system no longer reads or writes information from the bad sectors of the disk. The system will try to recover data from bad sectors (clusters, directories), if possible.

Check disk chkdsk runs in two modes:

• in the graphical interface by means of the system;
• using the command line.

If the computer does not boot due to problems, you can check the hard drive using the Windows installation DVD. After booting from removable media, in the system recovery options, select the command line to start checking the disk for errors.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to use the CHKDSK application using the Windows 10 operating system as an example.

CHKDSK check for file system troubleshooting in GUI

The easiest option to check the file system for errors is to run CHKDSK program in the graphical interface by means of the system.

Do the following:

1. Launch File Explorer.
2. Right-click on the local drive you want to scan.
3. In the "Properties: Local Disk (X:)" window, go to the "Service" tab.
4. In the "Check for errors" section, click on the "Check" button.

1. In the Error Checker (Local Disk (X :)) window that opens, select "Check Disk", despite the fact that the operating system says that no errors were found during the disk check.

Available in Windows 7 additional options checks, to run them, you must check the boxes next to the items:

• Automatically fix system errors.
• Scan and repair bad sectors.

1. The scanning process starts and will take some time. The scan time depends on the size of the local disk and on the amount of data on the disk.

During file system error checking, the status is scanned:

• The basic structure of the file system is checked.
• Filename associations are checked.
• The security descriptors are checked.
• The USN log is checked.

1. After the verification process is completed, information about its result will open. In this case, the disk was successfully checked, no errors were found. If errors are found, you will be prompted to fix them.

For details, click on the "Show Details" link.

In the Event Viewer snap-in window, click Details.

In the "Event Properties" window, in the "General" and "Details" tabs, detailed information about the result of the disk check is available.

The resulting information about checking the disk for file system errors can be copied to Notepad or to another text editor for further study.

How to Run CHKDSK (Check Disk) on Command Prompt

The chkdsk command to check the hard drive with the given parameters is executed from the command line:

1. Run command prompt as administrator. Read How to Find the Command Prompt in Windows
2. For check system partition(system drive) in the command line interpreter window, enter the command:

1. Press the "Enter" key.
2. A message will appear in the command prompt window stating that the CHKDSK command cannot be executed because the specified volume is in use by a system process. To start checking the system disk after rebooting the system, press the "Y" key, and then press the "Enter" key.
3. During system reboot will be tested and recovery of the system disk.

An example command template looks like this: ["chkdsk" (application name)], space, [drive letter followed by a colon ("c:", "d:", "f:", etc.), path, or filename], space, [command options].

Command parameters have the following meanings:

• /F - checking the file system and automatically fixing the errors found.
• / R - searching for bad sectors on the disk, restoring the contents (the command requires the mandatory key / F, example: "chkdsk C: / F / R").
• /V - display full paths of files, display file names on the disk, in the NTFS file system - display messages about cleaning.
• /X - disconnect disk before checking, handles this disk will not be checked (the mandatory key /F must be set, command example: "chkdsk C: /F /X").
• /I - performs a less strict check of the index entries, CHKDSK performs a faster but less thorough check.
• /C - Skip checking cycles inside the folder structure.
• /L: size - change the size of the log to the value specified in kilobytes.
• /B - reset scan results, re-scan previously found damaged hard disk (required key / R, command example: "chkdsk C: / F / R / B").

In most cases, to check the file system and eliminate bad sectors on the hard drive, it is enough to use the "F" and "R" flags.

How to Disable Check Disk in CHKDSK on Windows Boot

In some cases, disk check starts when you turn on the computer, before loading the Windows operating system. In most cases, you need to wait until the end of the check, a restart will not follow.

A constant check of the disk every time the system starts, signals the presence of problems and the need to fix them. Perhaps you should consider replacing the hard drive. There are programs, for example, that constantly monitor the status of computer disks.

To disable Chkdsk from starting when Windows boot You can use 2 methods: change the values ​​in the registry of the operating system, or use the command line.

Disable check disk on the command line:

1. Run command prompt as administrator.
2. In the command line interpreter window, enter the command ("C:" is the name of the drive on which you want to disable the launch of the disk check at system boot), and then press the "Enter" key:

• If you need to disable checking on multiple drives, add the corresponding drive letters to the command separated by spaces, for example, "chkntfs /x c: d:".
• Using the "chkntfs / d" command, you can return the original settings.

You can turn off automatic disk check when the operating system boots in the following way:

1. Launch the Registry Editor (type "regedit" in the search field, run the command).
2. Follow the path:

1. Click on the "Session Manager" option.
2. Find the parameter "BootExecute", click on it with the left mouse button.
3. The Edit MultiString window displays the default value.

1. To disable disk check during Windows startup, add a parameter before the asterisk:

1. To disable scanning on multiple partitions, add drive letters separated by a space. Example for drives "C:" and "D:":

Article Conclusions

CHKDSK system application built into operating system Windows is used to check the file system for errors and to detect bad sectors on the computer's hard drive. Using the utility, you can fix system errors and eliminate the negative impact (disable reading and writing) on ​​the system due to the presence of bad sectors of the hard disk.