Computer newbies forum: Scandisk - Standard or Thorough

Scandisk standard checks the administration of files and where they are and what parts of the disk are still available for new files. After an illegal shutdown, there can be errors in those parts, and then scandisk is run automatically when you boot. It's a good idea to run scandisk before you run defrag, but that's all. Several times a week is very, very frequent, and generally unnecessary. What kind of error triggers you to run it? Either it's the wrong respons to that error, or there's something wrong with your computer, I should say. If you like, tell more about it.

A thorough scandisk checks if all sectors (every square micro-inch so to say) is undamaged, and marks them unusable if they are damaged. You'll lose the information that it contained.
That's a nice function for diskettes (which build up damaged sectors over time), and it's practically never necessary to run on a hard disk. Only when there is a definite reason to do so, which I've never seen in fact. Note the rule of thumb for a hard disk: replace if a thorough scandisk finds errors.

Hope this helps,


Kees

When I attempt to run defrag, I have never seen scan disc come and run. So I brought scan disc up and ran the thorough check and checked to repair, it ran,(it took over 4-hours to complete) and then it listed all that it had done and said that all faults on the drive had been repaired. Defrag will still not run. It goes up to about 1 or 2 percent and then goes back to zero, repeatadly.

Just my procedures.

I run a standard Scandisk on Windows 98 machines once every month or two, unless the machine appears to need some TLC. Removing "cross linked" files and other errors can help things run a little smoother but is certainly not needed multiple times in a week. After opening Scandisk, I place a CHECK mark in Automatically Fix Errors. Click on the "Advanced" button, then make sure the settings look like this:
Display Summary=Always
Log File=Replace Log
Cross-linked File=Delete
Lost File Fragments=Free
Check Valid Files For=Place a check in ALL of the options
Check Host Drive First

About every 6 months, or so, I run a "thorough" Scandisk in order check for disk problems and sector errors. As mentioned earlier, the "thorough" version can give you a "heads up" in relation to possible hard drive problems.

Hope this helps.

Grif