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Answers to Windows 95 | 98 | ME ScanDisk Questions

Where the term Windows 9x is used here it refers to Windows 95, 98, or 98 Second Edition (SE). Windows ME refers to Millenium Edition.

What is ScanDisk and what does it do?

ScanDisk for Windows (Scandskw.exe) is a disk-checking and repair tool, included with Microsoft Windows 9x, and Me, that checks the integrity of your hard disks and floppy disks, and can repair many problems that may occur. You can manually start ScanDisk by clicking on the Start button, then Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools. You should run ScanDisk before running the disk Defragmenter. Chkdsk has replaced ScanDisk in Windows 2000 and XP. Read about Chkdsk here.

What ScanDisk settings do you recommend?

These are my recommended Windows 9x and ME ScanDisk settings:

• Type of test = Standard
• "Automatically fix errors" is checked
• Click on the "Advanced" button
• Mark the following radio button and checkbox choices:
• • Display summary = Only if errors found
  • Log file = Replace log
  • Cross-linked files = Delete
  • Lost file fragments = Free
  • Check files for = Invalid file names + Invalid dates and times
  • Check host drive first = checked
• In the event that ScanDisk's summary reports any bad sectors, you can re-run the test as "Thorough", in both the system and data areas.
• All ScanDisk options are listed on this Microsoft Knowledgebase article.

Why does ScanDisk keep restarting?

ScanDisk has restarted 10 times because Windows or another program has been writing to this drive. Quitting some running programs may enable ScanDisk to finish sooner. Do you want to continue receiving this warning?

The foremost solution, as recommended by the above message, is to close all tasks or programs that are running, either in the foreground or in the background. MS Office Fast Find and Office Fast Start and anti virus programs are especially well known for interfering with ScanDisk operations.

Turn off the Quick Launch Toolbar, disable your screen saver temporarily, close any running programs and Systray icons while you run ScanDisk.

To close all tasks and programs press the three finger salute; Control + Alt + Delete, which opens the "Close Program" dialog box. Highlight a listed program then click on "End Task". Repeat this until only Explorer, Systray and ScanDisk are left running. If you get a popup message that a program you tried to close is not responding, click the End Task button on the popup box. This usually terminates the dead program, unless it has crashed hopelessly. After you quit all running programs, try running ScanDisk again.

Sometimes closing tasks after they are running in memory doesn't completely terminate them and these partially running applications or tasks will interfer with ScanDisk. In these cases you can try performing a "warm reboot" of Windows, which is done by restarting Windows while holding down the Shift key (START, SHUTDOWN, check RESTART, hold down the Shift key, then click on OK), keeping it down as Windows reloads, then closing all running tasks except Explorer (using the Close Program box).

Alternately, if you can't get ScanDisk to finish, try rebooting into Safe Mode (do a full restart - tapping F8 until the boot menu appears - arrow up to Safe Mode - hit Enter), which is a minimal version of Windows without your usual startup programs or certain drivers loaded. Safe Mode usually allows ScanDisk to get it's job done when running it in normal Windows fails to complete.

If you are still unable to get ScanDisk to complete in Safe Mode your only alternative may be to run it from a clean boot and MS-DOS prompt (see_this_section)

Why does ScanDisk autorun when I reboot and how can I stop it from happening?

ScanDisk usually auto-runs during a reboot after you have a bad shutdown in Windows 9x or ME. This usually happens if you have to hit the reset button or use Ctrl+Alt+Del, or turn off the power to reboot, while your desktop, or a blue screen of death is showing. Bad shutdowns cause files to become fragmented and can create cross-linked files, where two files claim ownership of the same cluster, which is illegal. Cross-linked files can cause Fatal Exceptions, GPF's and program errors.

Some computers will always hang on the "Windows is Shutting Down" screen, and you'll have to reset the power to reboot it. Then ScanDisk will run everytime you reboot, although nothing is damaged.

If you find that your computer doesn't suffer any maladies after a forced shutdown, and nothing is reported as being wrong after ScanDisk autoruns, and you want to stop the automatic scanning, you have two options to prevent ScanDisk from automatically starting:
1. On the toolbar click Start, click Run, type Msconfig, and then click OK.
2. Click Advanced, and select the Disable ScanDisk after bad shutdown option.
3. Click OK twice, and then click Yes to restart your computer.

NOTE: For Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition, this procedure adds AutoScan=0 to the [Options] section of the Msdos.sys file (a hidden, read-only, system file). For Windows Me, this procedure adds a Binary value named DisableScanDiskOnBoot to the following registry key and sets its value to 01: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

How do I run ScanDisk from MS-DOS?

When ScanDisk won't even complete in Safe Mode you can usually get it to work by rebooting into MS-DOS Mode.

For Windows 98 or Windows 95:

To restart to a command prompt and run ScanDisk in real mode, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Shut Down, click Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode, and then click Yes or OK.
2. At the command prompt, type scandisk, and then press ENTER.
3. You can also use the following command, at the MS-DOS prompt, to automatically scan for and fix errors on all drives or partitions, without asking you to save original files, plus run a full surface scan and repair: scandisk /all /autofix /nosave /surface

Windows Me:

To restart to a command prompt and run ScanDisk in real mode, follow these steps:

1. Start your computer by using the Windows Me Startup disk. If you need to create a Startup disk, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
   267287: How to Create a Startup Disk in Windows Me
2. From the Startup menu, choose Minimum Boot.
3. At the command prompt, type scandisk, and then press ENTER.

How to Turn Off the Quick Launch Toolbar

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Right-click a blank area of the taskbar.
2. On the shortcut menu that appears, point to Toolbars, and then click Quick Launch.

NOTE: A check mark appears next to Quick Launch. When you click Quick Launch, the check mark disappears. The Quick Launch toolbar is disabled. After you run ScanDisk, follow steps 1 and 2 to again enable the toolbar.

A complete list of Microsoft Knowledgebase articles about ScanDisk is here.

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