General questions and answers regarding Microsoft ScanDisk.

Issue

General questions and answers regarding Microsoft ScanDisk.

Answers

Below is a listing of general questions and answers commonly asked regarding Microsoft ScanDisk.

How do I run Windows ScanDisk?

How often should I run ScanDisk?

This is a commonly asked question with a difficult answer as every computer and computer user is different. We generally recommend that ScanDisk be ran at least once every 2-3 months. If you are experiencing issues with the hard disk drive we recommend that it be ran more frequently to ensure that sections of the hard disk drive are not becoming corrupted.

How long does it take to run ScanDisk?

This all depends on the size of the hard disk drive and what problems if any are found. With today's hard disk drives it's not abnormal for this scan to take several hours to complete.

Will running ScanDisk a lot cause physical problems?

Scandisk is a software utility designed to look at the data integrity like any other software application and if needed makes changes to the data on the hard disk drive. Scandisk will not cause any physical problems to the hard disk drive regardless of how many times it is ran.

Which versions of Microsoft Windows have ScanDisk?

Scandisk was first introduced in MS-DOS 6.2 and was also in MS-DOS 6.21 and 6.22. Users who had these versions of MS-DOS with Windows 3.11 could also run ScanDisk. Scandisk has also been in all versions of Microsoft Windows with the exception of Microsoft Windows NT. Although each version of Windows has their on version of the program.

ScanDisk found a large number of errors

If after running ScanDisk your hard drive has a large number of errors it's strongly recommended that you backup all data and prepare for the worst. Often when a hard disk drive gets a lot of errors it's a good indication that the hard drive could be failing.

Should I ScanDisk my CD or DVD?

No. A CD, DVD and other disc cannot be fixed using the ScanDisk utility.

How do I run ScanDisk on a network drive?

Microsoft ScanDisk is incapable of scanning and fixing errors on network or other remote drives.

After running ScanDisk computer no longer works.

Often users may run scandisk because their computer is running slow and to fix other problems, if these problems are due to  a bad hard drive running scandisk may cause additional issues because the hard disk drive is already malfunctioning. Unfortunately if this happens our recommendation would be to try reinstalling Windows. However, it's more than likely it too will run into issues and would therefore recommend that the hard disk drive be replaced.

Virtual drives and ScanDisk

A virtual drive should not be scanned using ScanDisk as it can cause corruption and other errors.

Other problems with ScanDisk.

If you have other questions or problems with ScanDisk refer to our ScanDisk help page.

Additional information

  • See the ScanDisk definition for further information and related links.