Microsoft Scandisk Problems
Scandisk is an application in Windows that fixes a computer's electronic filing system. Scandisk also rearranges files that have been poorly allocated on a hard drive. Because Scandisk does not recognize good files from bad, and will automatically fix errors, set up Scandisk to prompt you before making any automatic changes to your important files. There can be some problems with Scandisk, though, including system crashes, stalling, lost files, and not enough available memory.
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System crash
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The FAT 32 (File Allocation Table) is the backbone of the computer file system, and it is also the main file system for Windows. When your computer crashes, you'll often see ""FSInfo Sector" displayed on the screen. This means that the FAT 32 has a miscount of the real available space (memory) on your computer. The value assigned to the cache in the FAT 32 is updated occasionally by Windows. When the "FSInfo Sector" error is displayed, allow Scandisk to handle the problem by hitting the enter key when prompted by the system. Scandisk will recount the free space from the FAT file, and record it in the FAT 32 boot record.
Lost File Clusters
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When you see the error "LostClust" (lost file clusters) displayed on the monitor, it means that files on your computer were stored in a cache of free space, usually due to the Windows operating system shutting down without closing files. The files may also be temporary files, which are normally deleted when closing Windows, but were saved in memory. The files which were stored in free space do not have directory assigned to them when the error "LostClust" is displayed on the screen. In this case, save the files (Scandisk is set up by default to remove lost cluster files).
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Scandisk Stalls
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Run the Microsoft configuration program if Scandisk stalls during execution. You'll know if Scandisk is stalling because Windows will display a message that it is trying to write to the drive. Shortly after, your computer will do nothing. This occurs because there is another program running at the same time called McAfee Virus Scan. You will resolve this problem by configuring McAfee Virus Scan not to load at the start up of the Windows operating system. When you get the message that Windows is trying to write to a drive, restart Windows. Hit the F8 button. Select Safe Mode (loads only the necessary programs at startup). Click on Start menu. Click on Run. Type "msconfig.exe" in the text box. Select the Startup tab. Remove all the check marks from McAfee Virus Scan. Click on the OK button to restart the Windows operating system. Scandisk will now run without stalling.
Not Enough Memory
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When you see a message like "Your computer does not have enough free memory [...], Quit one or more programs", find out if your hard drive has a cluster size with a value of less than 8 kilobytes (KB). Click on the Start menu> Control Panel> Performance & Maintenance> System. Look at the hard drive value. If it is greater than 16 gigabytes (GB), then the cluster size is greater than 8 KB. To free up memory for Scandisk to work, upgrade to Windows XP or later. If you're running Windows XP, then repartition your hard drive to free up space (see Resources).
Scandisk Runs After Restarting Windows
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Sometimes Scandisk will start running after you've restarted Windows. As Windows shuts down, information from your files is stored in a virtual cache. What happens is that Windows shuts down too fast for data to be properly stored. The file content is written on to the integrated data hard disk's cache, but not to the hard disk itself. All content is lost as Windows shuts down. This causes Scandisk to run upon restarting Windows. Click on the Start menu> Windows Update. Click on Product Update. Select Window IDE Hard Drive Cache Package. Put a check mark by the updates you want to include, and then click on the Download button.
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