How Do I Know My Drive Is Corrupt?

Use a simple Windows diagnostic tool for checking your hard drive.

Hard drives usually exhibit signs of corruption or deterioration before completely failing. Constant computer crashes, application failures and computer "freezes" are signs of corrupted files on the hard drive or a hard drive that is infected with a virus or malware.

There are tools to detect if the data on your hard drive is corrupt. Microsoft offers a free built-in tool with its operating systems called Chkdsk. Chkdsk will scan your hard drive for bad sectors and other corrupted data; the program also repairs most problems.

Before undertaking any diagnostic test, back up all important data to avoid any data loss from hard drive failure. If you think your computer has a virus or trojan, check with your security software vendor for removal.

Instructions

1. Open "My Computer" or "Computer" on your desktop.

2. Right-click the drive you want to check. The main hard drive is usually named the "C:" drive. In the menu that appears, click "Properties."

3. In the dialog box, click the tab "Tools." Under the section "Error Checking," click "Check Now."

4. Select the boxes for "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors."

5. Windows will ask you to restart your computer to begin the Chkdsk utility. Click "Yes."

6. Restart your computer. After Chkdsk has completed scanning the hard drive, it will display the results of any errors or corrupted files it found.

References

• Microsoft Support: How to Perform Disk Error Checking in Windows XP
• University of Washington: PC Maintenance and Performance