CHKDSK

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Supported DOS versions:	MS-DOS 2+
How easy to use?	Moderate
How safe to use?	Potentially very dangerous
How common?	Fairly common
Internal or external command?	External

Description

Checks a disk for errors and fixes any problems there may be.

Command Syntax

CHKDSK [drivename] [filename] [/V ][/F]

You may specify a drive, otherwise CHKDSK uses the current drive.

To check the fragmentation of a file you may enter its name.

/V displays the name of each file as it checks it.

/F fixes any errors that CHKDSK finds. If it is not included, CHKDSK does not fix any errors.

Comments

CHKDSK is pronounced "Check Disk". It is not completely fool-proof and sometimes causes more problems than it solves. SCANDISK is preferred as it can check and fix more problems and can undo any changes it makes. A common alternative to CHKDSK is Norton Disk Doctor, but this must be purchased separately as part of the Norton Utilities.

IMPORTANT NEWS for users of MS-DOS 5.0. There is a bug in the version of CHKDSK that comes with this version of MS-DOS. If you run this program on a hard disk that has a size of a multiple of 128 MB with the /F option, it may corrupt the disk by writing multiple copies of the FAT over the directory structure. Microsoft knows about this problem and a fix is available. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base article about this .

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