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| Internet Security | Windows Repair |
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| Chkdsk |
To check for problems with the file system you should run Chkdsk.
To run Chkdsk you will usually need to Defragment your harddrive first.
Microsoft's chkdsk advice
Essentially, just open My Computer and right-click your harddrive and select Properties then Tools then Check Now.
Check the box next to 'Automatically fix file system errors'. You will usually be prompted to restart the pc and it will do a full scan of the drive
for errors on the next restart before Windows boots up - it can take several hours but informs you of its progress.
Do not check the box next to 'Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors' because if Chkdsk finds a bad sector in your Windows folder
its repair deletes any files in the sector, this ruins your Windows installation and usually stops the pc from booting up. If reparing Windows from
the Recovery Console doesn't work the only solution would be to reinstall Windows. It is advised to check for bad sectors after cleaning the
pc of malware and backing up all the files and programs you don't want to lose onto disk (CDR/DVDR) or USB drives.
If your pc crashes continually preventing completion of the Chkdsk scan you can try running the scan in Safe Mode.
If it crashes even in Safe Mode it will probably be impossible to repair bad sectors on the harddrive and should be replaced.
Once you have attached a new harddrive and installed Windows on it, you will be able to connect the faulty drive as a spare and copy data from it,
but it's fault may (but is less likely to) continue to crash your pc while it is connected. If it doesn't crash your pc at this stage it will be possible to
scan it for bad sectors and repair them.
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