How to Check Your Hard Disk via Command Prompt

My face LOOKS exactly the same as this Siamese cat's when i got my first "blue screen of death (BSOD)"- the reason why i make hard disk-checking a MUST in the future.

I have a habit of checking my hard drive at least once every month, just to make sure my PC is error-free and running smoothly. However, it is actually not a necessity to do that so often, as hard drive checking consumes a certain amount of time; not unless you are an uber system tweaker who constantly touch on essential components of your system (eg. your System32 files). I do, by the way....

For common users, what is the perfect timing to do a hard drive check? Just take note: when you started getting weird error messages on your desktop, and you know that it is nothing related to your software applications, it's probably time for you to do a check-up of your hard drive.

Here's how to check your hard drive via command prompt:

1. On your desktop, click your start button.

2. Find the "Run" option.

3. In the "Run" option box, type "cmd" (short form for 'command prompt')

4. In the command prompt window, type "chkdsk c:" to check your C Drive, which normally host your system files. To check all your hard drives, just type "chkdsk".

Note: If you're using Vista, run command prompt with administrative privileges, or just temporarily turn off your user account control (UAC).

5. Windows will start checking your disk!


Note: Running chkdsk in the command prompt will help recover bad sectors from your PC...which is those errors generated from minor systems area of your PC. However it does not help check file systems (system32 files) for error! I will discuss about checking file systems in the future...:)