How do you run scan disk?

Question

Is Disk Cleanup & Scan Disk the same action? If not can you tell me how?

In system tools it only has disk cleanup & disk defrag, but how do you run scan disk?
Is disk cleanup and Scan disk the same? If not can someone tell me how do i perform that action.

Answer 1

To Scan Disk just go to:

My computer, then right click on the drive you want and select scan disk.

If you wanto do Defraging or Clean up go to:

Start Menu-All Programs- Accessories- System Tools

Then pick what you want to do:

Disk Clean up
Defrag

Answer 2

With Clean disk it deletes extra stuff on your computer that is cluttering up in main system folders (such as browsing history, temp files, etc.)

With Disk Defragmenter it defragments your hard drive

With Scan Disk - what it checks for is system stability on your computer, for errors on the Operating System and a couple other things... it works differently on different Operating Systems (such as Windows 98) the computer crashes and it'll automatically do a scan disk or you could set it to do one - on windows XP it does not have that automatic feature - go into "My Computer" then right click on your C drive or whichever one is your hard drive and go to properties.
Then to the Tools tab - scan disk is the first option. check applicable boxes on it....it should tell you afterwards that it cant check right now but will do a scan disk when computer is started again. hit ok. then you're set.

There's also a place where you can find out everything about your computer - go into system tools (where you were off the start menu) and hit system information (on Windows XP)
For more info on this stuff you can get info from the support.microsoft website or check into different Help files on the Operating system.

Answer 3

Disk clean up gets rid of temporary files, temporary internet files etc etc. (a bit like going through your filing cabinet andclearing out the junk).

ScanDisk looks for (and fixes (sometimes)) errors on your hard disk. ScanDisk isn't actually in Windows XP, however if you go into "My Computer" right click on your C:\ drive then select the Tools tab and it has an "Error Checking option" (effectively ScanDisk)

...you had might as well run a Defrag whilst your there too. This tidies everything up that is on your hard disk (a bit like sorting your CD collection, for example) and can help improve performance.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

If you have never done this before, you had better allow yourself some time and plan on being nearby.

Assuming you have WindowsXP, here are things you should do regularly to keep your speed to a maximum.

- Are you using a complex screensaver - it runs in the background and eats memory. I had fun with mine, then changed it to blank.
- How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.

1.From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
delete cookies
delete files (offline files)
clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
click o.k., and Restart
2.click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup
3.Temporarily close Quick Launch:
Right-click on the Taskbar, click Toolbars, deselect Quick Launch
4.Open My Computer
right-click on C:
click Properties
click Tools, select Error Check (check all and fix),
when finished click defrag & run.
5.click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)
6.Restart. Right-click on Taskbar, click Toolbars, select Quick Launch to restore

All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.
-Note: Games and videos are mostly graphics. Graphics create large files. You might need more memory.

Answer 5

No. Scan Disk is different.

To run clean up:
Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/clean up

To run scan disk:
click on my computer and right-click on the drive you want scanned. you'll see a tab with 'tools' on it.

Answer 6

Scan disc is now called check disc (chkdsk) and indeed is usually be scheduled to run on your next reboot.