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Scan Disk debate!

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12 replies

by butlerchuck

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I am having a discussion with a coworker about scandisk! Does it hurt to disable scan disk in msconfig so that when you have a bad shut down it does not run every time. I know that if you suspect that there is a hard drive problem that scan disk is a good place to start, but it creats log files that are not easly opend and does back ups that are hard to restore. They take up space on the hard drive also. If some one is working in word and they freez up or somthing happens and they reboot scan disk will grab that file and you will not be able to recover it. Scan disk will tell you that it found lost clusters and the user will chose the wrong thing and del the files or some wached out thing like that. I think that disabaling scan disk at start up is a good thing. What do my peers think?
Chuck
cbutler@tsionline.com

12 replies

by kbarry

From my experience, I would leave it alone.
One, there are undeniable benefits within scandisk.
Two, if a user really does have a problem and scandisk is disabled, the user may REALLY have a problem and you might not find out until too late.
Three, scandisk still scares some users enough to call for support. This is a good thing in that it can give the support staff indicators(i.e. user misbehaving, old machine ready to byte the dust)
Four, if the user or support tech knows that windows is the dummy that caused scandisk to make an appearance, you can make sure that all parties involved understand when it is safe to skip scandisk.
After all it only takes a keystroke to stop an unneeded scan.

by butlerchuck

Ok that is a150 poiunts for lcid on the side of keeping it. Does anyone else want to get 150 for a reason to disable it.
Chuck
p.s. I will close the question in a few days to see who all responds. Don't forget that you get points for respondingalso.
Chuck

by cd

Another perspective:

- you may disable SCANDISK from running after a bad shutdown. THAT IS IF YOU DON'T LIKE TO WAIT WHEN BOOTING.

However, you NEED to run it from WIN interface (Start\Programs\Accessories\System Tools) first time WIN starts after cracking.

A bad shutdown is not only the cause of bad sectors and lost clusters, but of inconsistencies between copies of FAT and this may really ruin data even if HDD is physically safe.

by kennyb_2001

IN general i dont think it hurts anything (to get rid of it), if you shut it down like your supposed to you will not have to run it any way. its not been disabled on my pc's, but i only let it run about once a month.

by dlongan

Scandisk is very important in maintaining a clean file system. A system hanging or crashing and causing a reboot could cause a corrupt FAT table, lost clusters, or cross-linked files. Bad sectors are not caused by software but a physical defect onthe disk media or mechanics. I recommend running scandisk anytime after a dirty shutdown, before installing an application and just for normal housekeeping task.

I would also recommend purchasing "SpinRite" written by Steve Gibson and using thisutility to ensure that your disk media/mechanics is healthy

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