performing a quick disk diagnostics
here are steps to show how to perform a quick diagnostic of your hard disk. this is usually done automatically for you by the system but you should perform one on the event of a power failure or when your laptop suffer a hard knock. please note that the images are from a system running windows xp professional.
from the start menu, click on my computer then right-click on local disk (c:). you should see the following:
click on properties and you will see this:
click on the tools tab and you will see this:
in the error-checking section click on check now and then you’ll see the image below. both check boxes should be checked as shown and then click on start.
this should start the disk diagnostics but most times you will see the following:
this dialog box just informs you that the diagnostic utility needs exclusive access to the hard disk and asks if you want to schedule it to run the next time you start your computer. click on yes and then restart your computer. the diagnostics should run during start up. its a good idea to take a coffee break or find something else to do while the diagnostics is running. it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to about an hour.
