Scandisk is an utility that can check your hard drive for physical damage and can also fix file system errors, such as cross-linked folders, damaged or invalid file names and disassociated file names.
Select the drive that you want to scan and choose from the available options:
Just check, don't repair anything - inspects the
selected drives for lost chains/clusters
This test typically takes only a few minutes. Found errors are reported but
they are not corrected. Uncheck this in order to automatically correct the
errors (when Scandisk finds a bad sector, it will mark the sector as bad,
avoid using it and move data to a good spot on the drive).
Show progress details - the
name of the file or folder being checked will be shown. If you will choose
this option the scanning process will take a bit longer.
Scan the free space too - not
only folders and files will be checked but the free, unused, disk space too.
This will prevent programs from saving information on an eventual bad area
of the disk.
Click Start to proceed and Stop if you want to abort the scanning process. In order to stop scanning the current drive and jump to the next selected drive, simply press the Skip button. The Properties button will show you the system properties for the selected drive.
Scandisk might fail to properly work or might take longer if there is any disk activity on the drive that it is checking. First, close all open programs before running Scandisk. Don't forget to turn your screen saver, if any, off. Temporarily disable anti-virus software. Now access Scandisk.
It is recommended that you run Scandisk/Check Disk every 30 days. Forgetting to run Scandisk/Check Disk at the recommended interval may result in sluggish system performance.