Microsoft ScanDisk

Not to be confused with SanDisk.

Microsoft ScanDisk
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Text-based version of Microsoft ScanDisk running on Windows 98
Other names	ScanDisk
Developer	Microsoft
Initial release	1993 (1993)
Repository	{{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
Engine
Operating system	MS-DOS 6.2 and Windows 9x
Type	Utility software
License	Proprietary commercial software

Microsoft ScanDisk (also called ScanDisk) is a diagnostic utility program included in MS-DOS and Windows 9x. It checks and repairs file systems errors on a disk drive, while the system starts.

Overview

The program was first introduced in MS-DOS 6.2 and succeeded its simpler predecessor, CHKDSK. It included a more user-friendly interface than CHKDSK, more configuration options, and the ability to detect and (if possible) recover from physical errors on the disk. This replaced and improved upon the limited ability offered by the MS-DOS recover utility. Unlike CHKDSK, ScanDisk would also repair crosslinked files.

In Windows 95 onwards, ScanDisk also had a graphical user interface, although the text-based user interface continued to be available for use in single-tasking ("DOS") mode.

However, ScanDisk cannot check NTFS disk drives, and therefore it is unavailable for computers that may be running NT based (including Windows 2000, Windows XP, etc.) versions of Windows; for the purpose, a newer CHKDSK is provided instead.

On Unix-like systems, there are tools like fsck_msdosfs and dosfsck to do the same task.

See also

• fsck
• List of DOS commands