Microsoft ScanDisk

Not to be confused with SanDisk.

Microsoft ScanDisk

Text-based version of Microsoft ScanDisk running on Windows 98
Other names	ScanDisk
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	1993; 32 years ago (1993)
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^[1] and succeeded its simpler predecessor, CHKDSK. It included a more user-friendly interface than CHKDSK, more configuration options,^[2][3] 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.^[4] Unlike CHKDSK, ScanDisk would also repair crosslinked files.^[5]

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.^[6][7]

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^[8] and dosfsck to do the same task.

See also

• fsck
• List of DOS commands