Special Features in DOS

Checking the Condition of a Disk

We use the CHKDSK command to:

. Check a disk to see how much space there is available, and how much is in use.

. Fix some disk errors, such as files that show a non-zero size but that really have no data in them

. Display information about the disk, including the total disk space, the number and size of files.

. Display how much Random Access Memory (RAM) is available to MS-DOS. ( This is NOT the total memory in our computer!!)

Run CHKDSK occasionally on all our disks to check for errors.

The command:

CHKDSK A: /F {ENTER}

Checks the disk in drive A: for errors and fixes any errors it can.

If CHKDSK finds no errors it displays a report like this:

1213952 bytes total disk space

87040 bytes in 3 hidden files   4608 bytes in 6 directories   1078784 bytes in 97 user files   43520 bytes available on disk   655360 bytes total memory   588480 bytes free

If the CHKDSK command reports any errors on the disk, it displays a message such as:

xxx lost clusters found in xxx chains and asks you whether you want to correct the errors.

Type Y (for yes) and the press the {ENTER} key.

NOTE:-

This procedure can cause you to lose some of the information on your disk, however, not fixing the disk can cause you to lose even more!!