[Ham-Computers] CHKDSK in MS/DOS

[jandlmiller at bellsouth.net]

For those who would rather fight than switch, recall that:

CHKDSK creates and displays a status report for the disk including total disk space, hidden files, directories, user files, bad sectors, available space on the disk, and an alert if the file needs to be fixed.

CHKDSK/f reports lost allocation units and chains, and asks you whether or not you wish to fix the lost chain.  If you wish that condition to be fixed and answer with a "Y" each lost chain appears in the root directory as FILEnnn.CHK allowing you to check these file(s), when CHKDSK finishes, and see whether they contain any data you need.  If you answer with a "N" CHKDSK fixes the disk but does not save the contents of the lost allocation units.

Apparently never widely documented, CHKDSK D:*.*/v (where D is the drive) will check the disk and report the status if contiguous or non-contiguous (fragmented) files exist.

If fragmentation (non-contiguous) existed and you were using diskettes, you would fix the problem with COPY A:*.* B:/v (/v for verify).  The non-contiguous became contiguous.  If you were using a hard drive, a utility such as Norton Speed Disk would defragment.  You would never use DISKCOPY because it would copy the fragmentation to another disk.