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Thread ID: 59255	2005-06-26 02:28:00	Work shop	baybarb (8421)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
367101	2005-06-26 02:28:00	Hi all, In June NZ PC world under the title "Take the hard line" page 105 Hard drive check-up states Windows XP offers a rudimentary evaluation of your hard drive disk's health and I followed the directions...Property- tools - check now. My computer attempted to do this then a message box came up with..."Windows was unable to complete the disk check". What I want to know is, why not ???? I am fairly new to this world of computers....learning the hard way with viruses etc, yeah, and even a Trojan dialer (grrrrr) I am have become a fairly regular reader of PC World NZ, but I still only understand about a 1/3 of it! What I do understand has been fairly helpful. Can any body help out there with my query?	baybarb (8421)
367102	2005-06-26 02:39:00	Welcome to PressF1. Were you using other programmes while performing the check? Were you connected to the Internet? I suspect the checking routine might not be too delighted about a disk whose contents are changing while it is being tested. ;) Eventually it could give up. Try booting in Safe Mode and doing the disk check as the only task. It's my strong opinion that defragmenting and disk scanning, etc. should be done in this mode. They are maintenance activities like changing a car engine's oil. You don't take the car for a quick trip halfway through that process.	Graham L (2)
367103	2005-06-26 02:41:00	i'm not sure with XP but i suspect you will have a program thats writing to the hardrive. shut down all your programs, or boot into safe mode. how much ram do you have installed?	tweak'e (69)
367104	2005-06-26 07:58:00	Thanks for your replies Graham L and Tweak's. We have 256MG of RAM and are on broadband hence not off line at the time I tried this disk check. I don't understand what using other programmes is when attempting this, see, I don't have much knowlege of computers! What else could be running in the background? How do I shut them off. Yes, I will try Disk Clean Up and Defragmenter in 'Safe Mode' Believe it or not I have used Safe Mode before, I used it when runing another anti virus programme well before installing AVG. Thanks again to you both!	baybarb (8421)
367105	2005-06-26 08:19:00	If you are running XP, then it is normal for chkdsk (disk check) to give a message that it cannot run because the volume is in use by another process if you are not doing the read-only check. You should of been given an option for it to run during the next startup of the computer. Just say yes to this, and then reboot. You will notice a new message window will appear and you can see the chkdsk being run. Once it has completed, Windows will finish loading normally. You can find further information here (www.microsoft.com) and here (www.microsoft.com).	Jen (38)
367106	2005-06-26 23:07:00	Oh dear, Now I am confused, Jen! I have just tried error checking in safe mode but this box still comes up with 'windows was unable to complete the disc check'. No other box or window appears like you suggest it should. I think maybe this is all too advanced for me. Pity there wasn't a magazine that is published for "beginners" like me. When I was at secondary school the only technology we had was manual typwriters, when I went back as an adult student and did school C in 1989 these typwriters were electric, still no computers in sight! So I am of a generation that has been left out of this modern technology. There are free classes at our local Polytech but I think they are a bit too basic. We have Windows XP SP2 installed and I have just noticed the total size on 'C' is 31.8GB with only free space of 6.85GB. Must be all the photos and music loaded. Have to burn off some of it onto CDs. The 'D' 'error checking' was okay a window just stated 'error checking complete' So, where to from here........suppose just listen and learn! Thanks all.	baybarb (8421)
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