TROUBLESHOOT NTFS DISK PROBLEMS WITH CHKDSK'S PARAMETERS

As you probably know, you can run the Chkdsk.exe utility to see how much disk space is available and if any problems exist with the disk.

You can run Chkdsk.exe on a Windows XP system by right-clicking a drive letter in My Computer and selecting Properties. In the Properties dialog box, select the Tools tab, and click the Check Now button in the Error-checking section. This opens a dialog box with options for automatically fixing file system errors and attempting to recover bad sectors.

However, the command-line version of Chkdsk offers four additional parameters that apply only to NTFS-formatted disks. These parameters can be useful in a number of disk troubleshooting operations.

Here's a closer look at these parameters:

* /X--This forces the volume to dismount first. This operation invalidates all open handles to the drive.

* /I--This instructs Chkdsk to perform a less vigorous check of index entries, which reduces the amount of time needed to run Chkdsk.

* /C--This instructs Chkdsk to skip the checking of cycles within the folder structure, which reduces the amount of time needed to run Chkdsk.

* /L[:size]--This allows you to change the size of the log file to the specified size. If you omit the size parameter, /L displays the current size.