Check Disk Question

Why will Vista not allow me to run a check disk on my external WD har
drive? I go into disk properties to Tools and tell it to run the sca
and it tells me it can't do it while the disk is in use...so I schedul
it for the next restart/reboot. When I do reboot, it just load
normally and completely ignores what I told it to do

I have already loaded Disk Management, and it says the drive is health
and partitioned correctly. So I have no idea why Vista is being a
butthead about checking it for errors. Hell, I used to be able to chec
it without rebooting the computer because it doesn't HAVE any of my O
files on it. Since it is a FAT32 drive, it needs to be defragged an
checked frequently (not to mention it's an older drive)

--
KingOfChaos

You've perhaps done something with that particular drive such as position
your pagefile on it or something similar so that it's effectively 'in use'.
You normally only get that error if you try checking the current partition.

--
Jon


"KingOfChaos" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Why will Vista not allow me to run a check disk on my external WD hard
> drive? I go into disk properties to Tools and tell it to run the scan
> and it tells me it can't do it while the disk is in use...so I schedule
> it for the next restart/reboot. When I do reboot, it just loads
> normally and completely ignores what I told it to do.
>
> I have already loaded Disk Management, and it says the drive is healthy
> and partitioned correctly. So I have no idea why Vista is being an
> butthead about checking it for errors. Hell, I used to be able to check
> it without rebooting the computer because it doesn't HAVE any of my OS
> files on it. Since it is a FAT32 drive, it needs to be defragged and
> checked frequently (not to mention it's an older drive).
>
>
> --
> KingOfChaos

Not unless Vista decided to do it on it's own. In fact, I can't even
set the drive to improve windows performance because it's listed as
being too slow. I have a 300 gb hard drive on this computer, so I don't
really need to use the external 160 for anything but files.

Jon;635387 Wrote:
> You've perhaps done something with that particular drive such as
> position
> your pagefile on it or something similar so that it's effectively 'in
> use'.
> You normally only get that error if you try checking the current
> partition.
>
> --
> Jon
>
>
> "KingOfChaos" <> wrote in
> message
> news:...> > >
> > >
> > > Why will Vista not allow me to run a check disk on my external WD
> > hard
> > > drive? I go into disk properties to Tools and tell it to run the
> > scan
> > > and it tells me it can't do it while the disk is in use...so I
> > schedule
> > > it for the next restart/reboot. When I do reboot, it just loads
> > > normally and completely ignores what I told it to do.
> > >
> > > I have already loaded Disk Management, and it says the drive is
> > healthy
> > > and partitioned correctly. So I have no idea why Vista is being an
> > > butthead about checking it for errors. Hell, I used to be able to
> > check
> > > it without rebooting the computer because it doesn't HAVE any of my
> > OS
> > > files on it. Since it is a FAT32 drive, it needs to be defragged and
> > > checked frequently (not to mention it's an older drive).
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > KingOfChaos > >


--
KingOfChaos

"KingOfChaos" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Not unless Vista decided to do it on it's own. In fact, I can't even
> set the drive to improve windows performance because it's listed as
> being too slow. I have a 300 gb hard drive on this computer, so I don't
> really need to use the external 160 for anything but files.
>


If you open up 'Disk Management' and look at the drive you're on (lower
portion), then if you're 'all on that one partition' it should say something
lke

Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

If any of those (other than the partition type), are on the other drive that
you're trying to run a chkdsk on, then that would be the reason.


--
Jon

I just resolved a similar issue. The only thing that works is to boot from
a Vista Repair Disk. There is a .iso file on the web and ImgBurn works
nicely to burn a DVD.

"KingOfChaos" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Why will Vista not allow me to run a check disk on my external WD hard
> drive? I go into disk properties to Tools and tell it to run the scan
> and it tells me it can't do it while the disk is in use...so I schedule
> it for the next restart/reboot. When I do reboot, it just loads
> normally and completely ignores what I told it to do.
>
> I have already loaded Disk Management, and it says the drive is healthy
> and partitioned correctly. So I have no idea why Vista is being an
> butthead about checking it for errors. Hell, I used to be able to check
> it without rebooting the computer because it doesn't HAVE any of my OS
> files on it. Since it is a FAT32 drive, it needs to be defragged and
> checked frequently (not to mention it's an older drive).
>
>
> --
> KingOfChaos

"KingOfChaos" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Why will Vista not allow me to run a check disk on my external WD hard
> drive? I go into disk properties to Tools and tell it to run the scan
> and it tells me it can't do it while the disk is in use...so I schedule
> it for the next restart/reboot. When I do reboot, it just loads
> normally and completely ignores what I told it to do.
>
> I have already loaded Disk Management, and it says the drive is healthy
> and partitioned correctly. So I have no idea why Vista is being an
> butthead about checking it for errors. Hell, I used to be able to check
> it without rebooting the computer because it doesn't HAVE any of my OS
> files on it. Since it is a FAT32 drive, it needs to be defragged and
> checked frequently (not to mention it's an older drive).


Unmount the external drive.
Where it says "c" below, insert the external drive letter
you want checked and fixed. Using "X" unmounts
and fixes file system errors.

CHKDSK c: /X

If you want the longer check for bad sectors, use-
Be sure to replace "c" with the drive you want checked.

CHKDSK c: /X /R

To use this command, type "CMD" into Start Menu's
Search bar. Right-click the first result at the top, and
click "Run as administrator". Enter the command and press
enter.

http://www.ss64.com/nt/chkdsk.html


-Michael