How to start run scandisk in DOS mode?

[identityless]

There's a problem on my other computer everytime Windows 98 start. After the Windows 98 splash screen loads, it goes to a message that says "Error. One or more of your drives have bad sectors. Press any key to have scandisk analyze the surface for errors." Something similar. But when I pressed any key, it just froze.

Is there a way to have my computer first load in DOS mode and then run scandisk on my comuter? If so, how?

 

[Scol]

Can you boot into safemode at all?

 

[ak_in_charge]

When you reboot your computer, start tapping the F8 key as soon as the computer starts up and that will bring you to the start-up menu.

In the startup menu you will have a choice to start your computer with "Command Prompt Only" after you select that you will most likely be in your C: drive. From there just type in SCANDISK and then you should be able to run a surface scan.

 

[Shiney]

Use a emegency start up floppy or change bios to boot from cd and insert win98 cd then select start with cd support then use the dos screen to run scandisk

 

[Rick]

Sometimes scan disk can lie about bad sectors, but usually it is right when it says you might have them and to scan for them.

Bad sectors = dying hard drive.

I wouldn't worry as much with scandisk as I would bakcking up your important data and getting that drive replaced.

 

[StormBringer]

Bad sectors does NOT always mean a dying HDD, several things can cause bad sectors, badly fragged data can sometimes lead to bad sectors(these can be corrected with a proper utility) others are actually bad physical spots on the platter and can't be fixed(although HDD Regenerator claims it can fix even those)

Most of the time when I find bad sectors on a disk, it is fixable with HDD Regenerator and many of these drives have been working perfectly since the repair for over a year.
My advice is to get a copy of HDD Regenerator and run it on the drive(it doesn't affect data on the drive when it does repairs) If it can RECOVER the bad sectors, I'd not worry too much, but if it FIXES(by writing them out) the bad sectors, then I'd replace the drive. Personally, I'd not want to use it to hold my system partition after that anyway, but my experience has been that "fixed" drives will continue to work for quite a while, especially if they are good quality brands to begin with, and if they can pass a recertification test(you can probably download such a utility from the HDD manufacturer's website) If a drive passes recert, it means it is good(according to most drive manufacturers)

 

[Rachilles]

HDD Regenerator 17.1 problem

I have the HDD Regenerator 17.1 and it worked on the Windows operation on my hard disk and found one bad sector and it said it fixed it. I restarted my computer to connect my other 250gb Seagate that have been detected with bad sectors by using HD tune. The hard disk was detected by HDD Regenerator but when I ran the Windows mode it freezes and it won't scan at all. I waited 30 minutes in this frozen state and I tried to shut down but it didn't work, everything just froze. I pushed the reset button, turned it off and removed the 250gb with bad sectors. Rebooted and ran HDD Regenerator again to see if it's working as before. It worked fine.

Now I tried the create a CD bootable and successfully completed the burn. I connected the 250 gb and went to my BIOS to put it in boot CD ROM (in BIOS, both hard disks were detected). F10 saved and booted. It started the HDD Regenerator but it said: please wait, bad command or file name A:\>

I made 4 CDs already and a USB, all of them did the same thing even when I removed the 250gb Seagate. Am I doing something wrong or is there something I need to type on the A:\> prompt. Kindly advise.