I ran scandisk thourough scan on my win98se computer. after several hours of slow work it finished without any report.
is this usual, or perhaps the scan was not completed?
pls advise
thanks

No report is generated unless there are problems found. All you usually see is "There were no problems found on this drive".

You can check/alter how scandisk runs, handles problems, and reports by editing the scandisk.ini file.

When running Scandisk or Defrag, it's best to turn off all ancillary background processes. ie; Screen savers, Anti-virus, Spyware detectors, Firewalls, etc.
(Ensure you're disconnected from the internet if you turn off your firewall and anti-virus.)

With Windows 9x you have the luxury of running scandisk in DOS. It's much faster. This is an asset if you have large partitions on your hard disk.

Boot your machine into the DOS Command Prompt Only mode. This is easiest by running MSCONFIG and choosing the Boot Menu for your startup:

Click on Start, Run, type in msconfig in the Run box. When the small window opens, click on Advanced near the lower right hand side of the window. Place a check mark in the box for "Enable Startup Menu". You will be prompted to restart. If you're ready, do so. (This Startup Menu can be removed by reversing these steps.)

Alternatively, when the machine is booting, just after the P.O.S.T. (Power On Self Test) screens finish and you see "Starting Windows 98", start tapping the Ctrl key. (You have to be quick.) This should bring up the MS boot menu. Choose Command Prompt Only.

When the boot completes, at the C:\> prompt, type in* scandisk /all/autofix/nosave/nosummary and hit the Enter key. All of your drives (partitions) will be scanned and fixed if problems exist. When the process is finished, reboot the machine to the MS boot menu again and choose Safe Mode. This will load windows with minimal drivers etc. Defrag in safe mode.

Caveat: The drawback to booting into Safe Mode is that your desktop icons are automatically arranged, and if you had your own arrangement, you will have to recreate that arrangement in normal mode. Windows doesn't provide a save feature for your icons. There are (free) third party programs available which will save your desktop arrangement.



*To save you some typing and possible DOS syntax errors (DOS is VERY PARTICULAR about the command line entries, I'll paste in a dos 7.x ( 95/98 ) batch file I made long ago to automate this process. Open Notepad and copy/paste the following lines into the empty document. Save it as scandrvs.bat in the root directory of C:. (ie; c:\scandrvs.bat)

===== Copy lines below ==========================
@echo off
%WinBootDir%\command\scandisk /all/autofix/nosave/nosummary

echo.
echo.
echo Scandisk has completed. You can now restart your system.
echo.
exit

===== End copy at above blank line ==============

When you get the C:\> prompt, simply type in scandrvs and hit the Enter key.

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