Hi, all. Im a complete newbie to computers. everytime i turn my computer on it runs the chkdsk utility. Got that bad, it was taking about 10 minutes to startup. was going to upgrade anyway, bought a new computer, guess what... the same problem! any help appreciated.

1. click on your start menu and open the run dialog.
2. type "cmd" and return (note: dont enter quotes)
3. Next type "fsutil dirty query c:"
4. If the return message indicates that the volume is dirty go to step 5
5. Next type "chkdsk c: /f /x"
6. After that finshes repeat step 3.
7. If it is no longer dirty then reboot and you should notice no more
ckdisk.

More details under this heading in the following link:

Check Disk - Disk Checking Runs Upon Boot

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_c.htm

Thanks a million.
Worked a charm on both computers
Any idea what coud have caused it?
could it have been because the firewall was switched off?
Also im not sure which anti-virus i should buy for my new computer should i go for norton or a different anti-virus.
Thanks again for the help.

I wouldn't use Norton even if they paid me! That is just my opinion of course.

Two free ones that are better than Norton or McAfee:

AVG

Avast

If WinXP doesnt shut down correctly one bit in each relevant partition boot sector is made "dirty"; that is it is changed from 0 to 1 (or from false to true).

On rebooting autochk will run chkdsk on each partition for which this Dirty bit's value is true and after it successfully completes should reset this bit back to false (or if you prefer as 'clean').

In this context dirty is a programming concept that sets a form or partition or something else's specific dirty property as true or false. Under VB, for example, a form becomes dirty when a value has been changed in it but not yet saved to a database; once the record is saved the dirty bit becomes false again.

If chkdsk keeps re-running on startup then the likey scenario is that windows is not shutting down correctly.