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112 lines
5.3 KiB
112 lines
5.3 KiB
This note describes the functionality of format and chkdsk in the
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Disk Administrator.
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=================================================================
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Format
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------
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Select a volume and choose "Change Format" from the context menu. You
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can specify the new format as any of FAT, HPFS, NTFS, or OFS, and choose
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a label. You can specify whether or not to "quick format" the volume.
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If you've selected a fault-tolerant volume (stripe with parity or
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mirror), then "quick format" is disabled.
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When formatting, a "thermometer" displays the percentage of formatting
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completed. A "Stop" button allows you to cancel the formatting.
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If "Stop" is chosen, a confirmation dialog appears. A message informs
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the user that stopping formatting early is inadvisable. The user can
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choose "Stop" to confirm the original "stop" desire, "continue"
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(the default) to continue formatting where formatting left off, or
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help.
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Cancelling format is disabled when quick formatting.
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After formatting completes, a summary is printed detailing the amount of
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disk space is on the volume, and the available disk space (with
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thousands separators!).
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Chkdsk
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------
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Select a volume and choose "Check for Errors..." from the context menu. You
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can choose one of three levels of operation: (1) read-only, or don't
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fix; (2) fix (i.e., chkdsk /F); or (3) scan for bad sectors (i.e.,
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chkdsk /R).
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If the user hits "OK" and the current level of operation choice is
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"don't fix", then a confirmation dialog is displayed, warning the user
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that no error repair actions will be taken, and the reported actions describe
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what would be done in a "fix" case.
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When checking a volume, a "thermometer" displays the percentage of checking
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that has been completed in a particular phase. Note that this percentage
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is not the percentage of all checking completed, which is usually
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difficult or impossible information to determine before checking
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begins. Above the thermometer appears a title stating what is currently
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being checked. The thermometer is implemented to not update more than
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10 times a second (unless the value is 0% or 100%). This is done to avoid
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having the UI thread fall very far behind the worker thread which may
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generate many more messages than that.
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Note that % done information is currently only implemented for NTFS and
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FAT, not for OFS. (Implementation note: Bob Duke, who originally wrote
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chkdsk for OFS, strongly resisted adding % done information due to the
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incredible complexity of OFS and the lack of an easy means to predetermine
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the total amount of work.)
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For the "Do not fix errors" case, a "Stop" button allows you to cancel
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the formatting. If "Stop" is chosen, a confirmation dialog appears. A
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message informs the user that stopping checking early is inadvisable. The
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user can choose "Stop" to confirm the original "stop" desire, "continue"
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(the default) to continue checking where checking left off, or help.
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For the other cases, there is no "stop" button; the volume check engines
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don't support stopping in the "fix" cases. (Note that for chkdsk.exe,
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Ctrl-C --- the "stop" mechanism for the command line --- is disabled in
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the fix cases.)
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After a successful, complete volume check, a "results" dialog appears.
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Within this dialog is an edit control with any interesting information
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generated by the volume check. For successful checks, this is simply a
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summary of total disk space, the space in user files, the space used by
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the system, etc. Buttons exist to allow this information to be printed
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or logged to a file. The title to this dialog is different in the "don't
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fix" and "fix" cases. In particular, in the "don't fix" case the message
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makes clear that any error repair actions only describe what *would be*
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done, not what *was* done.
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This dialog is resizable, to allow the user to easily use more screen
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space where necessary to view the results data, instead of forcing the
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user to use scrollbars (which also are available).
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Any number of copies---collated or not---can be printed to the default
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printer. The common Print dialog is used, so the printer can be set up
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before printing, if necessary. Printing can be cancelled, as well.
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The results of the check can also be saved to a file by choosing the
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"Log..." button. The common "Save As" dialog is used. The suggested file
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name is "check-X.log" where "X:" is the volume that was checked, and the
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directory that is suggested is the system directory, e.g. "c:\winnt". As
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this is a common dialog, the user can choose a network drive (and even
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connect to one).
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Since a standard edit control is used to display the results information,
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the user can select text there via either the keyboard or a mouse, and
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copy it to the clipboard. It can then be pasted in an application like
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notepad when writing a report, for example.
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If a volume is to be checked in a "fix" mode, then the volume must be
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opened for exclusive access. If this cannot occur due to the volume
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being in use, then a message appears asking whether the user would like
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to schedule the check for the next system reboot. (For instance, a
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volume can be locked by simply opening a command window and setting the
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current drive to it). The user can choose either yes or no. If the user
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chooses "no", then the check simply ends without performing any work. If
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the user chooses "yes", then a confirmation message box appears stating
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that the check has been scheduled (or could not be scheduled).
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