Use chkdsk To Repair Hard Drive Problems

Using a PC regularly also means maintaining it. Sometimes hard drive problems cause the computer to run slow or hang. In bad cases a hard drive makes cranking noises which do not sound like the normal clicks a they usually make while reading or writing data. There may be messages at boot time that give warnings. This is a common one:

Smart Failure predicted on hard disk.
Warning: Immediately backup all data and replace hard disk. A failure may be imminent. Press F1 to continue.

If you are experiencing any of these problems, it never hurts to run a program called Check Disk which scans for errors and can automatically repair them. Just be patient because this process can take at least 15 to 20 minutes or longer if a lot of damage needs to be fixed. Even without any obvious signs, it still might be a good idea to use this feature just to be on the safe side.

Here are the step-by-step instructions:
Click "Start"
Click "Run..."
Where it says "Open:" type the following: cmd
Click "OK"
You will see a black screen with a blinking cursor. This is the command prompt. Use it to type the
following command: chkdsk /r /f

Then press "Enter". If you Have done this correctly, you should see this:

C:\Documents and Settings\User>chkdsk /r /f
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)
Type Y where it says (Y/N) to answer yes to the question. Reboot your computer and your hard drive will be scanned for errors before Windows loads. Be patient as this can take 15 to 20 minutes, even up to 60 minutes if there are a lot of files with bad clusters which need to be replaced.