The damn thing starts every time I turn on the computer. I’ve gone into Scheduled Tasks to turn it off, but it’s not even listed there. If I don’t hit “any key” in time, the thing takes about 15 minutes to run. Where else could it be listed? Damn these things. (Windows XP, old HP laptop)
See:
http://www.technize.net/check-disk-chkdsk-runs-every-time-windows-starts/?ModPagespeed=noscript
(I haven’t used it)
Lets be clear - check disk will either run during boot if the os detects a dirty flag on the file system or if a file system counter reaches 0 (I can’t remember what it is set to after a check disk - 50 or so). If you are getting disk checks every boot, it is because of a dirty flag being set. The dirty flag gets set if a disk operation is started but not complete, and reset when the operation completes successfully. It is most common when a PC powers down in the middle of disk operations. If you are shutting your PC down normally, then some error condition is preventing the file system from being marked clean. You need to figure this out first. It could be a failing disk, or a serious file system error.
Try booting into the recovery console and running a chkdsk - take a note of any messages. Boot back into Windows and use a SMART disk monitor to check the disk stats - this will show hardware issues. Otherwise, back up your system to an external drive, reformat the disk to re-establish the file system and restore.
XP running check disk every boot has two possible causes:
- You’re turning off your computer by holding the power button and not using “shut down” (don’t do that)
- Your disk is bad, and writes are failing at a high rate
Given the age of the laptop, I’d suspect 2). Back up your files before you do anything.