# Win2k - "Your disk is being checked for consistency"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-your-disk-is-being-checked-for-consistency/228939>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 12, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-your-disk-is-being-checked-for-consistency/228939 "2004-02-12T23:47:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![capnfutile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@capnfutile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capnfutile)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-your-disk-is-being-checked-for-consistency/228939/1 "2004-02-12T23:47:05Z")

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I’m in the process of setting up a triple boot win98/2k/Linux machine. I’ve got all the partitions the way I want them, 98 and 2k are installed one after the other (haven;t put Mandrake on yet), and both will successfully boot. Problem is, during the 2k boot, up comes a DOS\_looking screen saying “One or more of your drives needs to be checked for consistency. We strongly recommend…blah blah… hit any key to cancel test” (which I do).

Why does it do this and what do I do to keep it from doing so?

I have BootMagic but should I bother with it or just use LILO?

Thanks y’all in advance.

Capn

Here’s a limerick I found on USENET back before the web was popular.

A mathemetician named Hall  
Had a hexahadronical ball  
The cube of its weight  
Times his (manhood) plus eight  
Is his phone number - give him a call!

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-your-disk-is-being-checked-for-consistency/228939/2 "2004-02-12T23:52:56Z")

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Don’t cancel the test. Let it do its thing. Afterwards, it should start normally.

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-your-disk-is-being-checked-for-consistency/228939/3 "2004-02-13T00:11:57Z")

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It is best to let CHKDSK complete, but type **chkntfs /X [drive letter]** at the command line if you really want to cancel it.

As an aside, you can shorten the length of time Windows waits to begin the disk check by typing **chkntfs /T:[number of seconds]**. The default of 10 seconds has always seemed too long to me.