Disable automatic scandisk - What's this?

[hds123user]

Hi!

In settings and user guide I founded option "Disable automatic scandisk". This option means "Disable automatic scandisk: by using this option, it is possible to disable the automatic disk check procedure which may start with Windows. This may prevent a damaged head to incorrectly access and damage the stable disk areas."

I don't understand what does it mean:

1. Which scandisk using: Windows Scandisk or Scandisk in HDS?

2. Phrase "This may prevent a damaged head to incorrectly access and damage the stable disk areas" scared me. If automatic scandisk is dangerious thing may be it will be always disable?

Thanks. Sorry for my bad English :)

And many many thanks for Hard Disk Sentinel software.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for your message and your kind words.

1) it is the "Scandisk" of Windows.
If Windows encounters inconsistency or other problems with the file system during boot, it starts scandisk to verify the file system and repair files.

2) according to experiences of data recovery companies, some kind of hard disk related errors (for example a damaged head) are devastating for the stored data on the hard disk. Starting scandisk (or just trying to access the whole disk surface) when the head is damaged may cause that the whole surface area will be damaged and unaccessible. In such cases a scandisk operation (even if it "should" help) can make bigger damage. In such situations the only way to recover (at least partial) data is to stop the system as soon as possible and ask a data recovery company to perform the data recovery (after they replaced the bad head).

Fortunately, this problem is not common. But if your hard disk is not really perfect (health is 50% or lower) or had experienced mechanical or electrical shock or other kind of damage, it may be a good idea to disable scandisk.

[SJMarty]

Just to clarify, does "Scandisk" = CHKDSK?

[hdsentinel]

Basically these are different versions of the same tool.
They do the same thing: check and fix possible logical disk issues (problems with partitions).
CHKDSK is the command line version (which you can use) and scandisk is the boot-time version.