Doesn't SFC/ scannow repair, or attempt to repair, any errors it finds? Computer's running fine, so I don't need to run either one. Just curious. Thanks for helping this geek in training.
Chkdsk checks the hard disk for errors in the file system bad blocks etc. Sfc checks the windows files to see if they are correct
Thanks for the explanation, Samuria. However, don't they both also perform a repair or attempt do do so?
They both do repairs one for the file structure and sfc for the files them selves
As stated, as Mechanical HDD's age, they get bad sectors and blocks. When you run Check Disk with the /R switch, it scans the HDD, sector by sector (that's why it takes so long) If it finds a bad sector, it will try and move the file to a good sector near by and mark the sector it came from as Bad so Windows won't try to use it again. The longer a scan takes, the more bad sectors you have. if there are too many bad sectors, Check Disk will stall or fail. You then should run the HDD Manufactures Diagnostic program. Check Disk also checks for Orphaned files and removes them or finds their home same as running Check Disk with the /F switch.
Occasionally thru HDD or file degradation, viruses etc, your Windows files may become corrupted or may become missing. SFC /scannow will look for Windows files that are missing or corrupted and replace them with good system files.
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