Hard drives eventually go bad. Sometimes it is due to age, sometimes due to bad craftsmanship, and other times due to random errors. To help keep your files and Windows XP software free from crashes and other miscellaneous computer problems, it is a good idea to scan your hard drives for errors from time to time. Luckily this is easy to do.

1. Double-click "My Computer" on the desktop.

2. Now, right-click on a drive that you want to check for errors and choose "Properties".

3. When the "Properties" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Tools" tab.

4. Underneath "Error-checking", click the "Check Now" button.

5. A new dialog box will appear, asking you for check disk options. Normally, Windows XP will just scan a drive for errors and report the results. However, if you check "Automatically fix file system errors", it will attempt to fix the problems. Also, Windows XP normally does a quick scan of the file system that discovers the majority of errors. However, to do a deeper file system scan, click "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors".

6. When you are done making your selections, click the "Start" button. The disk checking will go in phases. If there are problems, Windows XP will notify you.

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