What does this mean,checking file system on c?

when i restart my pc, i get a blue screen that saids


windows needs to check file system on c


the type of file system is NTFS


One of your disk needs to be checked for consistency.





I get this message ever so often for the pass year.when i allow it to go on it never tells me anything is wrong.


can anyone tell me what is wrong or why it is doing this or if there is anything i can do to stop it.

What does this mean,checking file system on c?
Alomst anything can go wrong with a hard drive at any given time for so many reasons. There are a few initial tests that the hardware or software (OS) can check at start up that may indicate there is a problem w/ the "consistency" of the hard drive. Your OS (likely XP, Vista or NT) is running chkdsk which is a program to fix those programs.





Problems such as internal file allocation tables, file integrity, file pointers, and many more can easily get corrupted and sometimes just as easily fixed. My experience is that if it starts happening a lot (more frequently) that your hard drive could be failing and I would suggest replacing it before it does.





Another common cause to this is powering off the machine instead of using the "Shut Down" inside of Windows.
Reply:Check Disk is a utility for Windows XP to get ride of on the items that have crupted data from last time shut down you can stop this normally by shutting down Windows by clicking Start %26gt; Turn Off Computer %26gt; Turn Off


More Info From Below


http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008...
Reply:Errors abound with windows sometimes, even small ones. Over time, unexpected shutdowns, crashes, ppl turning off the pc at the power button, etc. causes system errors on the disk. Windows is doing a quick chkdisk.





You can do one yourself and get a full report by going into a command console and typing "chkdsk /f /r". Answer Y for yes at the prompt and sit back and wait.





EDIT:Enable or Disable Scandisk/Chkdsk on system reboot


If you disable the automatic execution of Scandisk (Win98, ME) or Chkdsk (Win2K, XP), you should run it manually about every two weeks to maintain the integrity of your PC's file system.





Windows XP





Start %26gt; Run %26gt; chkntfs /x %26lt;drive%26gt; [drive] [drive]





For example, if you want to disable Chkdsk from running on drive C: chkntfs /x c:





Chkntfs works by modifying the BootExcecute value in the Registry.


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\


CURRENTCONTROLSET\


CONTROL\Session Manager


The default value is BootExecute:REG_MULTI_SZ:autocheck autochk *





Chkdsk /f /r is unaffected by chkntfs and can be run to check volumes manually on the next system reboot.





To restore the automatic execution of Chkdsk, you can add this registry file .





[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\


CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager]


"BootExecute"=hex(7):61,75,74,


6f,63,68,


65,63,6b,20,61,75,74,6f,63,


68,6b,20,2a,00,00
Reply:Its part of the CHKDSK function. It double checks the different types of memory (RAM, HD) and the file system (the thing that dictates how everything you save will be mapped out and where on the hard drive it will save to) to make sure they are working fine. Check the wiki article for more.





Hope this helps ;)
Reply:ALLWAYS when u want to turn the pc off: click on the "Start" button, then "Shut down..." and wait till it turns off or shows the message: "It is now safe to turn off your pc". Just before this switch it off.
Reply:..Its because ..u didnt shutdown properly........


just let it ..Check once...and it wont show up again ....if u shutdown the next time properly....


......................................... nothing wrong...
Reply:This is Windows scanning your Hard Drive disk's physical surface looking for bad sectors. What could cause this disk scan to occur most likely is from powering off the computer incorrectly, like holding down the power button without allowing Windows to properly go through it's Shutdown procedure. Make sure you are clicking the shutdown button when you are shutting down and if needed, Windows should prompt you when it is safe to turn off the computer especially if it is an old computer. For newer computers it may shut off automatically after it completes the Shutdown procedures. Another alternative could be that your hard drive is going bad. If this is the case you might want to consider logging in as the local administrator or power user so that you can run a "Scan Disk" on the drive to try and detect bad sectors so that the operating system does not write on them and it can also try to self-repair itself as well. It will usually take a bit longer than a regular scan because it will try to fix the bad sectors it finds but again heres how you can do that. In XP you can go about doing this by clicking on start %26gt; then click on run %26gt; type in this new box "cmd" then hit ok or enter. %26gt; This should bring up a black box that you can type in %26gt; Type the following:





chkdsk /f





There is a space in between the dsk part and the /f.


Once this is entered, hit "Enter" on your keyboard and it will prompt you most likely saying that the disk is in use or cannot be mounted which means it cannot be scanned because you are running Windows on it. Just simply hit "Y" for yes and it will prompt you with a success message saying that it should run next time you restart. Restart when desired and the utility will run. If you find that you repeatedly have to perform this operation to fix the Disk Checks upon startup you might want to start considering buying a new hard drive to replace the one you have as these are signs of the physical hardware starting to fail. You can obtain one from any local computer repair shops or your computer manufacturer if you went through any. Good luck and I hope this helps.