Along with Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter, Windows Scan Disk Utility is also important at regular intervals to scan the integrity of files stored on the Hard Disk as well as scanning the file system for detecting the bad clusters or sectors. These bad sectors makes the Hard Disk unable to store the new data on bad sectors also it loses the information stored there. Bad sectors lead to slow performance and PC hangs when user requests for file that is stored in Bad sector. So you have to run Scan Disk for error checking after every month.

If you are high end user of PC then you have to scan the Hard Disk once in a week.

How to run Scan Disk utility?

1. First of all stop using any application programs consuming the system memory and close all files.
   
   
   
2. Then go to My Computer and right click on Hard Disk Drive that you want to scan for errors and click on properties.
   
   
   
3. Select the Tools Tab of the Disk Properties Dialog.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Check Now Button to open the Error Checking utility.
   
   
   
5. You can select the first checkbox to automatically fix the file system errors and select the checkbox and select the second checkbox to scan and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click start to run the check disk utility.