To run a disk check on your hard drive in XP or Vista,

Type Y if you want it to run the next time you restart.

When your computer does not run a Check Disk (chkdsk.exe) after a restart, here’s what you can do…

The reason why it does not run when you restart is because your computer manufacturer or a program (like an anti-virus…that you installed have installed a disk utility that is running in the background. This causes chkdsk to not run when you restart your computer.

We have experienced this same issue on a Lenovo 3000 N100 laptop with Windows Vista.

What to do?

Restart your computer.

When your computer has shut down and is beginning to start, press the F8 key. You should press this even before Windows begins to load…

You should see the Startup options (Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, blah, blah, blah ).

In my case, Lenovo has inserted another menu called "Repair your System".

Select Repair your system if you see it on your screen.

The Lenovo Care utility will appear, select Open a Command Prompt.

Now type:

chkdsk c: /F /R /X

Your computer will now run chkdsk (Check Disk) without having to restart.