How do you run chkdsk on every reboot?

Question

There was a question a short while ago, Run Program Before Login Screen Appears, where I thought he meant specifically he wanted to run chkdsk on boot based on the picture, but he really wanted to run a different program.

Well, I answered specifically for chkdsk, and I thought some might find my solution to "How do you run chkdsk on every reboot?" interesting.

Answer 1

Basically if you just want to run chkdsk /f or maybe chkdsk /r on bootup every time, you can set it to run when you shut down rather than trying to make it work in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager.

Here is how:

Create a file C:\WINDOWS\system32\confirm.txt with JUST y in it.

Then create C:\WINDOWS\system32\Chkdsk_Reboot.bat with this code in it:

echo y > confirm.txt
chkdsk c: /f /x < confirm.txt

Now if you have XP Pro, or other Pro-level OS'es, open gpedit.msc>Computer Configuration>Windows Settings>Scripts>Shutdown, and add that Chkdsk_Reboot.bat as a shutdown script.

Next reboot you will run your chkdsk command.

I am not sure if this will work for XP home since it does not have gpedit.msc. You may be able to create this directory structure and add the batch file there but I am not sure if it will work since Home does not use Group Policy: C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Shutdown

Answer 2

chkdsk is already set to run on every boot.

Take a look at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager and locate a multi-string (REG_MULTI_SZ) entry called BootExecute. The value "autocheck autochk *" says that chkdsk will run on boot, however you will not see it because it runs on background, searching for disk errors.

If chkdsk detects some disk problem, then you will see the blue screen with full disk scan.

Edit:

Autocheck option samples, according to here (section: "The Dirty bit vs the Registy "Autochk" entry"):

Sample command              Resulting registry entry 
==============              ========================
Chkdsk C: /F                Autocheck autochk /p \??\C: 
Chkdsk C:\mountpoint /F     Autocheck autochk /p \??\VOLUME{GUID} 
Chkntfs D: E: /X            Autocheck autochk /k:D /k:E * 
Chkntfs G: /C               Autocheck autochk /m \??\G: