Ok, I have two questions...two completely seperate questions. 1. What exactly is the difference between scandisk and chkdsk? All I know is that scandisk can only read FAT32 and FAT, while chkdsk can read all disk formats. Which is better? 2. [This is an example configuration.] If I have, say, XP Gold Edition on my computer, and I don't want to go through the long install process of SP2, so I grab a XP SP2 slipstreamed CD and restart the computer, then do a REPAIR install of the current installation, only it will have SP2 included. Is this method okay? I have heard of users who try this procedure, and end up experiencing problems... so is that ok? Just curious. Again - thanks! (And my friend's computer with the ntfs.sys problem - she wants to wait until she gets her CD from her mom.) -Andrew

CHKDSK (CHecK DiSK) reports on a number of items concerning your drive, the amount of space used, and the amount of space still available. The first five to six lines report information about your hard disk. Scan Disk will check the files and folders of the selected drive for any errors, lost clusters, lost chains, and bad sectors. In short, Check disk, detects the errors and scansik actually tries to fix them You can go ahead and install SP2 for XP. You can easily uninstall it if your not comfortable with it.

Repairing can be a much more painful process that just installed SP2 on your current installation! If you don't like it or it mucks things about, as Destruco said, just uninstall it.

I already have SP2. I was just curious. How can repairing be a "painful" process? And, chkdsk does detect AND fix errors, right? So, which is better - chkdsk or scandisk? -Andrew