In Windows, you can scan the computer’s hard disks for errors (bad sectors) by right-clicking on the hard disk icon from My Computer and selecting Properties. Under Tools, press the Check Now button.

The disadvantage of this tool is that you receive no information on what it is doing and it does not produce a report on the status of your hard disk. There is an alternative method of checking the status of your hard disks with actual reporting. From the Start button press Run…, type cmd and press enter. This will bring-up the console and type:

where C should be replaced with the letter of your hard disk which can be found in My Computer. Depending on the size of the hard disk, the check may take a while. If the system is using the hard disk in question, then it will suggest to schedule the check for the first time that you restart the computer.