Error Message: ScanDisk Cannot Check Drive

• Microsoft Windows 95
• Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release version 2
• Microsoft Windows 98

SYMPTOMS

When you try to run ScanDisk, you may receive one of the following error messages:

• ScanDisk cannot examine drive <drive letter>:
  
  This version of Microsoft ScanDisk will work only with MS-DOS versions 5.0 and later.



• ScanDisk cannot check this drive now because the disk is not properly formatted, or a program such as a disk utility has locked it. Format the disk or wait for the utility to finish, and then restart ScanDisk.

CAUSE

This symptom can occur for either of the following reasons:

• You run a previously released version of ScanDisk with OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) or Windows 98. For example, this could occur if you run ScanDisk from an Emergency Boot Disk created using an earlier version of Windows 95.



• You run an OSR2 or Windows 98 version of ScanDisk in Windows 95. For example, this could occur if you run ScanDisk from an Emergency Boot Disk created using OSR2 or Windows 98 on a computer running Windows 95.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use the appropriate method:

Running Windows 95 OSR2

  Windows\Scandskw.exe           4,896 bytes
  Windows\System\Dskmaint.dll  214,048 bytes
  Windows\Command\Scandisk.exe 142,353 bytes 

1. Start an MS-DOS prompt in Windows 95.



2. Type cd windows and then press ENTER.



3. Type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line:
   
   ren scandskw.exe *.bak ren system\dskmaint.dll *.bak ren command\scandisk.exe *.bak



4. Insert the Microsoft Windows 95 OSR2 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.



5. Type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line
   
   extract <drive>:\win95\win95_16.cab scandskw.exe /L %windir%
   extract <drive>:\win95\precopy2.cab dskmaint.dll /L %windir%\system
   copy <drive>:\win95\scandisk.exe %windir%\command
   
   where <drive> is the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive.

Running Windows 95

   Windows\Scandskw.exe           4,608 bytes
   Windows\System\Dskmaint.dll  189,456 bytes
   Windows\Command\Scandisk.exe 134,738 bytes 

1. Start an MS-DOS prompt in Windows 95.



2. Type cd windows and then press ENTER.



3. Type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line:
   
   ren scandskw.exe *.bak
   ren system\dskmaint.dll *.bak
   ren command\scandisk.exe *.bak

1. Insert the Microsoft Windows 95 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.



2. Type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line
   
   extract <drive>:\win95\win95_09.cab scandskw.exe /l %windir%
   extract <drive>:\win95\precopy2.cab dskmaint.dll /l %windir%\system
   copy <drive>:\win95\scandisk.exe %windir%\command
   
   where <drive> is the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive.



3. Type exit, and then press ENTER to return to windows.

1. Type cd\, and then press ENTER.



2. Insert disk 9 of the Windows 95 disks into the floppy disk drive.



3. Type the following line at the command prompt, and then press ENTER
   
   extract /a <drive>:\win95_09.cab scandskw.exe /l %windir%
   
   where <drive> is the drive letter assigned to the floppy disk drive in which the Windows 95 floppy disk is located.



4. Insert disk 2 of the Windows 95 disks into the floppy disk drive.



5. Type the following line at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   
   extract /a <drive>:\ precopy2.cab dskmaint.dll /l %windir%\system



6. Insert disk 1 of the Windows 95 disks into the floppy disk drive.



7. Type the following line at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   
   copy <drive>:\scandisk.exe %windir%\command



8. Type exit, and then press ENTER to return to windows.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about using the Extract tool, click the Start button, point to Programs, click MS-DOS prompt, type "extract" (without quotation marks), and then press ENTER. Or, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q129605
TITLE : How to Extract Original Compressed Windows Files

ARTICLE-ID: Q155003
TITLE : Description of Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2

Additional query words: 98

Keywords : kbtool osr2 win95 win98
Version : WINDOWS:95
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb