How to Determine If a Hard Disk Is Compressed

This article describes how to determine whether your computer has a compressed hard disk when you start the computer to a command prompt.

To determine whether your computer has a compressed hard disk, use either of the following methods:

Run ScanDisk from Command Prompt

When you run ScanDisk at a command prompt, ScanDisk prompts you to check the host drive first if the hard disk is compressed. If you receive this prompt, the hard disk you are attempting to scan is compressed. Run ScanDisk on each hard disk to determine if the hard disk is compressed. To run ScanDisk, type the following line, and then press ENTER



where <drive> is the drive letter of the hard disk you want to check.

To start your computer to a command prompt:

Windows 98:

Restart your computer. Press and hold down the CTRL key until the Startup menu appears, and then choose Command Prompt Only.

Windows 95:

Restart your computer. Press and hold down the F8 key until the Startup menu appears, and then choose Command Prompt Only.

Do Not Load the Compression Driver

If you do not load the compression driver when Windows starts and you do have a compressed drive, you do not have access to any compressed drives, and one or more compressed volume files (CVFs) appears in the root folder of your hard disk.

To bypass the loading of the compression driver:

Windows 98:

Restart your computer. Press and hold down the CTRL key until the Startup menu appears, and then choose Step-By-Step Confirmation. Answer No to each prompt until a command prompt appears.

Windows 95:

Restart your computer. Press and hold down the F8 key until the Startup menu appears, and then choose Step-By-Step Confirmation. Answer No to each prompt until a command prompt appears.

Once the command prompt appears (Windows 95 or Windows 98), type the following line, and then press ENTER:



If you see any files named Dblspace.<nnn> or Drvspace.<nnn> (where <nnn> is a number from 000 to 254), the drive is compressed. If you view all the files on the drive, you do not see all of your files.

To troubleshoot a compressed drive, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:


Note that this article also applies to Windows 98 for compressed drive troubleshooting.