Where .CHK Files Come From

Where .CHK Files
Come From

After using ScanDisk and Defrag, you may notice new files on your computer with names like File0000.chk. These are files that are created when you run ScanDisk. They contain clusters of data that where marked as in use in the file allocation table but were not actually allocated to any file. These lost clusters are formed when your system crashes while programs have files open, or when you shut down the system without going through the proper shutdown procedures. Occasionally the .chk files will contain part of or the entire file you were working on at the time of a system crash or power failure. It's best to look for .chk files in the root directory (for example - c:\ drive) just after you run ScanDisk. You can load the .chk files into WordPad or Notepad to look at their contents; sometimes they will contain recognizable text that is salvageable. I have never found anything useful in a .chk file. I simply delete them without ever looking at them. I've worked on a lot of computers before that contain several hundred of these files. After you delete them, you will notice a slight increase in your hard drive space.