How can I check and set a volume's dirty status in Windows XP?

A. The XP version of Fsutil lets you query and set a volume's dirty flag. This flag signals that the volume has experienced a problem and requires that you run Chkdsk to identify and fix the problem (e.g., shutting down Windows suddenly can sometimes cause the OS to set the dirty flag).

To query a volume's current state, type

fsutil dirty query :

at the command prompt. The result will be either

To set the status of a volume's dirty flag, type

fsutil dirty set :

at the command prompt. Use this command with care: XP won't ask you to confirm this action, and you can't use this command to set the dirty flag's status to clean.