Your operating system stores pieces of your files all over your disk. It also keeps track of where these pieces are located and stores this information when closing the file. If this process doesn't complete, the pieces are stored but the 'map' of where they are gets lost. ScanDisk checks that every piece on your disk is known to belong to a file. If it finds an 'orphan' piece, it collects it/them together into a file and names the file FILEXXXX.CHK, incrementing each XXXX by one until all pieces are 'adopted', leaving your entire disk space accounted for.
ScanDisk does the work formerly done by CheckDisk, or CHKDSK; hence, the .CHK extension.
In very rare cases, and with a very small number of files, you may discover a .CHK file contains the missing data you've lost. In the majority of cases, the .CHK files contain meaningless junk and can be deleted. Experts can re-construct damaged file chains, given time and talent. For most users, it isn't worth it.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. I now delete all .CHK files I encounter without hesitation. |
