Hate CHKDSK? Then Look Here...

[Sovereign]

For Windows users frustrated with having to reboot your whole machine to run CHKDSK, you might find this article interesting. This applies to Windows Server 2008 (in which it is enabled by default), Windows Server 2008 R2 and most interestingly, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Yes, this server-grade reliability feature is available in consumer operating systems as well. The guide explains how to turn it off, but here's the quick explanation of how to turn it on.

Run the following in an Elevated Command Prompt (with UAC off this doesn't matter--with it on type "cmd" in the Start Menu then press CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER).

fsutil repair set X: 1

Where "X" is the drive letter on which you want to enable self-healing NTFS. This doesn't replace CHKDSK, per se, because "severe" corruption still requires a full run. However, it makes it less likely that you will need to offline an entire computer just to fix one file.