old windows program question

With XP-2000, it's called CHKDSK. Rarely will you need to run it if your system is formatted as NTFS as opposed to FAT32. But, if you want to, here's how (2 ways):

Method 1: Open My Computer. Right-click on the hard drive icon (usually called "Local disk") and select Properties. Clcik the Tools tab. Then click the button that says "Check for errors." It will propably tell you that the volume is locked blah blah blah and that you can schedule the scan for the next reboot. Choose yes. When you reboot, CHKDSK will run then let Windows finish loading.

Method 2: Click on Start, then "Run..." type (without quotes) "chkdskr" then press OK. It will give the same message about volume locked and next reboot.

I remember on Windows previous to XP, besides having Disk Defragmenter there was another program that was called something like Disk Check or Error Check. If you tried to defragment it often would say to run the other program too look for errors first. XP has the fragmenter, but I cannot find anything similar that checks for disk errors. Is there?

Also, when is it proper to run defragmenter? I do it every so often, I heard it makes the computer operate faster, but defragmenter always says defragementing is not needed, but I do it anyways. Is there any harm in running it? Is it a waste of time for me to be doing it?

Thanks! Beth