Windows 8 970 Published by

Microsoft has revamped the way Windows 8 monitors hard disk operations and detects problems in an effort to make the diagnostic and repair process less intrusive



From PCWorld:
The improvements in Windows 8 center on the ChkDsk utility, which inspects the hard disk and checks for a variety of errors and problems. Until now, running ChkDsk has often been inconvenient because end users have to stop using the machine while the utility runs, and the scan can take a long time to complete.

Microsoft also tweaked NTFS, the Windows OS file system. Until now, the NTFS "health model" conceived the machine's hard disk as a single unit that was either well or damaged, and which thus was taken completely offline and made unavailable to the end user while ChkDsk ran, sometimes for hours.
  Microsoft Touts Win8's Ability to Detect, Fix Hard Disk Problems