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When Windows encounters a file corruption on a file system, it may return the following error message:

Data error (cyclic redundancy check).

This suggests Windows checks every file operation (copy, move, etc.) by calculating CRCs. Does Windows really do this, whether during or after the operation?

bwDraco
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1 Answers1

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Windows doesn't actually preform any redundancy on file transfers, this is a misnomer for the device driver accessing a bad sector block (see the SO question What, and where, is the NTFS CRC windows complains about? and this Microsoft KB article; NTFS does not store any kind of file checksums). If you receive this error on your computer, you should ensure your hard disk's integrity (and possibly invoke chkdsk with the /r flag).

Long story short, Windows does not verify any files after they are transferred. You can use another software tool like TeraCopy to verify data after moving/copying files.

Breakthrough
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