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How To Fix Disk Errors with Check Disk Utility (CHKDSK)

Check Disk Utility a useful troubleshooting Utility Specially designed to scan and fix disk Drive Error. Here is how to repair errors on a computer hard drive with help of CHKDSK tool.

CHKDSK command also known as Microsoft check disk utility used to scan the disk drive to find and fix any errors. Sometimes you may notice computer freezes frequently or Unable to locate any files and folders Or even system crashes with different bluescreen errors these are symptoms of disk drive error. And you can fix such errors and Repair Errors on a Hard Drive with Check Disk Utility (CHKDSK) Let’s start.

Run Check Disk Utility on Windows 10

CHKDSK Utility basically Scans and makes sure that the disk is healthy by inspecting the physical structure of the disk. It repairs problems related to lost clusters, bad sectors, directory errors, and cross-linked files. Also check the disk for Corruption in the file or folders structure (That can occur due to which system crashes or freezes, power glitches or incorrectly turning off computer etc).

  • To Run Check disk Utility Open Command prompt as administrator.
  • Press Windows key + S type cmd, right-click on command prompt select run as administrator,
  • Next, type Command CHKDSK And hit the enter key to execute the command.
  • Or you can Type The Command With Specific Drive letter. For Ex: CHKDSK C:

Run CHKDSK Command on Windows 10

But running the CHKDSK command will only display the disk’s status, This will run Chkdsk in a Read-Only mode and display the status of the current drive means won’t fix any errors present on the volume. You Can Add Some Extra parameters with CHKDSK command to tell CHKDSK utility to fix the Errors.

CHKDSK Help command

Typing chkdsk /? and hitting Enter will give you its parameters or switches.

CHKDSK Help command

/f  Fixes errors detected.

/r  Identifies Bad Sectors and attempts recovery of information.

/v  Displays list of every file in every directory, on FAT32. On NTFS, is displays the cleanup messages.

The following are valid on NTFS volumes only.

/c  Skips the checking of cycles within the folder structure.

/I  Performs a simpler check of index entries.

/x  Forces the volume to dismount. Also invalidates all open file handles. This should be avoided in Desktop Editions of Windows, because of the possibility of data loss/corruption.

/l[:size]  It changes the size of the file that logs NTFS transactions. This option too, like the above one, is intended for server administrators ONLY.

Do note that, when you boot to the Windows Recovery Environment, Only two switches may be available.

/p  It performs an exhaustive check of the current disk

/r  It repairs possible damage on the current disk.

The following switches work in Windows 10, Windows 8 on NTFS volumes only:

/scan Run the online scan

/forceofflinefix Bypass online repair and queue defects for offline repair. Needs to be used along with /scan.

/perf  Perform the scan as fast as possible.

/spotfix  Perform spot repair in offline mode.

/offlinescanandfix Run the offline scan and perform fixes.

/sdcclean Garbage collection.

These switches are supported by Windows 10 on FAT/FAT32/exFAT volumes only:

/freeorphanedchains Free up any orphaned cluster chains

/markclean Mark the volume clean if no corruption is detected.

Check And Fix Drive Errors with CHKDSK

Now To Scan And Fix Disk Drive Errors Again Open the command prompt As an administrator, Type Command Bellow and hit the enter key to execute the command.

CHKDSK /f /r /x

Command Explained: The Command CHKDSK is for Check The Disk Drive Errors. C: Is the Drive letter which you want check for errors. /f  Fixes errors if detected, /r  Identifies Bad Sectors and attempts recovery of information. And /x  Forces the volume to dismount. Also invalidates all open file handles. This should be avoided in Desktop Editions of Windows, because of the possibility of data loss/corruption.

Note that CHKDSK needs to be able to lock the drive, meaning that it cannot be used to examine the system’s boot drive if the computer is in use. If your target drive is an external or non-boot internal disk, the CHKDSK process will begin as soon as we enter the command above. If, however, the target drive is a boot disk, the system will ask you if you’d like to run the command before the next boot. Type “yes” (or “y”), restart the computer.

Now close the Command prompt And Restart windows, The CHKDSK Utility Will load and check disk Drive errors, Bad Sectors before the operating system loads. If found any disk Errors, the utility will fix them itself if possible.

Scanning And Repairing Drive

This scanning and repair process can take a long time, especially when performed on larger drives. Wait until 100% complete the Scanning and repairing process. After That windows Restart and Start normally. That’s all you have successfully Repaired your Disk Drive Errors.

Conclusion

In Short words, you can use Command CHKDSK /F /R /X to Scan And Fix Disk Drive Errors in Windows 10. I hope after reading this post you can easily check and fix disk drive errors using Check Disk Utility. And Fix problems like windows has detected hard disk error, hard disk error on boot Etc. While performing disk Check if Face Any difficulty Feel Free To discuss comments below.

If the Scanning And Repair Process Stuck While running the CHKDKSK command Check This post Fix windows 10 stuck on repairing disk errors.

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