chkdsk

Checks the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors. If used without parameters, chkdsk displays only the status of the volume and does not fix any errors. If used with the /f, /r, /x, or /b parameters, it fixes errors on the volume.

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to run chkdsk. To open a command prompt window as an administrator, right-click Command prompt in the Start menu, and then click Run as administrator.

Interrupting chkdsk is not recommended. However, canceling or interrupting chkdsk should not leave the volume any more corrupt than it was before chkdsk was run. Running chkdsk again checks and should repair any remaining corruption on the volume.

Chkdsk can be used only for local disks. The command cannot be used with a local drive letter that has been redirected over the network.

Syntax

Parameters

Parameter	Description
Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name.
[ [

] Use with file allocation table (FAT) and FAT32 only. Specifies the location and name of a file or set of files that you want chkdsk to check for fragmentation. You can use the ? and * wildcard characters to specify multiple files. /f Fixes errors on the disk. The disk must be locked. If chkdsk cannot lock the drive, a message appears that asks you if you want to check the drive the next time you restart the computer. /v Displays the name of each file in every directory as the disk is checked. /r Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. The disk must be locked. /r includes the functionality of /f, with the additional analysis of physical disk errors. /x Forces the volume to dismount first, if necessary. All open handles to the drive are invalidated. /x also includes the functionality of /f. /i Use with NTFS only. Performs a less vigorous check of index entries, which reduces the amount of time required to run chkdsk. /c Use with NTFS only. Does not check cycles within the folder structure, which reduces the amount of time required to run chkdsk. /l[: ] Use with NTFS only. Changes the log file size to the size you type. If you omit the size parameter, /l displays the current size. /b Use with NTFS only. Clears the list of bad clusters on the volume and rescans all allocated and free clusters for errors. /b includes the functionality of /r. Use this parameter after imaging a volume to a new hard disk drive. /scan Use with NTFS only. Runs an online scan on the volume. /forceofflinefix Use with NTFS only (must be used with /scan). Bypass all online repair; all defects found are queued for offline repair (for example, chkdsk /spotfix ). /perf Use with NTFS only (must be used with /scan). Uses more system resources to complete a scan as fast as possible. This may have a negative performance impact on other tasks running on the system. /spotfix Use with NTFS only. Runs spot fixing on the volume. /sdcleanup Use with NTFS only. Garbage collect unneeded security descriptor data (implies /f). /offlinescanandfix Runs an offline scan and fix on the volume. /freeorphanedchains Use with FAT/FAT32/exFAT only. Frees any orphaned cluster chains instead of recovering their contents. /markclean Use with FAT/FAT32/exFAT only. Marks the volume clean if no corruption was detected, even if /f was not specified. /? Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

The /i or /c switch reduces the amount of time required to run chkdsk by skipping certain volume checks.

If you want chkdsk to correct disk errors, you can’t have open files on the drive. If files are open, the following error message appears:

If you choose to check the drive the next time you restart the computer, chkdsk checks the drive and corrects errors automatically when you restart the computer. If the drive partition is a boot partition, chkdsk automatically restarts the computer after it checks the drive.

You can also use the chkntfs /c command to schedule the volume to be checked the next time the computer is restarted. Use the fsutil dirty set command to set the volume’s dirty bit (indicating corruption), so that Windows runs chkdsk when the computer is restarted.

You should use chkdsk occasionally on FAT and NTFS file systems to check for disk errors. Chkdsk examines disk space and disk use and provides a status report specific to each file system. The status report shows errors found in the file system. If you run chkdsk without the /f parameter on an active partition, it might report spurious errors because it cannot lock the drive.

Chkdsk corrects logical disk errors only if you specify the /f parameter. Chkdsk must be able to lock the drive to correct errors.

Because repairs on FAT file systems usually change a disk’s file allocation table and sometimes cause a loss of data, chkdsk might display a confirmation message similar to the following:

If you press Y, Windows saves each lost chain in the root directory as a file with a name in the format File .chk. When chkdsk finishes, you can check these files to see if they contain any data you need.

If you press N, Windows fixes the disk, but it does not save the contents of the lost allocation units.

If you don’t use the /f parameter, chkdsk displays a message that the file needs to be fixed, but it does not fix any errors.

If you use chkdsk /f* on a very large disk or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of files), chkdsk /f might take a long time to complete.

Use the /r parameter to find physical disk errors in the file system and attempt to recover data from any affected disk sectors.

If you specify the /f parameter, chkdsk displays an error message if there are open files on the disk. If you do not specify the /f parameter and open files exist, chkdsk might report lost allocation units on the disk. This could happen if open files have not yet been recorded in the file allocation table. If chkdsk reports the loss of a large number of allocation units, consider repairing the disk.

Because the Shadow Copies for Shared Folders source volume cannot be locked while Shadow Copies for Shared Folders is enabled, running chkdsk against the source volume might report false errors or cause chkdsk to unexpectedly quit. You can, however, check shadow copies for errors by running chkdsk in Read-only mode (without parameters) to check the Shadow Copies for Shared Folders storage volume.

The chkdsk command, with different parameters, is available from the Recovery Console.

On servers that are infrequently restarted, you may want to use the chkntfs or the fsutil dirty query commands to determine whether the volume’s dirty bit is already set before running chkdsk.

Understanding exit codes

The following table lists the exit codes that chkdsk reports after it has finished.

Exit code	Description
0	No errors were found.
1	Errors were found and fixed.
2	Performed disk cleanup (such as garbage collection) or did not perform cleanup because /f was not specified.
3	Could not check the disk, errors could not be fixed, or errors were not fixed because /f was not specified.

Examples

To check the disk in drive D and have Windows fix errors, type:

If it encounters errors, chkdsk pauses and displays messages. Chkdsk finishes by displaying a report that lists the status of the disk. You cannot open any files on the specified drive until chkdsk finishes.

To check all files on a FAT disk in the current directory for noncontiguous blocks, type:

Chkdsk displays a status report, and then lists the files that match the file specifications that have noncontiguous blocks.

How Do I Repair Hard Drive Error with Windows 10 CHKDSK Utility? [Partition Magic]

By Irene | Follow | Last Updated November 30, 2020

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Summary :

Hard drive errors caused by power outages, hardware failure, system crash, or human error can lead to drive inaccessible, data loss or subpar performance. How to free check and fix hard drive error Windows 10? This article tells how to scan and resolve hard drive problems to its utmost by running CHKDSK Windows 10 in 4 methods.

Quick Navigation :

Many Windows users check their hard drives regularly as disk error will slow down or damage a hard drive in an accumulated way. The best way to check and fix hard drive errors or bad sectors to keep it healthy is to use Windows built-in CHKDSK utility — a useful hard disk scanning and repair utility which helps to examine hard drives for errors and repair them.

What Is CHKDSK Utility

Some users may don’t know what CHKDSK is and how to run it. Actually, CHKDSK is the abbreviation of Check Disk, which is a system tool provided in Windows, OS/2 and DOS to check file system integrity of a partition and fix logical file errors.

CHKDSK can help you fix hard drive errors caused by bad sectors, improper or sudden shutdowns, corrupted software and meta data corruption. Whenever you have hard drive errors like you need to format the partition before you can use it caused by improper shutdown of the machine or abnormal removal of USB drives, you can use CHKDSK to find out errors and fix them.

Then how to repair hard drive windows 10 with CHKDSK utility? Here I will illustrate you 4 ways to run Windows 10 Check Disk utility and fix hard drive errors.

Method 1. Run Check Disk Windows 10 from Partition Property

You can run Windows 10 CHKDSK from Windows desktop and the detailed steps are as below.

Step 1. Right-click Windows Start Menu and select Disk Management to open it.

Step 2. When you get the main interface of Disk Management, you can select the drive that you want to check and fix, then right-click it and choose Property.

Step 3. On the Tools tab, click Check.

Step 4. If the system detects that there are errors, you will be asked to check the disk. If no errors are found, you will see a message as shown in the following picture. You can still choose to check the drive if you want to. Click on Scan drive.

Step 5. Windows will display a message as below after completion. If no errors are found, it will say no error found. Then click Close to exit it. If there are some errors found on the drive, Windows will ask for a restart to fix the errors.

Method 2. CHKDSK Windows 10 with Elevated Command Prompt.

CHKDSK Windows 10 with elevated Command Prompt performs a couple of functions. Although running it may take some time, it does prevent hard disk from being damaged and loss of data in the long term. It is recommended to run it whenever Windows has shut down abnormally or hard disk performs abnormally.

Step 1. Input cmd in the Windows 10 Cortana search box. Right-click the best match then select Run as administrator.

Step 2. In the elevated Command Prompt, type CHKDSK *: /f (* represents the drive letter of the specific drive that you want to scan and fix) and then press Enter. This CHKDSK Windows 10 command will scan your computer drive for errors and try to fix any that it finds.

Here I take CHKDSK e: /f as an example (e represent the drive letter that I want to scan). The bellowing picture shows there is no file system error with the partition. If there is any hard drive errors detected, CHKDSK will help you fix it automatically.

Step 3. Input exit to exit the Command Prompt Window after performing all operations.

/f – fix any errors it detected

/r – Locate bad sectors on the drive and try to recover any and all readable information from them

Apart from commonly used /f and /r, you can choose the following parameters valid for both FAT32 / NTFS partition when running the CHKDSK utility from an elevated Command Prompt.

• /v — Display list of every file in every directory on FAT32 partition. On NTFS, it displays the cleanup messages.
• /x — force the volume to dismount. Also invalidates all open file handles. This should be avoided in Desktop Editions of Windows, because it may cause data loss/corruption.

The following are valid for NTFS volumes only.

• /c — skip checking of cycles within the folder structure.
• /I — perform a less vigorous check of index entries.
• /L[:size] — change the size of the log file to specified number of kilobytes. If size is not specified, it will display current size.
• /b — re-evaluates bad clusters on the volume (implies /R)

Besides, CHKDSK cannot repair hard bad sectors, in which case, data can get lost and become unusable. If you have very important files and data stored on the drive, you’d better backup the hard drive as this occasion could happen sometimes.

If you cannot boot up your computer, you can run the tool from Command Prompt either by booting your computer into the Recovery Mode or by using the original installation disc to run Command Prompt (For detailed steps, please see Method 4). If you can, you may also run CHKDSK repair with third-party software, but be sure to choose a reliable one.

Method 3. Windows 10 CHKDSK Repair with Third-party Software

If you are not familiar with commands or find that using commands is error-prone as it requires you to input every command correctly, in this way, you can use a free CHKDSK repair alternative to repair hard drive Windows 10. It is recommended to use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, which makes CHKDSK Windows 10 as a breeze.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is an easy-to-use partition manager. Its Check File System function can scan through your hard drive and fix all errors detected. It is not as complicated and time-consuming as running CHKDSK in Command Prompt. And it is simpler to operate with its intuitive interface.

Apart from Check file system function, it can also perform other operations like format partition, resize partition, extend partition, copy partition/disk, convert MBR to GPT without data loss, wipe disk, convert FAT to NTFS.

Next, let’s see detailed steps about how to run CHKDSK Windows 10 to fix hard drive error with third-party software.

Step 1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by clicking the following button. Install it on your computer and launch it to get the main interface.

Then select the target partition, and choose «Check File System» from the Check Partition group or from Partition menu.

Step 2. You will see a new window with two options: Check only and Check & fix detected errors. If you only want to check, select Check only; if you want to recover mistakes during the checking process, select Check & fix detected errors. After that, click Start button. Once you click Start, MiniTool Partition Wizard will check/fix file system immediately.

This page shows that MiniTool found no problems. If there is an error detected by MiniTool Partition Wizard, just let Partition Wizard fix it.

Method 4.Run Check Disk Windows 10 from Installation Disc/USB drive

The above three methods show you how to run CHKDSK when your computer can boot up successfully. However, if Windows won’t start, how can you check disk Windows 10?

Well, in this case, you can run CHKDSK on boot and check the hard drive for errors via Windows installation disc or USB drive. By following the steps as below, CHKDSK utility can be accessed easily.

Step 1. Insert Windows 10 installation disc or USB flash drive with Windows.

Step 2. Change the BIOS boot sequence to boot from the disc or USB drive.

Step 3. Select your language performance and click Next.

Step 4. Click Repair your computer.

Step 5. Then choose Troubleshoot on this page.

Step 6. On the Advanced options page, click Command Prompt to open it.

Step 6. When you successfully open the Command Prompt, you can follow the steps in Method 2 to execute CHKDSK commands.

After reading the 4 free methods in this post, I’m sure that you have learned how to use Windows 10 CHKDSK utility to repair hard drive errors. Now try one of them to complete hard drive repair by yourself.

Wrapping Things Up

Have you fixed your hard drive with CHKDSK utility? Hope CHKDSK will help you fix all kinds of hard drive problems, and you can go back using your computer normally.

If you have any question about how to repair hard drive error with Window 10 Check Disk utility or if you have other better solutions, you can leave a message in the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you may contact us via [email protected] .