How to Scan & Fix Hard Drives with CHKDSK in Windows 10

Microsoft’s hard disk scanning and restore software, CHKDSK (“check disk”), was brought over 30 years in the past but nevertheless has a useful area today. Users strolling even the present day Microsoft running system can nonetheless use the command to observe their difficult drives for errors and repair them if important. Here’s a way to run CHKDSK in Windows 10.



Even in Windows 10, the CHKDSK command is run through the Command Prompt, but we’ll want to use administrative privileges to correctly get admission to it. To launch a Command Prompt as an Administrator, press the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + X to deliver up the energy users menu, then allow go of these  keys and faucet the A key. Alternatively, with the electricity users menu open you may use your mouse or trackpad to select the Command Prompt (Admin) option.

You’ll be presented with a UAC window requesting permission to launch the Command Prompt as Administrator. Click Yes to proceed and you’ll see a new Command Prompt window. You can affirm that you’ve successfully granted the Command Prompt administrative privileges through ensuring that “Administrator: Command Prompt” is present in the window’s name bar.

From the Command Prompt, kind the command “chkdsk” observed with the aid of a space, then the letter of the force you desire to observe or repair. In our case, it’s internal force “C.”

Simply jogging the CHKDSK command in Windows 10 will best display the disk’s popularity, and received’t restore any errors present at the extent. To tell CHKDSK to restore the power, we want to provide it parameters. After your force letter, kind the following parameters separated through a space each: “/f /r /x”.

The “/f” parameter tells CHKDSK to restoration any mistakes it finds; “/r” tells it to discover the terrible sectors on the force and get better readable statistics; “/x” forces the pressure to dismount earlier than the method begins. Additional parameters are to be had for greater specialised responsibilities, and are precise at Microsoft’s TechNet web page.

To summarize, the overall command that ought to be typed into the Command Prompt is:
chkdsk [Drive:] [parameters]
In our example, it’s:

chkdsk C: /f /r /x

Note that CHKDSK wishes if you want to lock the power, that means that it can't be used to have a look at the machine’s boot force if the computer is in use. If your goal power is an outside or non-boot internal disk, the CHKDSK procedure will begin as quickly as we enter the command above. If, however, the target power is a boot disk, the system will ask you if you’d like to run the command earlier than the subsequent boot. Type “yes” (or “y”), restart the laptop, and the command will run before the operating machine hundreds, permitting it to gain full get right of entry to to the disk.



A CHKDSK command can take a long term, specifically whilst performed on larger drives. Once it’s completed, however, it will gift a summary of effects consisting of total disk area, byte allocation, and, most significantly, any errors that have been observed and corrected.

The CHKDSK command is to be had in all versions of Windows, so those on Windows 7, eight, or XP also can carry out the stairs above to initiate a test of their tough power. In the case of older versions of Windows, customers can get to the Command Prompt by way of going to Start > Run and typing “cmd”. Once the Command Prompt end result is displayed, proper-click on on it and select “Run as Administrator” to supply this system the essential privileges to execute CHKDSK correctly.

A very last note: we’ve protected the way to run CHKDSK in previous versions of Windows, and a few customers who accompanied the suggested steps have been alarmed to discover that their tough pressure space turned into drastically reduced after going for walks the command. This end result is due to a failing difficult power, as one of the important functions that CHKDSK performs is to discover and block awful sectors at the force. A few terrible sectors on an vintage pressure will commonly pass unnoticed to the consumer, but if the force is failing or has severe issues, you may have huge numbers of horrific sectors that, when mapped and blocked through CHKDSK, appear to “thieve” vast portions of your hard force’s ability.

This is predicted conduct, and it means that those sectors, and any statistics doubtlessly saved on them, have failed, even in case you or your running system didn’t comprehend it yet. CHKDSK will try to recover information from bad sectors whilst the usage of the /r parameter, but some information may be corrupted and unrecoverable. Therefore, make certain to always preserve exact backups of all your essential records, and don’t blame CHKDSK (i.E., kill the messenger) for confirming that your PC’s difficult force is about to kick the proverbial bucket.