How to Use Check Disk to Scan and Repair Disk on Windows 10/11 PC

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How to Use Check Disk to Scan and Repair Disk on Windows 10/11 PC – Guide

CHKDSK begins checking the drive’s file system and analyzing the integrity of the drive’s files, file system, and file metadata. If CHKDSK finds logical errors in the file system, it fixes them and saves the data to the hard drive so nothing is lost. Logical file system errors are things like corrupt entries in the drive’s Master File Table (MFT), a table that tells the drive how files are connected in the obscure labyrinths of the drive’s hardware.

CHKDSK also fixes misaligned timestamps, file size data, and security flags for files on the drive. CHKDSK can then do a complete drive scan and access and test each sector of the hardware. Hard drives are divided into logical sectors, defined areas of the drive in which a certain amount of data is stored.

How to Check the disk for errors using CHKDSK on Windows 10/11

To check your hard drive for errors, run the elevated command prompt (with administrator permissions). Then run the command:

This command will start checking drive E:, errors found will be automatically corrected (/F), if there are bad sectors, data recovery will be attempted (/R). A full disk scan can take a long time, depending on its storage capacity and number of files.

The chkdsk tool performs four sequential passes to verify volume metadata:

After completing the disk check, you will see detailed disk statistics, information about bad sectors and files, as well as the steps taken to recover the data.

If the chkdsk utility does not find any problems, the following message will appear:

You will not be able to perform an online scan and fix system drive errors (C:). When you run the command chkdsk C: / F / R, you will see that the disk is locked and can only be checked on the next Windows restart:

If you want to check the disk on the next boot, press Y -> Enter. The message “This volume will be checked the next time the system is restarted” appears. Now, if you restart Windows, the disk check will start. You need to wait until it’s over.

If you want to check the offline drive for an error (skip the online check), use the offlinescanandfix option:

Also note the new chkdsk -/spotfix option. This parameter is only applicable to NTFS volumes. The spotfix parameter can significantly reduce offline disk check time from hours to seconds. Instead of a full drive scan, it just looks for and fixes errors previously recorded in the $corrup file (populated during a normal disk scan). In that case, chkdsk fixes the errors immediately, without wasting time scanning the entire drive. This is especially useful when scanning large volumes.

In Windows 10, disk maintenance (scanning and defragmenting) is performed automatically on a schedule or when the computer is idle. You can find information about the status of automatic disk check in Control Panel -> System and Security -> Security and Maintenance -> Drive Status. The screen capture shows the state of the drive “All drives are working properly”.

Also, in modern builds of Windows 10, the storage diagnostic tool StorDiag.exe (Storage Diagnostic Tool) has been added. This utility performs multiple disk check operations at the same time (chkdsk, fsutil and fltmc). The diagnostic log can be saved as an ETW trace. For example:

Checking drive errors with PowerShell

PowerShell 4.0 introduced a separate Volume Repair disk check cmdlet. This cmdlet is the PowerShell replacement for the chkdsk command.

To perform an online hard disk check for PowerShell errors, run the command:

If you need to run an offline disk check and automatically fix errors, use the offlinescanandfix parameter:

Repair-Volume –driveletter E –offlinescanandfix

It also supports quick error correction using the spotfix parameter (only errors found during online verification are fixed):

You can check multiple local drives at once:

The Repair-Volume cmdlet supports CIM sessions that let you scan drives on remote computers:

View Disk Check Results (CHKDSK) in Windows 10

By running an online disk check, you can see full chkdsk statistics in the CLI console. However, if you have scheduled a disk scan with the offlinescanandfix option, you will not see the chkdsk summary report on the Windows startup screen. The Windows 10 boot screen only shows the overall percentage of the disk check completed. In Windows 10, you can see the results of the automatic hard disk scan only in the Windows Event Viewer. Open Windows Event Viewer by typing event in the search bar and select the Event Viewer application (or running the Eventvwr.msc command).

In the next window, go to Windows Logs -> Application. Right-click on Application and select the Find menu item. In the search bar, type chkdsk and click Find Next.

The first event found with event ID 1001 and the source Wininit should be displayed. On the General tab, a detailed log with the results of the last disk check will be shown. You can get information from checking disk events using PowerShell. The following command will export the 5 most recent disk scan results from the event log and save them to the current desktop as a text file CHKDSK_SCANS.txt.

Final note

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