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

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

CHKDSK starts scanning the file system on the drive and analyzes the integrity of the files, the file system, and the metadata of the files on the drive. If CHKDSK finds logical file system errors, it fixes them and saves the data to the hard drive so nothing is lost. Logical file system errors are things like corrupted entries in the drive’s master file table (MFT), a table that tells the drive how files connect in the murky mazes of the drive’s hardware.

CHKDSK also corrects misaligned timestamps, file size data, and security flags for files on the drive. CHKDSK can then do a full 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 for disk errors using CHKDSK in 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 the E: drive check, the errors found will be automatically fixed (/ F), if there are bad sectors, it will try to recover the data (/ R). A full disk check can take a long time depending on your storage capacity and the number of files.

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

• Stage 1: file verification;
• Stage 2: verification of indices;
• Stage 3: verification of security descriptors;
• Stage 4: verification of Usn Journal and sectors

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

If the chkdsk utility found no problems, the following message will appear:

• Windows has scanned the file system and found no problem. No further action is required.

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

• The current drive cannot be locked. Chkdsk cannot be run because the volume is being used by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be verified the next time the system is rebooted? (Y / N).

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 rebooted” appears. Now if you restart Windows, it will start the disk check. You have to wait until it ends.

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

• chkdsk E: / f / offlinescanandfix

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

In Windows 10, disk maintenance (verification and defragmentation) is done automatically on a schedule or when your computer is idle. You can find information about the status of the automatic disk check in Control Panel -> System and Security -> Security and Maintenance -> Drive Status. The screenshot shows the drive status “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 verification operations at the same time (chkdsk, fsutil, and fltmc). The diagnostic log can be saved as an ETW trace. For example:

• stordiag.exe -collectEtw -checkfsconsistency -out% userprofile% desktop

Checking the drive for errors with PowerShell

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

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

• Repair Volume – Letter C – Scan

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

• Repair volume – driveletter E – offlinescanandfix

Repair volume – driveletter E – offlinescanandfix

It also supports fast error correction using the spotfix parameter (only errors found during online scanning are corrected):

• Repair volume – drive letter E – spot correction

You can check multiple local drives at once:

• Repair volume -DriveLetter EHI -SpotFix

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

• Repair volume – driver letter c – scan – cimsession ny-fs01, ny-fs02, ny-dc01

View Check Disk Results (CHKDSK) in Windows 10

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

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

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

• Get-EventLog -LogName Application -Source chkdsk | Select-Object -Last 5 -TimeGenerated Property, Message | Format-Table -Wrap | output file “$ env: userprofile Desktop CHKDSK_SCANS.txt”

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

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