How to Use Check Disk to Detect And Fix Hard Drive Errors
Hard drives extremely prone to surface errors. These errors vary in severity and are caused by a number of things, from hardware faults and power cuts to interrupted data write process.

The good news is that you have to do nothing of the sort in case of minor hard drive surface errors. Most of these errors are easily fixed with the help of a tool called Check Disk. Check Disk (CHKDSK) is a built-in Windows utility that can scan your hard drive for errors and bad sectors, repair logical errors, prevent further deterioration by moving data to the healthier parts of the disk and make sure new data is not saved to the bad sectors.

Check Disk can improve the stability of your PC. Generally speaking, it’s good to run Check Disk on a regular basis, like once a month. Running Check Disk is really easy even though the scan can take a long time to complete. So make sure you don’t need to use your computer for something like 30-40 minutes (though sometimes it may take up to 2 hours), as Check Disk needs exclusive access to your system.

You can launch the Check Disk tool in two ways – from (My) Computer or from the Command Prompt. Here is how it’s done from (My) Computer:

1. Go to Start Menu and open (My) Computer.

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2. Right-click on the drive you wish to check and go to Properties.

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3. Go to the Tools tab and click on the Check Now button.

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4. A pop-up window will appear and ask you whether you want to Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors


     

  • To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start.
           
  • To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, then click Start.
           
  • To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors checkbox, then click Start.


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Check Disk needs exclusive access to the drive. If you are checking your system drive, Check Disk will not be able to perform the scan straight away. Instead, it will offer you to schedule the scan for the next reboot. To do that, just click on Schedule Disk Check and then click OK.

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Execute Check Disk From Command Prompt

1. Open the Command Prompt by clicking Start Menu --> All Programs --> Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt, and open it as an administrator. In Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 10 type cmd.exe into Start Screen or Start Menu, right-click on Cmd.exe, and open it as an administrator.

2. Now execute CHKDSK C: /f in the Command Prompt window. The C: is the partition letter of the drive you will be checking for errors and the /f parameter will make the tool repair file system errors. If you want to repair file system and bad sectors errors use the /r parameter instead of /f parameter.

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Check Disk will try to lock your drive and you will be prompted to schedule the task for the next reboot.

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The full list of CHKDSK command prompt options can be found via the Command Prompt itself: just execute CHKDSK  /?, command to get the details of what each option does.

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