![]() ![]() If you have scheduled a manual check of the drive, you’ll see a message to that effect. Press Start and then type “command prompt.” Right-click the result and then choose “Run as administrator.”Īt the prompt, type the following command-substituting the drive letter if necessary. If you’re not sure whether a disk check is scheduled for your next restart, it’s easy enough to check at the Command Prompt. You’ll need to run Command Prompt with administrative privileges. How to Check Up On or Cancel a Scheduled Disk Check If that happens, you’ll have the option to cancel the scan or schedule a disk check to happen the next time you restart Windows. If you elect to fix file system errors or scan for bad sectors, Windows won’t be able to perform a scan while the disk is in use. It may be something you want to do when you don’t need your computer for a few hours. If you want to perform the most thorough disk check, go ahead and select both options and then click “Start.” Just be aware that if you add a sector scan to the mix, checking the disk can take quite a while. In Windows 7, when you click the “Check now” button, you’ll see a dialog that lets you choose a couple of extra options-namely whether you also want to automatically fix file system errors and scan for bad sectors. In File Explorer, right-click the drive you want to check, and then choose “Properties.” Running the Check Disk tool from the Windows desktop is easy. We’ll also talk about running it from the Command Prompt, in cases where you can’t even boot into Windows. We’ll be working with Windows 10 in this article, so the screens may look slightly different if you’re using Windows 7 or 8, but chkdsk performs the same, and we’ll point out where any procedures differ. The chkdsk tool works pretty much the same in all versions of Windows. For that reason, you should always make sure you have a good backup routine in place and back up your PC before running chkdsk. If chkdsk does encounter problems-especially hard bad sectors-that it can’t repair, data can become unusable. RELATED: Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It Fortunately, chkdsk was able to recover the sectors in my case, and everything went back to normal afterward. After a lot of troubleshooting, a chkdsk scan revealed I had bad sectors where my Outlook data file was stored. Even if you’re just having strange problems with apps not loading or crashing that you haven’t been able to resolve another way, you might consider checking the disk.įor example: I once had a problem where Outlook suddenly started crashing on me shortly after loading. Sometimes Windows will automatically run a scan during startup, but most often you’ll have to do it yourself. You should also consider running it any time Windows has shut down abnormally-such as after a power loss or system crash. We recommend running chkdsk every few months as part of routine maintenance along with using a S.M.A.R.T. That may all sound very technical, but don’t worry: you don’t need to understand the ins and outs of how it works to know when you should run it. Chkdsk attempts to fix these problems by repairing soft bad sectors, and marking hard bad sectors so they won’t be used again. Bad sectors come in two forms: soft bad sectors, that can occur when data is written badly, and hard bad sectors that can occur because of physical damage to the disk. ![]() Chkdsk can also optionally scan every sector on a disk volume looking for bad sectors.Such errors might include corrupt entries in a volume’s master file table (MFT), bad security descriptors associated with files, or even misaligned time stamp or file size information about individual files. Chkdsk’s basic function is to scan the integrity of the file system and file system metadata on a disk volume and fix any logical file system errors that it finds.Chkdsk performs a couple of functions, depending on how it’s run: It’s not a terribly exciting tool-and running it can take some time-but it can really help prevent bigger problems and loss of data in the long run. The Check Disk utility, also known as chkdsk (since that’s the command you use to run it) scans through your entire hard drive to find and fix problems. ![]()
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