Disk drive errors can be frustrating and concerning, as they can lead to data loss, system crashes, and decreased performance. This can occur due to various reasons and can impact the performance and reliability of your storage drive. File System Corruption, Power Failures and Surges, and Mechanical Failures are common. If you feel the computer’s performance is unusually slow, the system frequently crashes or freezes, disk errors might be contributing to the problem. And running the CHKDSK command is the very first step to diagnose and repair disk drive errors on Windows 11. This article explores CHKDSK (Check Disk) utility and how it works to repair disk errors and bad sectors on your computer.
Disk errors can occur due to various reasons, including sudden power outages, improper shutdowns, bad sectors on the hard drive, and file system corruption.
What is CHKDSK command?
CHKDSK (Check Disk) is a command-line utility allows users to check the integrity of the file system and scan for errors on a storage drive, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD). If you experience issues with your hard drive, such as slow performance, read/write errors, or system crashes, CHKDSK can help identify and fix problems related to bad sectors.
Running chkdsk command identifies and fixes various issues, including bad sectors, Disk errors, cross-linked files, and file system inconsistencies.
- CHKDSK can identify and report any errors or problems present on the disk, giving you an opportunity to address them before they cause more significant issues.
- The CHKDSK command repairs file system errors. bad sectors on HDD, helps maintain the integrity of your data, reducing the risk of data corruption and loss.
- Regularly running CHKDSK can help monitor the health of your storage drive and detect early signs of potential hardware failures.
- Running CHKDSK command Fixes disk drive errors can lead to improved system performance and responsiveness.
Use CHKDSK command to Repair disk errors
You can run the Check Disk Tool From disk Drive properties or through the command line.
Run CHKDSK Using Windows File Explorer
To check disk errors on Windows 11 using Windows Explorer:
- Open File Explorer using Windows key + E
- Select “This PC,” and locate the drive you want to check for errors,
- Right-click on the drive and select “Properties.” and switch to the “Tools” tab.
- Under the “Error checking” section, click on “Check.”
- If you receive a prompt asking for permission to check the disk on the next restart, click “Scan drive” or “Yes.”
This will check for disk drive error and try to repair them.
Run CHKDSK Command
Running Chkdsk Tool from Command is very Effective.
First Open the Command Prompt as an administrator:
- Press the Windows key + S Type “cmd”.
- Right-click on “Command Prompt” in the search results and Select “Run as administrator.”
Here on the Command Prompt, type the command “chkdsk” followed by a space, then the letter of the drive you wish to examine or repair. In our case, it’s internal drive “C.”
chkdsk
Running the CHKDSK command in Windows 11 will only display the disk’s status, and won’t fix any errors present on the volume. This will run Chkdsk in a Read-Only mode and display the status of the current drive. To tell CHKDSK to fix the drive, we need to give some extra parameters.
CHKDSK extra parameters
Typing chkdsk /? and hitting Enter will give you its parameters or switches.
/f Fixes errors detected.
/r Identifies Bad Sectors and attempts recovery of information.
/v Displays list of every file in every directory, on FAT32. On NTFS, is displays the cleanup messages.
The following are valid on NTFS volumes only.
/c Skips the checking of cycles within the folder structure.
/I Perform a simpler check of index entries.
/x Forces the volume to dismount. Also invalidates all open file handles. This should be avoided in Desktop Editions of Windows, because of the possibility of data loss/corruption.
/l[: size] It changes the size of the file that logs NTFS transactions. This option too, like the above one, is intended for server administrators ONLY.
Do note that, when you boot to the Windows Recovery Environment, Only two switches may be available.
/p It performs an exhaustive check of the current disk
/r It repairs possible damage on the current disk.
/scan Run the online scan
/forceofflinefix Bypass online repair and queue defects for offline repair. Needs to be used along with /scan.
/perf Perform the scan as fast as possible.
/spotfix Perform spot repair in offline mode.
/offlinescanandfix Run offline scan and perform fixes.
/sdcclean Garbage collection.
These switches are supported by Windows 11 on FAT/FAT32/exFAT volumes only:
/freeorphanedchains Free up any orphaned cluster chains
/markclean Mark the volume clean if no corruption is detected.
To tell CHKDSK to fix the drive, we need to give it parameters. After your drive letter, type the following parameters separated by a space each: “/f /r /x”.
The “/f” parameter tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds; “/r” tells it to locate the bad sectors on the drive and recover readable information; “/x” forces the drive to dismount before the process starts.
Command to Check Disk Errors
To summarize, the full command that should be typed into the Command Prompt is:
chkdsk [Drive:] [parameters]
In our example, it’s:
chkdsk C: /f /r /x
Note that CHKDSK needs to be able to lock the drive, meaning that it cannot be used to examine the system’s boot drive if the computer is in use.
If your target drive is an external or non-boot internal disk, the CHKDSK process will begin as soon as we enter the command above.
If, however, the target drive is a boot disk, the system will ask you if you’d like to run the command before the next boot. Type “yes” (or “y”), restart the computer, and the command will run before the operating system loads.
This will scan the drive for Errors, Bad sectors if found any this will repair the same for you.
CHKDSK scans the file system and hard drive for errors, bad sectors, and other inconsistencies. If it detects any issues with the file system structure or file allocation, it marks them as potentially corrupted.
CHKDSK attempts to repair these file system errors and recover data from damaged sectors when possible. In cases where it can’t recover data, it may move the corrupted files to a folder called “Found” or “Found.000” on the drive.
This scanning and repair process can take a long time, especially when performed on larger drives. Once it’s done, however, it will present a summary of results including total disk space, byte allocation, and, most importantly, any errors that were found and corrected.
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