CHKDSK, short for Check Disk, is a command that you can run from the command prompt of Windows 10 that is used to check your computer hard disk for any errors. If any errors are found then it can also correct it. Normally, all the files in your computer are arranged in order so that they can be accessed easily. There are however cases when these files get placed in areas where they don’t belong. When this happens issues can occur and the best way to fix this is to run CHKDSK on windows 10.
How To Run CHKDSK On Windows 10
Before performing any of the recommended troubleshooting steps listed below it’s best to restart your computer first. This action refreshes the operating system and remove any corrupt temporary data that could be causing the problem.
Run CHKDSK utility from Computer
- Press the Windows Logo key + E to launch Windows Explorer.
- Locate the drive you want to scan for errors using the CHKDSK utility and right-click on it.
- Click on Properties in the resulting context menu.
- Navigate to the Tools tab.
- Under the Error checking section, click on Check to launch the Disk Error Checking utility. The utility will be launched and it will begin checking the selected drive for file system errors and other problems such as bad sectors.
- If Windows detects any errors or other problems on the selected disk, it will ask you to check the disk. If the system did not find any errors on the disk, you will see a message stating You don’t need to scan this drive, but you can still go ahead with the scan. Simply click on Scan drive to have CHKDSK scan the selected drive for errors and issues.
- The scan might take a fair bit of time depending on just how fast your computer is. Once the scan has been completed, if Windows did not find any errors on the disk, it will inform you of that, but if the utility did fine errors or other issues on the drive, you will instead see a message that reads: “Restart your computer to repair the file system. You can restart right away or schedule the error fixing on next restart.”
- Restart your computer – either immediately after the scan finishes or after you save all your work and close any open applications.
- When your computer boots up, CHKDSK will attempt to fix any and all errors that it found and fix any bad sectors or other problems that it found on the drive.
This is the first method to run CHKDSK on Windows 10.
Run the CHKDSK utility from Command Prompt
- Press the Windows Logo key + X to open the WinX Menu.
- Click on Command Prompt (Admin).
- If a User Access Control dialog asking if you’re sure you want to launch the Command Prompt, click on Yes.
- Type chkdsk X: (where X is the drive letter corresponding to the partition of your computer’s hard drive(s) that you want CHKDSK to scan) followed by the parameters you want CHKDSK to perform the scan with and then press Enter.
- The parameters you can add are /f – Tells CHKDSK to fix any and all errors that it finds, /r – Tells CHKDSK to locate bad sectors on the drive and try to recover any and all readable information from them, /x – Tells CHKDSK to forcefully dismount the selected drive before scanning it.
This is the second method to run CHKDSK on Windows 10.