How to repair hard drive error using CHKDSK Command in Windows 7,8 and 10.

One of the most common problems we encounter in windows is the hard disk error. The reason of the error are improper shutdown, electrical fluctuate and power failure. Sometimes unstable apps can cause disk error when apps suddenly not loading or crashed. 

What is chkdsk utility?


chkdsk or check disk is a utility command in windows for checking the integrity of a file system, corrupt file system, bad and damage sectors, bad security descriptors that connected with file records.

How to use chkdsk?

The easy way to run chkdsk is using a command prompt with administrator privileges. This is how to do it.

1. On Search box type command.
2. Right click on command prompt then select run as administrator

To scan and fix your Windows System drive type: chkdsk /f c: the utility command will now scan your drive C: for any error and it will automatically fix that problem because you added the /f syntax.

If some files you're going to scan is in use by the system, it will ask to schedule the process the next time you restart your system. Just type Y to run check disk when the next time your system restarts. Then restart your PC.

There are a lot of syntaxes you can use with chkdsk command. For your reference, below are the list of chkdsk option parameters.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /? Checks a disk and displays a status report. CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]] [/B] [/scan] [/spotfix] volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name. filename FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation. /F Fixes errors on the disk. /V On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file on the disk. On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any. /R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /F, when /scan not specified). /L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current size. /X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid (implies /F). /I NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries. /C NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder structure. /B NTFS only: Re-evaluates bad clusters on the volume (implies /R) /scan NTFS only: Runs a online scan on the volume /forceofflinefix NTFS only: (Must be used with "/scan") Bypass all online repair; all defects found are queued for offline repair (i.e. "chkdsk /spotfix"). /perf NTFS only: (Must be used with "/scan") Uses more system resources to complete a scan as fast as possible. This may have a negative performance impact on other tasks running on the system. /spotfix NTFS only: Runs spot fixing on the volume /sdcleanup NTFS only: Garbage collect unneeded security descriptor data (implies /F). /offlinescanandfix Runs an offline scan and fix on the volume. /freeorphanedchains FAT/FAT32/exFAT only: Frees any orphaned cluster chains instead of recovering their contents. /markclean FAT/FAT32/exFAT only: Marks the volume clean if no corruption was detected, even if /F was not specified. The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by skipping certain checks of the volume.

It is advisable to do this every time your PC did not shut down properly. Or if you feel that your PC is running slow.