which window or dialog box is used to check a hard drive for errors

Reboot into recovery mode to perform the scan or create a Windows Recovery Tool to handle the process. If you’re having issues running the above command because the drive is noted as “in use” by another process, you’re trying to scan your primary drive (boot drive) when the OS is using it.You can also type “chkdsk /scan” to check the disk online and attempt to fix it. Type “chkdsk c: /x /r” without the quotes to dismount the drive, scan it for errors, and repair it.In the User Account Control (UAC) window, select “Yes” to give it permission to launch the Windows Command Processor and make changes.Right-click the “ Start menu” and select “Windows PowerShell (Admin).”.This means that CHKDSK is allowed to run as though it was the account in charge of the computer. However, because CHKDSK talks directly to drive hardware, it requires a certain level of operating system permission known as administrative privileges.

Running CHKDSK on Windows 10Īlthough there are several different ways that you can invoke CHKDSK on a Windows 10 machine, by far, the most common and ordinary place to run the utility is Windows PowerShell, the intended replacement for Windows Command Prompt. The exact process used to analyze a floppy disk holding 160K can today be executed to analyze an SSD holding 15 terabytes. CHKDSK fixes soft errors by rewriting the erroneous data and resolves hard errors by marking that disk section as being damaged and “out of bounds” for future use.īecause CHKDSK has been updated and upgraded repeatedly with each new generation of storage hardware, the program continues to work correctly to analyze and repair hard drives and SSDs. They can also get “ hard errors” when the drive has an actual physical defect in the area designated as a sector. Sectors can develop “ soft errors,” in which data has been miswritten to the magnetic medium. Hard drives are divided into logical sectors, defined areas where a certain quantity of data will be stored. CHKDSK can conduct a complete disk drive scan, accessing and testing every hardware sector. CHKDSK also fixes misaligned time stamps, file size data, and security flags on HDD files.

Which window or dialog box is used to check a hard drive for errors