Fix Hard Disk Problems with chkdsk Switches in Windows 10

Sometimes users might find it difficult to identify problems with their hard disk. In these situations, there is a benefactor to assist them. It’s the chkdsk switches in Windows 10 (commonly known as the Check Disk utility).

The CHKDSK can be used to scan the problem in a hard drive and is also capable of solving it too. Microsoft introduced this scanning feature years ago and still plays a great role even today.

Accordingly, it provides some advanced options for finding the errors in a hard disk and is also capable of repairing it if necessary.

Moreover, depending on the size and the speed of the hard drive, the Check Disk utility will take relevant time frame to complete the process. But mind that you should always make sure to have backups of all the important data, before deploying.

Otherwise, you may lose the data in the process of repairing and don’t blame the CHKDSK for it.

Obviously, CHKDSK switches in Windows 10 really help to prevent bigger problems and any data loss in a long run. It will scan the integrity of the file system and will fix the logical file system to find the errors.

It’s also capable of scanning each and every sector on a disk volume. It looks for any bad sectors, namely soft bad sector and the hard bad sector. The soft bad sector might occur when the data is written badly.

Whereas, the hard bad sector will occur, because of physical damages on the disk. Further, once the bad sectors are identified, it’ll try to solve the problems. Though it’s good in repairing the soft bad sectors, it might sometimes find it difficult to repair the hard bad sectors. This is because of the issue that is caused due to the physical damage.

Step by Step Process to Fix Hard Drives Issues using CHKDSK Switches in Windows 10

The CHKDSK switches in Windows 10 can be set to action, through the Command Prompt. And for that, you’ll need to use the administrative privileges to access it. Let’s see how to do this.

Step 1:

Firstly, you’ll have to evoke the Command Prompt. For this, type Command Prompt in the Cortana search box and then right click on Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.

Step 2:

Here, you might be asked for permission, via a UAC window for launching the Command Prompt as Administrator. Click Yes to continue. You can verify this by making sure the Command window’s title bar reads “Administrator: Command Prompt”.

Step 3:

We shall now, proceed to the usage of the CHKDSK switches in Windows 10. In the Command Prompt, type “chkdsk”, and the drive letter, you want to examine or repair, with space in between.

Step 4:

The drive letter, is simply the letter assigned to refer the relevant partition. Here, we can take the OS drive ‘C’ for instance. Now, the CHKDSK command will be executed, for which you see the scan running.

Step 5:

Once the process is completed, the drive’s status will be displayed. Note that, only the status has been evaluated now and we’re yet to rectify the errors present in that volume. To fix them, have to give relevant parameters, along with the command. For this, type the chkdsk followed by a Space, the drive letter, and then the parameters after space. To put it simply, the parameters are nothing but “/f /r /x”.

Step 6:

Each parameter stands for its own functionality. The “/f” parameter enables the CHKDSK to fix the error it finds. The “/r” enables to locate the bad sectors on the drive and recover the readable information. Finally, the last one in the list “/x” forces the drive to dismount before the process starts. To be precise your full command should be like this: chkdsk [Drive:] [parameters].

Step 7:

After the command with parameters is typed, the CHKDSK will start working as soon as you press the Enter key. As mentioned earlier, the CHKDSK command will take the necessary time, according to the speed and size of the drive, to complete the process.

Step 8:

Once, the process is finished, it will display a summary of results, which includes byte allocation, disk space and the errors found and corrected. Thus, the CHKDSK switches in Windows 10 has solved the problem with the hard disk, successfully.

Conclusion

Well, the aforementioned steps will solve the errors in the hard disk using the three parameters of the CHKDSK command. Before, executing this method, it is always recommended to obtain a good backup of all your valuable data, so that you can have safe, even if unfortunate things happen. But, it doesn’t mean that the CHKDSK would ruin the data. It will only prevent you from stepping into the bigger problems that might be hanging on around your computer’s hard disk.

Further, try to check the hard drive regularly which will help you to maintain all your data safely. If you find any error on your hard drive you can use this CHKDSK command to solve your problem without any trouble. The thing is that if you don’t have enough time to do CHKDSK command, then don’t do this, because it will take some time to complete the process with respect to the size and speed of the drive.

Pradeep Sattianadin

He is Windows enthusiast and experienced content writer. Apart from writing, Pradeep has involved in SEO projects for many International businesses ranging from online startups to some of the popular world wide blogs.