Use CheckDisk and its new features in Windows 8 to repair your hard drives

Although in Windows 8 many of the errors that hard drives can suffer are detected and corrected automatically, there is a tool called CheckDiskjust like in previous versions of Windows. It is used to display the status and integrity of files on hard drives, memories, cards and other storage media. It can scan, review and repair physical problems on the surface of hard drives such as bad sectors and recover data if possible.

With the arrival of Windows 8, CheckDisk makes its appearance once again, although this time we have news such as improvements and new optionsfor unit checking, as well as new modifiers.In this article we will do a brief review to know what has changed and how you can take advantage of these functions.

Error detection and automatic correction of the same

In Windows 8, there is a maintenance task already scheduled to run daily in times of system inactivity, which in case of detecting any reading or writing errors in the storage units that contain the operating system, it initiates a process called Spot verification.

This process verifies if there are any errors on the disks, and if so, this information is stored in a file with a log extension so that it can be repaired later. In addition, if the files that need to be modified are in use, a repair is scheduled to be carried out after a reboot of the computer.

Error detection and manual repair using Check Disk

Even taking into account the above comments, all users can still check and repair storage units manually. To do this, you must use the already known modifiers, or the new ones that we will discuss below.

"For example, if we want to check the status of drive C and repair it in case of errors, we can use the command window. To do this, from Windows 8 simply press Windows key + R, and in the run window type cmd without the quotes."

Once you are in the command window (Ms-Dos), type the following:

CHKDSK C: /SPOTFIX

If no anomaly is detected, the following message will be returned:

If we want to make an even more exhaustive and complete exam, we can use:

CHKDSK D: /SCAN

And if we prefer during system startup, we will use:

CHKDSK D: /SCAN /FORCEOFFLINEFIX

New Check Disk switches in Windows 8

The following switches have been added to be used in Check Disk under Windows 8 machines:

/SPOTFIX

Discussed above, it is similar to the function of the /F switch with the difference that it is capable of repairing errors in a matter of seconds. This is possible because, unlike /F, /SPOTFIX relies on a previously saved record rather than requiring a scan of all files.

/SCAN Runs a scan of the selected drive or volume.

/FORCEOFFLINEFIX It is used with the /SCAN switch previously discussed to perform boot-time repair.

This runs a patch of the selected drive skipping repairs, which will be run after the computer restarts, before the operating system loads.

/OFFLINESCANANDFIX Runs a patch for the selected drive or volume and fixes any errors, after restarting the computer, before to load Windows. The difference with the previous command is that in this case the search is also performed during the reboot.

/PERF Additional modifier when using the option: /SCAN, allows to perform a scan as quickly as possible, although for that it uses more system resources.

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/SDCLEANUP Retrieves security descriptor data. It is necessary to use it with /F"

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