▷ What is chkdsk and what is it for

What is CHKDSK and what is it for? Users of the "old school" know how to answer these two questions quickly. Many of them will remember this application in the previous startup of the MS-DOS and Windows 95/98 and Windows XP operating systems.

It used to appear after restarting our PC violently or after a blackout. Today we explain the uses that we can give it and how it can be useful in our PC maintenance?

Index of contents

In any case, one of the most important tasks that must be carried out on a computer is to ensure the correct operation of our storage units. All our personal information is contained in them and our operating system is installed. Today we will talk about an essential command to execute these maintenance tasks: the CHKDSK tool.

Although there are tools you brought directly from Microsoft such as CHKDSK for the maintenance of hard drives, it is always good to make backup copies of our data. We must bear in mind that one of the devices that works the most on our computer is precisely the hard disk, so it may be the most recurrent source of problems.

In this article we are going to show you what the CHKDSK utility consists of in detail and exploring all its most interesting options.

What is the CHKDSK command

CHKDSK is the diminutive of two words, Check Disk. It is a utility that is used to analyze, verify and repair the storage units of our computer. This can be mechanical hard drives, SSDs, or connected USB devices. Through CHKDSK we can improve the performance of the unit, and optimize its use and performance. The main functions that CHKDSK performs are:

• Scan and repair logical and physical errors that a storage unit has Monitor the state of our hard drive in real time

This command must be run in the Windows CMD command window and administrator permissions are required.

CHKDSK Windows 10 options and utilities

Syntax

To execute this command we must pay attention to its syntax:

chkdsk: /

Specifies the drive letter, mount point, or volume name. It must be followed by a colon.

We must write the parameter with a bar followed by its name or letter.

CHKDSK Windows 10 parameters

Filename (name of a file)

This option is only applicable to the FAT / FAT32 file system. We will be able to specify the files in which the fragmentation will be checked.

/?

Displays the help and options that the command has.

/F

By means of this parameter we will be able to correct the existing errors in the disk.

/ V

If we use it on an NTFS system, it shows cleaning run messages if any.

/ R

We will be able to find defective sectors of the hard disk and recover the information that is readable. (We must use it together with / F if / scan is not specified).

/ X

With this option we force the unit to be disassembled beforehand if necessary. (we must use it together with / F).

/ I

Applicable only for NTFS, using this option we perform a less exhaustive check of the index entries.

/ B

Only used with NTFS, in this case it re-evaluates the clusters that are defective in the selected drive (we must use it together with / R).

/ scan

Only applicable to NTFS systems. We will have the possibility to run an online exam in the unit. Very useful for intranets networks

/ spotfix

NTFS files only, performs a one-time fix for errors that were sent to the scan log on the previously unmounted drive.

/ scan / forceofflinefix

Again only usable with NTFS, after performing the online scan using / scan. all found defects are queued for offline repair.

/ scan / perf

NTFS files only - Uses more system resources to complete a scan as quickly as possible. This could adversely affect the performance of other tasks running on the system.

/ offlinescanandfix

We can run an exam and later repair offline on the unit

How to use CHKDSK

To execute this command we only have to go to the start menu and run the CMD with administrator permissions.

Once opened, we will write the command as we have indicated in the previous section. We can use several options consecutively, to get a complete analysis and repair of our hard drive. For example:

CHKDSK F: / f / r / x / v

Simultaneously we will be executing several of these options to achieve a better and more detailed result.

Another way in which we can execute CHKDSK is precisely through the execution sale.

To do this we go to the start menu and write "Run" once again we will have to have administrative permissions to perform these actions.

Error messages when running CHKDSK and solution

Sometimes you may get an error message during the execution of the command. Let's see some of the most common

The command does not run

We write CHKDSK in the start menu and it doesn't even run. As we have indicated, we must run it as an administrator, both from the start and in the run window.

Check the credentials of your user, if they are correct make sure to execute the command I'm an administrator.

CHKDSK cannot be executed because another process is already using the volume

This error appears when we try to run the command on a disk drive that is being used by other processes.

If the disk drive, for example, C: is running system processes and we try to apply the CHKDSK C: / f / r / x / v command it will show us this error almost certainly.

The command gives us the option of executing this command again when we are not using the unit, that is, when starting the system. we can choose yes (Y) or no (N).

The CHKDSK command is one of the most interesting and useful that has been available in Windows since its inception. With it you will not need the use of other external programs to preserve the proper functioning of our storage units.

To find out the different ways to use this command in Windows 10 visit our tutorial:

We hope you found this article on chkdsk useful. If you have any questions, leave your questions in the comments box, which we will answer as soon as possible.