This guide shows you how to use the Check Disk tool in Windows Vista.
Introduction
Many errors in Windows are caused by corrupt files. Those files could have become corrupt because of errors on your hard drive. The Check Disk tool checks for errors and attempts to fix any it finds.
Warning: Use Check Disk at your own risk. On rare occasions I’ve experienced problems when using check disk in Windows Vista. Here are a few things to watch out for:
- If you run check disk and your computer has to be restarted to scan your computer and your computer hangs at a black screen when it boots up, do the following:
Turn the computer off and back on and immediately start pressing F8 on your keyboard repeatedly. A black screen with different boot options will appear. Select to use the Last known good configuration (advanced) boot option.
- Never stop check disk once it has started. It could take hours to days to scan your hard drive depending on its size.
How-to Use Check Disk
Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)
- Open the Start Menu and click Computer.
- Right-click the drive you want to perform a check disk on and select Properties.
- Click the Tools tab in the drive Properties window.
- Click Check Now under error checking.
- To perform a complete check of your hard drive for errors check off both options in the check disk window that pops up.
- Click the Start button to start the process.
- If you are trying to check a hard drive that has open files you’ll get a message similar to the one shown below.
Click Schedule disk check. Disk check can’t check a hard drive that has open files. Your computer will reboot and check the disk before Windows Vista boots up. If you want to cancel the scheduled disk check for any reason, check out this guide.
Using the Command Line Interface
Check Disk can also be run using the command line (DOS) prompt.
- Open the command prompt with administrative privileges by typing cmd in the search box in the Start Menu and right-click cmd.exe in the search results and then select Run as Administrator.
- Type chkdsk followed by one or a combination of switches listed below in the command prompt.
If you run the check disk (chkdsk) command from the command prompt by typing just chkdsk check disk will run in read only mode. All it does is check for errors. It will not fix any errors it finds unless told to do so. This is done by adding switches when typing chkdsk in the command prompt.
A switch looks something like chkdsk /F. Notice the switch /F after the chkdsk command.
Below is a list of most of the switches used with the check disk command. You can use one or a combination of switches with the check disk command.
D: If you want check disk to scan a drive other than the C: drive, add the drive letter after chkdsk to tell it to scan that drive. If the drive is called X: on your computer it would look like chkdsk X:.
/F: The /F switch is the most common of the chkdsk switches. It tells chkdsk to fix any errors it finds. Chkdsk can’t fix errors on a disk that has open files. If chkdsk asks you if you want to check the drive next time Windows Vista boots or dismount the drive choose to check the drive next time Windows Vista boots. Never choose to dismount the drive. That option should only be used by a professional.
/R: The /R switch tells chkdsk to attempt to recover any bad sectors of the hard drive if any are found. A bad sector is a spot on the hard drive that can’t hold saved data anymore.
/I: The /I switch tells chkdsk to perform a less detailed but faster disk check.
/C: The /C switch tells chkdsk to skip the checking of cycles within a folder structure which reduces the scan time. Don’t ask me what this means.
An example of an exhaustive disk check using the command line interface is:
chkdsk D: /F /R
The check disk command shown above will fix any errors it finds and also attempt to recover bad sectors of the D: drive if any are found.
By Andrew on July 28th, 2007 at 5:25 am #
omg, thank you very much. lol, i didn’t know how to actually make chkdsk fix my drive. THANK YOU!!!
By ex_paranoia on August 3rd, 2007 at 6:26 pm #
after scheduling chkdsk when i reboot no chkdsk happens..why is it like that?
By Brent Trahan on August 3rd, 2007 at 6:36 pm #
What version of Windows are you using and exactly how are you trying to schedule chkdsk? The more information you give me the better of a chance I can help you.
By keith on December 30th, 2007 at 4:38 pm #
restart pressing F8 to get into the boot options
choose the repair option (should be the first one)
choose a keyboard layout (just hit enter)
select a user and enter the password
choose to open a command prompt
type “chkdsk c: /f” without the quotes where “c:” is the drive/partition in question
once complete type “exit”
click restart/reboot
By Chris on February 27th, 2008 at 5:16 pm #
Great, I didn’t have to run a check disk since w98 and both forgot how to do it and how to do it with Vista. Like the two levels description.
Ta.
By Dave Lightfoot on April 12th, 2008 at 6:31 pm #
Thank you . . Thank you . . Thank you . . 1,000 times Thank you . . Until I found this site my new laptop was horribly locked up. Its all good now
By Chris on May 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am #
Can I hit F8 to bypass chkdsk at boot up? If so once I bypass it how do I disable it from doing it again when I reboot my system?
By Brent Trahan on May 15th, 2008 at 11:34 am #
Check out this guide:
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/stop-a-scheduled-disk-check/
By Tim Nicholson on July 11th, 2008 at 8:11 am #
When I schedule the chkdsk at next boot, it still indicates the file system is NTFS and the disk is locked and it can’t perform the check. I thought the chkdsk was suppose to run before Windows started up. I suppose it must be using *some* files on the disk at that point. But wouldn’t pretty much everyone with a factory-shipped configuration of 1 large hard disk partition have this issue? So how are others able to successfully fix their hard disks?
Is there the equivalent to a DOS Boot Disk for Windows Vista? Some files that can be burnt to a CD (or in my case thrown on an external hard drive) and you boot to a command prompt from there and run the chkdsk command?
By Brent Trahan on July 11th, 2008 at 8:23 am #
What it’s telling you is the disk is locked because it’s in use and the next time Windows boots up the disk will be checked before Windows is loaded.
By Yoru on August 13th, 2008 at 1:52 pm #
How long could it conceivably take for check disk to run on vista home premium with a 720g raid 5 array? It goes through all the check and repair stages ok but seems to hang at the free space stage 5 of 5. I can’t cancel it as the keyboard is deactivated during for some reason even though it works for in the bios screen before check disk starts.
By jeezaa on October 21st, 2008 at 11:49 am #
“Never choose to dismount the drive. That option should only be used by a professional.”
The best thing on Unix based OS is, that you don’t need HDD - you can run only on RAM memory.
By Maria Rouse on October 29th, 2008 at 10:37 pm #
thanks so much;went to run ckdsk but said I didn’t have authority to run it. Your instructions helped with everythign. I have now run chkdisk on the two drives I needed repaired and looked at
thanks so much
Maria
MO
By Gerard Espinas on November 28th, 2008 at 7:25 am #
Very Useful Article. Thanks a lot.
By chris on November 28th, 2008 at 8:07 pm #
I’m not even sure that check disc is what i need to do but i tried it and after i restarted it didn’t come up and now the command prompt isnt even comming up.
By Ritinuech on December 21st, 2008 at 11:02 am #
I think the HD I’m working on for a friend is shot. Has real problem booting. Gets to desktop about every 3rd try. HP Advisor says bad block in boot sector is the issue. I decided to run chkdsk /f on it. Been running for over 24 hours and still stuck at exactly 20% completion of stage 4 of 5. HD light alternates between short blips and longer blips coming in series. How long should I allow this to continue with reasonable hope of soloution? I read that chkdsk should not be halted. However what more harm than irreparable can there be? Will CNTRL C halt the program? Just power down? How long is long enough to assume defeat?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I know a little about PC’s but I’ll never know enough.
By Brandon on December 25th, 2008 at 11:52 pm #
When i start up my computer again it doesn’t perform the disk check?!
Information:
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
Bit: 32bit OS
Laptop Brand: Lenovo
Processor: Intel Celeron 1.73ghz