It’s part of good housekeeping, keeping data organised and freeing up space, whilst maintaining the health of a hard drive. Even when a PC won’t boot, CHKDSK can scan for bad sectors and fix a hard drive.
Run CHKDSK from File Explorer
Open File Explorer and select this PC. Right click Local Disk (C:\) and select Properties. Navigate to Tools and click Check. Where there are no errors, a prompt will say the hard drive doesn’t need scanning. When finished CHKDSK will show any errors that were repaired.
Run CHKDSK from Command Prompt
Type cmd (Command Prompt) from the Start menu search bar and Run as administrator. Type chkdsk to start the scan. This won’t try to fix them automatically. Here is a list of commands to fix errors
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Command
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Function
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chkdsk
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Checks your hard disk drive for errors. This does not attempt to fix them.
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chkdsk [drive letter]:
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Specifies which drive (internal or external) or drive partition to scan. Replace [drive letter] with the drive you want to scan - for example, chkdsk C: scans your C drive.
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chkdsk /f
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Attempts to fix errors while scanning your hard drive’s file system.
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chkdsk /r
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Attempts to repair sectors on your hard drive so that they're readable within the file system. This command also runs the chkdsk /f functionality, which is a deeper check.
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chkdsk /f /r
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Does the same thing as chkdsk /r.
So running chkdsk /f /r isn’t necessary.
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chkdsk /x
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Disconnects a drive so it can be scanned and repaired.
This command also runs the chkdsk /f functionality.
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chkdsk /f /r /x
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Scans the file system, its sectors, and fixes any errors it finds with the same command. If necessary, it also disconnects the drive first.
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/scan
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Runs an online scan of the hard drive (both internal and external), which means you can continue using the drive while the scan is in progress.
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Run CHKDSK from installation media
If a computer won’t boot, or there’s a blue screen on start up, CHKDSK can be run from an external USB drive. Insert your bootable Windows installation media and press F8 multiple times. When prompted select Repair your computer then Troubleshoot and Advanced. Select the drive or partition to be tested (normally C:\). Use the commands prompts (above) as necessary.
Further reading
Should I disable TRIM on my SSD
Hard drive clicking?
How to make your Mac run faster