Inbuilt Error/Disk checker in Windows

[billubakra]

Hi Guys,


How to check drives and whole HDD for errors with the inbuilt MS error/disk checker? I am talking about the checker/tool which auto starts after the PC is started just after an electricity cut. It checks each drive in a cmd type screen. Google is telling me to use some 3rd party softwares for the same. But I am looking for the inbuilt tool for xp and 10. Where is it located?


Thanks

 

[patkim]

On XP try the following.
1. Right click the drive to be scanned in Windows Explorer left pane.
2. Go to Properties and select Tools Tab
3. Select Error Checking -> Check Now

If the drive is in use, system will prompt you to restart to proceed with Scan. If drive is not is use it will be scanned immediately.

Further explore CHKDSK command from command line. How it works.
This is for a Drive not for entire Disk. Similar option might exist in Win 10 too. Check it out.

Additionally on XP (Not sure about Win10) you can use FSUTIL Command line tool to force Dirty Flag on drives as Yes. This will force Windows to scan all those drives with Dirty Flag set as Yes to scan during restart. However I personally do not recommend using this procedure as you may need to manually clear the Dirty Flag. More on FSUTIL
here Fsutil: dirty

*image.ibb.co/iXEQVv/chkdsk.jpg

 

[billubakra]

On XP try the following.
1. Right click the drive to be scanned in Windows Explorer left pane.
2. Go to Properties and select Tools Tab
3. Select Error Checking -> Check Now

If the drive is in use, system will prompt you to restart to proceed with Scan. If drive is not is use it will be scanned immediately.

Further explore CHKDSK command from command line. How it works.
This is for a Drive not for entire Disk. Similar option might exist in Win 10 too. Check it out.

Additionally on XP (Not sure about Win10) you can use FSUTIL Command line tool to force Dirty Flag on drives as Yes. This will force Windows to scan all those drives with Dirty Flag set as Yes to scan during restart. However I personally do not recommend using this procedure as you may need to manually clear the Dirty Flag. More on FSUTIL
here Fsutil: dirty

*image.ibb.co/iXEQVv/chkdsk.jpg

Thanks. Can't we select the whole disk for error checking instead of selecting a drive one by one? Is the procedure same for an external HDD or a pendrive? What is the sign that a disk needs error checking? Can we run the same on a drive with recovery?

 

[patkim]

I am not aware if there’s a built-in way in Windows to check the whole disk. That’s usually a low level operation.

You can however create a script with CHKDSK covering each drive letter. Use /F parameter with CHKDSK else it could restrict the check only at OS level.

Window disk checking can be invoked even for external drives too. Usually drive/partition should be mapped to a drive letter or a mount point.

If you have a Recovery partition on Windows that’s unmapped & hidden in Disk Management Console, you should first use built-in DISKPART tool to map it to a drive letter or mount point and then invoke CHKDSK.

Usually you can run check disk after instances like recovery from system hangs/freeze or any file I/O errors etc.

Come what may, you may want to use a third party tool to regularly check the SMART parameters of the HDD. If your BIOS/UEFI has an option to check for SMART at the time of boot, you can enable that option too.

 

[billubakra]

I am not aware if there’s a built-in way in Windows to check the whole disk. That’s usually a low level operation.

You can however create a script with CHKDSK covering each drive letter. Use /F parameter with CHKDSK else it could restrict the check only at OS level.

Window disk checking can be invoked even for external drives too. Usually drive/partition should be mapped to a drive letter or a mount point.

If you have a Recovery partition on Windows that’s unmapped & hidden in Disk Management Console, you should first use built-in DISKPART tool to map it to a drive letter or mount point and then invoke CHKDSK.

Usually you can run check disk after instances like recovery from system hangs/freeze or any file I/O errors etc.

Come what may, you may want to use a third party tool to regularly check the SMART parameters of the HDD. If your BIOS/UEFI has an option to check for SMART at the time of boot, you can enable that option too.

Like CrystalDiskInfo Shizuku Edition? I just use it to check the health status of the hdd's.