Chkdsk startup options. Using CHKDSK

If you are looking for information about what chkdsk is, how to use it, it does not work for you or does not work correctly, then you are here.

Introduction

If you are looking for how to download chkdsk for free, without waiting and sms, without entering a number, then I'm afraid to upset that the chkdsk program is present by default in every system of the Windows family.

What is the ChkDsk program in general and what is it for?

Let's figure it out (referring to Wikipedia).

CHKDSK (short for check disk) - standard application in DOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems,

which checks the hard disk or floppy disk for file system errors (for example, the same sector is marked as belonging to two different files).

The CHKDSK utility can also fix found file system errors. Under Windows NT, Windows 2000 and

Windows XP, CHKDSK can also check the hard disk surface for bad sectors.

Sectors found are marked as bad and the system no longer tries to read or write to those sectors.

Previously, this task was performed by [SCANDISK]. On UNIX, the equivalent command is called fsck.

By default, CHKDSK does not fix errors or check the disk surface for bad sectors.

But more on that later. CHKDSK takes some time to complete - usually from a few minutes to several hours (depending on the hard disk, its size, and how busy it is).

Method 1. How to run Chkdsk from under Windows (for example, Windows 7 and Windows XP).

To begin with, running Chkdsk on Windows 7 is almost the same as running on Windows XP. The easiest way for the user to start the program is to go to the properties of the required drive, for example "C:", and go to the "Service" tab.

Then click "Check" and the Chkdsk window with a graphical interface will appear:

In the window, you can select scan options. One is responsible for correcting errors on the disk, and the other - detects bad sectors of the disk and repairs them, and specifies the correction of errors on the disk.

If you are checking a Windows partition (for example, the "C:" drive), you may receive a message about the impossibility of checking. (on win-xp there is a slightly different table, but with the same meaning):

This is normal and the check will be scheduled for the next run, i.e. will be performed when the computer is restarted.

If you have selected a different drive, then the check will occur from under Windows. P.S - In Windows 7 Service Pack 1, instead of OK there may be an inscription "Schedule disk check". This is how they translated it. The essence of the button remains the same.

Method 2. From the command line using the example of Windows XP

After crashes, unsuccessful shutdown of the computer, turning off the light, etc. we can observe the following picture during OS boot.

It means that a special program, Chkdsk, has been launched to search for and fix disk errors that might occur during a crash.

But there are also cases when there is an error on the disk, and Chkdsk did not start on its own. How do you run it to fix disk errors?

To do this, go to the "Start - Run" menu.

And we enter the command with the following parameters [volume:], where: [volume:] is the letter of the disk (partition); is the parameter that sets the correction of errors on the disk. The following command will be obtained: chkdsk with: / f

In my case, the "C:" drive is indicated. Accordingly, if you need to check another disk, for example "D:", then we indicate: "chkdsk d: / f" To check the disk must be locked, therefore, after running the command by clicking the OK button, the following window may appear, in which it is written:

"The Chkdsk command cannot be executed because the specified volume is in use by another process. Should this volume be checked the next time the system is rebooted?"

[Y (yes) / N (no)] "Press the Latin letter Y and Enter on the keyboard, and now the next time the computer boots, the chkds k command will check the specified disk for errors and fix them.

After rebooting, the following window will be shown:

It should also be added that the / f option is not the only option for the chkdsk command. There are others, but they are rarely used.

On the site you can also find all descriptions of the keys (parameters) of the command.

Their description is also presented below. The only parameter that can come in handy is the / r parameter, which detects bad sectors on the disk and restores the part of the data that can still be read. The command with this parameter will look like this: chkdsk c: / r To achieve the effect, you need to have administrator rights (!).

Method 3: How do I run Chkdsk if Windows cannot boot?

Imagine, one fine day, you are sitting at a computer, when suddenly there is a power surge, small, but the plugs are knocked out. Your computer hiccupped and shut down abruptly. Having adjusted the light, you turn it on, but that's bad luck, Windows won't boot! One of the options is that there was a failure on the main hard drive, which prevents the bootloader from working normally. How to fix it? "How do I start Chkdsk if Windows cannot boot?" - You ask. I will try to explain everything to you in this article.

First you need to insert your installation disc into your floppy drive before booting Windows. A message like this will appear:

* - BIOS settings "a are different on different computers, so your disk will boot automatically, or you will have to press a key for this (the most common is f12 or Del). Which key to press should be written as soon as your computer is turned on."

We press any key, the process of preparation for installation begins. After that, you will see the following:

Press [R] and go to the recovery console. From the list, select the item with your copy of Windows(I have only one - No. 1.)

If the administrator has a password (the most important hidden Account in XP) you will be asked to enter it (In my case it is there and I entered it):

It becomes possible to enter commands. Hooray. Let's take our time, let's enter the word HELP. Will appear whole list teams. For now, we only need the CHKDSK command.

Parameters are optional. If you need to make a not the most effective check for a short time, then feel free to type "CHKDSK" and press Enter.

But if you need an effective check (true for long time), then do not be too lazy to read to the end! So, let's take a look at all the parameters of this command before entering it.

To do this, we enter the command first "CHKDSK /?" Or "HELP CHKDSK".

As you can see, in the picture, the / R parameter includes the responsibilities of the / P parameter, so we will not consider / P.

Okay, let's not get too distracted and continue. After you have more or less figured out the command help, we can start practice.

Enter the command CHKDSK [drive:]. For example - "CHKDSK C: / R". If you only have one HDD, then [disk:] can be omitted (undesirable).

Everything! The verification and recovery process has started! We wait, drink tea and rejoice.

Console commands:

The command: CHKDSK [volume:] checks the specified disk using the Check Disk program, when called without arguments, the current disk is checked.

Drive into the console without brackets. Example: C: / F / R

• volume - defines the volume label of the checked disk, mount point or disk name with a colon (for example, C :);
• path, file name - the name of a file or a group of files to check for fragmentation. Used only in the FAT / FAT32 file system;
• / F - check for errors and fix them automatically;
• / V - display full paths and names of files stored on the disk during disk check. For drives containing NTFS partitions, cleanup messages are also displayed;
• / R - search for bad sectors and restore their contents. Requires the mandatory use of the / F key;
• / X - if necessary, unmount the volume before checking it. Once disabled, all current descriptors for this volume will be invalid. Requires the mandatory use of the / F key;
• / I - do not perform strict checking of index elements. Used only in the NTFS file system;
• / C - do not check for cycles inside the folder structure. Used only in the NTFS file system.
• / L: size - during the scan, resize the log file to the specified size (in kilobytes). If no value is specified, the current file size is displayed. Used only in the NTFS file system;

Developer errors in CHKDSK (!):

• The interface of this wizard can only be accessed on English language however, the automatic fix can be performed on other language versions of Windows as well.
• If you are downloading from a computer other than the one that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or CD so that it can run on the target computer.

How to forcibly remove / restore CHKDSK from startup?

Foreword:

Let's dot the i's and try not only to solve the problem point by point, but also to understand its essence (so as not to step on the same rake in the future).

And the problem is the following: Every time the system boots, a disk check comes out. I can’t name the exact reason, since this problem has several of them.

Most likely - your hard drive is slowly dying, or there is simply a system failure. The fact is that when the computer is turned on, its kernel is loaded first, and then the system itself.

So, at each boot, the Autochk.exe program is called by the kernel, which checks hard drives for the "Dirty bit" mark (see Wikipedia).

If such a mark is present, then Autochk.exe runs the chkdsk / f command, which is executed on the marked volume.

So is it possible to forcibly disable chkdsk from the so-called autorun at all? The answer is yes. You can do this in the following way.

I want to warn you right away - disabling autorun CHKDSK deprives you of control over the integrity of your file system, which can lead to consequences!

1. First you need to run the registry editor. Standard way:

3. Find “BootExecute” and erase its contents.

Autocheck autochk *

Method 2. Softer shutdown

1. Go to RegEdit

2. Go back to the section

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager

3. To your autocheck autochk * entry in the BootExecute parameter, before the * sign, add “/ k: C” without quotes. Where C: is the letter of your drive for which you want to disable checking. It should now look like this: autocheck autochk / k: C *.

If you have multiple volumes, add spaces separated by the right amount entries “/ k: C”, where C is the desired volume letter. For example: autocheck autochk / k: C / k: D / k: E *.

That is, I disabled automatic CHKDSK checking for volumes C :, D :, and E :.

How to get everything back?

1. Go to RegEdit

2. Go back to the section

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager

3. In the BootExecute parameter, erase everything that was and write:

Autocheck autochk *

or whatever was there originally. It is assumed that such a record was before you even got there. If you have a saved copy of the original record, which I wrote about in the first method, then write it.

Operating Windows systems equipped with internal means for emergency diagnosis of problems and their subsequent elimination. If the user does not have the opportunity to use the additional software, and standard OS tools do not help, you can use the chkdsk command. The command and the utility it runs show excellent efficiency on Windows crashes.

Launching via "Disk Properties"

If the OS is stable enough, the utility can be run in windowed mode... On different versions Windows has practically no differences in starting from the "Disk Properties":

The system will prompt you to restart your PC. During boot, the system disk check will start. If the user has checked the appropriate boxes, Windows will fix the damaged files and sectors.

Run from the command line

The command line is enabled either by the Win + R keyboard shortcut, or in the start menu, where there is a search bar (you need to enter the query "cmd"). Run command line needed only on behalf of the Administrator.

In the black window that opens, enter the command "chkdsk C: / F", press the enter key.

• С: - the name of the disk to check, can be changed;
• / F - the type of operation that the utility will perform.

If launched from the command line, the scan starts immediately, without restarting the PC.

How to start if Windows won't boot

Some critical errors, unsuccessful updates and operations lead to the fact that the operating system cannot fully turn on. No safe mode nor running the latest workable version helps. In this case, you should:

1. Connect a bootable disk or USB flash drive with Windows to your computer;
2. Enter the BIOS and set it to start not from the hard drive, but from the connected media;
3. Start the device;
4. In the OS installation menu that opens, find the "System Restore" button, press;
5. Click "Next" when the program prompts you to use the OS recovery tools;
6. Click "Command line" in the window that opens.

When the command line opens in front of the user, you need to use the algorithm from the previous section - enter the chkdsk command and wait for system diagnostics / troubleshooting.

CHKDSK parameters

The / F value is not the only possible command parameter:

• / F - diagnostics and repair of failures on the specified disk;
• / V - displays a message about cleaning or the full path for each file on the disk;
• / R - search and restore bad sectors of the hard disk;
• / X - forced disconnection of the disk;
• / I - decreasing the criticality of the file evaluation during diagnostics;
• / B - reevaluation of clusters considered damaged;
• / spotfix - spot fixing of errors;
• / sdcleanup - collection and removal of unnecessary files;
• / offlinescanandfix - offline check, fix errors in the specified drive;
• / markclean - marks the disk as clean if no errors were found during the check.

It is not necessary to run the utility multiple times if the user needs to perform different functions. The command might look like this: "chkdsk C: / F / R". Utility parameters are added and removed as needed.

How to remove CHKDSK startup from OS startup

If the utility has completed its functions, but it continues to run every time the PC boots, it can be disabled in the Windows registry:

1. Open the Registry Editor, type "regedit" in the Start menu search;
2. Follow the path "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager";
3. In the right part of the window, find the "bootexecute" parameter, double-click on it;
4. Enter the value autocheck autochk / k: C *, save.

Chkdsk (Chkdsk.exe) is a command line utility on Windows systems that checks disk volumes for file system problems and errors. This tool can also try to fix any errors it finds. For example, chkdsk can fix problems with bad sectors, orphaned clusters, and orphaned files and directories. By the way, I recently wrote about the features of c. However, the automatic check of the file system by the chkdsk utility, when the PC restarts incorrectly, annoys some users. And in principle, such a check can be disabled (although it is not recommended - after all, you lose control over the integrity of your file system).

To disable automatic disk check on Windows startup, go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager

In the right pane, double click on the key BootExecute... The default value for this key is autocheck autochk *

* means that each disk is checked for consistency (integrity, consistency). Just add the "/ K: C" option before *. The / K switch disables automatic checking of the C: drive when Windows boots. So, the final value of the BootExecute registry key should look like this:

autocheck autochk / k: C *

If you want to disable checking on other drives as well (for example, on drives C: and D :), use the following key:

autocheck autochk / k: C / k: D *

If you want to revert everything back, just replace the parameter value with:

autocheck autochk *

In the event that you did not find the specified key in the registry, you can disable disk check at boot using the utility chkntfs(switch / x). To do this, open a command prompt with administrator rights and type the command:

chkntfs / x d: e:

Then restart your PC. The specified command will exclude the D: and E: drives from the automatic disk check at boot procedure. If you need to exclude other drives, just change the command to include the appropriate drive name.

The chkntfs / d command returns the original settings (all system disks are checked at boot, and Chkdsk starts only for disks with errors).

In any case, if you disable the check of disks at boot, you must periodically check them manually. You can check the status of the disk in this way:

Message F: is not dirty indicates that there are no errors on the disk and it does not need to be checked.

Nowadays, the computer is perceived as an ordinary one. Appliances, whose presence in every home no longer surprises anyone. But this was not always the case. Surely most of the readers will remember what a miracle quite recently was their own computer, which cost like a car.

And it doesn't matter that its power was sometimes enough only for the most primitive toys, but you could spend hours studying its "guts" and getting to know the principles of equipment operation. As a result, in those years there were few PC owners who did not know at least the most elementary principles of caring for it.

Unfortunately, the current generation of users is often not so "savvy" in these matters, and therefore even basic problems cause them panic. Do you know what kind of window sometimes appears at system startup? If you understand something in the English dialect, you probably noticed that you can press the "C" button to cancel some

This is the CHKDSK program. What is it and what is it for?

Basic information

You should start from afar. If you have at least a basic understanding of the organization of data storage on hard drives, then you also know about the possibility of various kinds of errors. They appear for various reasons, but the result is the same - data corruption and the need to format the media.

Of course, it does not always come to such dire consequences, but anything happens. It is to prevent such cases that the CHKDSK utility is needed. What is this program? Simply put, this application responsible for checking the hard disk for logical and physical errors, as well as for correcting them.

The program is included in all versions of Windows, and therefore there is no need to install it separately.

What is done with physically damaged sectors?

If you read carefully, you were probably surprised to find information on correcting even physical errors on the surface of hard drives. No, the program does not send nanorobots there, but it can mark "bad" areas with a special marker.

As a result, the OS no longer writes any information to these cells. We remind you that for doing this work in early OS versions from Microsoft the SCANDISK utility answered.

In general, if you run the utility with the checkbox on detecting and fixing physical errors selected, be prepared to wait a long time. It is best to leave this operation overnight without touching the computer while it is in progress.

We run a check on Windows XP / 7

First, we prefer the simplest way... Launching the program in this way will not be difficult at all. To do this, go to My Computer, right-click on the disk you need to check, and select Properties in the context menu.

It will open in which you need the "Service" tab. There is an item "Check disk for errors". Click on the corresponding button, after which the utility we need is launched. Check the boxes you need, and then click on the "Start" button.

Possible problems

Attention! Difficulties of all kinds are not uncommon. The peculiarity of Windows is that when the disk used by some application cannot be checked. In this case, a dialog box will appear in which the user will be prompted to postpone the disk check until the next restart of the computer.

Remember how we talked about this at the very beginning of the article? The moment you start your computer and the CHKDSK text interface appears. We have already figured out what it is. If the drive you have chosen is not a system drive, then the check will be performed from under the Windows operating system itself.

Some nuances of Windows XP

In our country, to this day, it often happens that in the midst of the working day, suddenly disappears Electric Energy online. Computers are shutting down in an emergency, the file system is in a deplorable state ...

Naturally, at the next reboot, the disk check program should be launched, but with the old XP, this does not always go smoothly. Even if at the start of the system CHKDSK (which we have already found out) did not start automatically, it is better to start it forcibly.

The fact is that errors in the file system (and they almost always appear during an emergency shutdown) can manifest themselves suddenly and completely unexpectedly. This can be expressed in inappropriate behavior of the OS, in crashes and incorrect operation of applications.

Run from the command line

We have already described above the simplest way, with which you can run such a useful utility. But we would recommend doing it in emulation mode. For what?

The fact is that from under the graphical shell, the program can start only with two main parameters: correcting logical or physical problems with the hard drive. And in the command line mode, you can adjust almost dozens of parameters.

Of course, for novice users, all this is unnecessary, but over time you will still come to the need to use advanced settings.

Enough words, it's time to get down to business. How do you start the command line? To do this, you need to click on the "Start" button, find the "Run" item there. Click on it, after which a field for entering commands will appear in front of you. You need to insert something like this into it: chkdsk with: / f.

Detailed information on launch parameters

How will CHKDSK run in this case? The parameters in this case are set with the letter "F". It means that the utility will detect and fix only logical errors on the hard drive. If you put the / v parameter (chkdsk with: / v) there, the utility will pre-display all the directories that will be checked.

In the case when you are interested in finding and repairing bad sectors of the hard drive, put in the final part of the command / r. The value of this parameter is that the utility begins not only to search for such problems, but also tries to save the data that is still possible to read from bad sections.

Important!

The last operation is possible only (!) With a locked disk. Accordingly, in normal conditions from under Windows itself, this command cannot be executed. To correct this omission, issue the command as follows: chkdsk with: / x / r.

You can use this technique only (!) On disks with the NTFS file system. The / x parameter in this case locks the hard drive, after which the program can continue to work. By the way, the same command makes full use of the / f functionality, so if you need to correct the same logical errors, you should not re-write it.

It often happens that there is not enough time to carry out technological operations. Is there any way to shorten the CHKDSK runtime? The parameters allow it. It is enough to enter this into the command line: chkdsk with: / i. In this case, the check will be performed with a less thorough check of the index records.

Attention! This option should also only be used with NTFS drives. So before running the CHKDSK utility, we strongly recommend that you double-check everything.

It must be remembered that there are many commands and conditions for their use. To fully characterize all of them, the volume of this article is clearly not enough. If you want to know more about some parameters, use the following command: chkdsk with: / ?. In this case, quite detailed help will appear on the command line.

Important note

While reading this article, you have come across some comments more than once. In a word, one more morality will definitely not hurt! The fact is that beginners often fail to use any command, since the OS displays messages like: "Access is denied."

What happened? It's simple - your account does not have the required rights. Yes, the vast majority of domestic users constantly work under the "Administrator", but in Windows latest version(since Vista), there is quite good "foolproofing".

All actions that, even in the long term, can harm the system, must be run with built-in administrator rights. To get at your disposal the "administrator" command line, you need to perform a few simple operations.

Before starting the CHKDSK program with extended privileges, you must click on the "Start" button, and write CMD in the "Search" field. A list of found files with this name will open in the right part of the window. Click on the first (as a rule, there will be no more) with the right mouse button, in the context menu that opens, select the item "Run as administrator".

Everything! After that, you can check the disk with the keys that are necessary to perform the type of check you need.

If the problems are more serious ...

All this is good, but how to start the CHKDSK program if Windows itself refuses to start at all? Alas, in this case, you cannot do without the original boot disk from which you installed the OS.

Insert it into the drive, reboot into the BIOS, set it to start from the CD there. After that, reboot again, wait for the first inscriptions to appear. In Windows XP, to exit to the console, you need to press the "R" key, and in Vista / 7/8 - select the item of the same name in the graphical menu.

When you go to the console, you will be asked for the Windows number for which you would like to use the CHKDSK utility. How to run the required one? To do this, you need to enter the number under which it appears in the above list, and then press Enter.

If your account is protected by a password, you will need to enter that as well. Everything. Then you can use the CHKDSK command. How to run it with the parameters you need? It's simple. To do this, you should use the keys that we already wrote about above.

Another important note

Everything would be fine, but owners of OS 2003, XP and Vista should be on the alert: Microsoft reports that the disk check utility on these systems contains a critical error. In some cases, it manifests itself, after which a message is displayed stating that "descriptors are not supported", or "CHKDSK is corrupted."

Until relatively recently, there was no solution to the problem, and therefore it was often necessary to completely reinstall the system. Currently, the support team advises using a small utility secedit, which, even after XP support ends, is available on the official Microsoft website.

Unfortunately, even its application does not guarantee anything. In particular, problems with starting services are often observed, and the program itself can simply crash without explaining the reasons. Sometimes launching it from under the administrator helps (as we already wrote about above). Most often, the CHKDSK error will continue to "please" you until you reinstall Windows.

Watch the installed programs!

We should not forget that not only in life, but also in your computer, everything is interconnected. On all the thematic resources, how many times have users been told that in no case should they install applications from dubious sources, but few people pay attention to these warnings.

If, after installing a utility, a disk check (CHKDSK) starts when Windows starts, then this clearly indicates that something is wrong with this program. It is possible that her installer is written crookedly. There is also a possibility that it was simply not installed very correctly.

In this case, you can recommend reinstalling the program, and to remove it, it is better to use specialized utilities (Revo Uninstaller Pro, for example), which can completely remove all traces of an unsuccessful installation.

How to remove check disk from startup?

It so happens that on a completely stable system, on which nothing new has been installed for a long time, with each launch a rather annoying window of this utility begins to appear. As we said, there can be many reasons. It is possible that with the help of Windows CHKDSK you are giving desperate signals from a hard drive, which is on the very brink of painful death.

Be that as it may, this program can be removed from startup. Attention! You do this solely at your own peril and risk!

First, click on the "Start" button, look for "Run" there, and then enter the Regedit command. The Registry Editor dialog box opens, in which you need to find the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager key. Go into it, look for the BootExecute item, and then completely overwrite all its contents. Click on the "OK" button, exit and reboot. As a rule, extraneous windows no longer appear when loading.

Here is CHKDSK. You already know how to start Windows 7 without it.

Crashes in running Windows, emergency shutdown of the computer's power, experiments with software for managing disk space, the consequences of viruses penetration - these and other problems can lead to the automatic launch of the standard Windows utility Chkdsk, designed to fix errors in the file system of hard drives. Incorrectly completed work operating system with files leads to the appearance of errors in the file system, and sometimes to its damage altogether.

In case of emergency, the Chkdsk utility automatically turns on before Windows starts, scans disk partitions and fixes errors. However, the fact that there are problems with the file system may not make itself felt in any way when normal use computer and only show up when trying to manage disk space. So, for example, trying to shrink a disk partition using standard Windows tools, we may receive the following notification: “It is possible that the volume selected for compression is damaged. Use Chkdsk to troubleshoot and then try shrinking the volume again. "

In this case, the disc check does not start automatically. How to start Chkdsk manually in Windows 7, 8.1 and 10? How can I use Chkdsk to fix disk errors if this particular problem is causing the operating system to fail to boot?

Inside Windows, the Chkdsk utility can be run in several ways.

1. Launching Chkdsk using the Windows GUI

To run Chkdsk, in the system explorer on drive C, right-click and open "Properties".

In the window of the opened properties of the disk partition, go to the "Service" tab, and in it click the "Check" button (or "Run check" for Windows 7).

In versions of Windows 8.1 and 10, if everything is in order with the file system of the disk, in the window that appears next, we will see a notification that verification is not required. But if you want to check the disk using the Chkdsk utility, you can start by clicking "Check Disk".

If the system suspects the existence of file system errors, this window will contain a button for starting a disk check and repair.

For Chkdsk to work with respect to drive C, you must restart your computer. This can be done immediately, or you can postpone the start of the scan until the next reboot.

After restarting the computer, we will be able to observe the work of Chkdsk.

In Windows 7, the launch of Chkdsk is slightly different: to the pre-installed automatic error correction option, you can add another possible option - check and repair bad sectors of the hard disk. When activating this option, it is worth considering that in this case, the work of Chkdsk may take longer.

As with Windows 8.1 and 10, in version 7, the system C drive cannot be checked under a running operating system. To start the scan, you need to restart your computer. Click "Schedule disk check".

When checking a non-system partition of a disk, if it is used by some programs, the situation is simpler than with the system partition. In the notification window that the drive is in this moment is used, you just need to click the "Disable" button to, respectively, disable this section for the duration of the check.

2. Launching Chkdsk from the command line

To start Chkdsk using the command line, first, respectively, run the latter.

In the command line, enter a command of the type:

In this command, instead of drive C, each time we substitute the letter of the desired partition on which verification is required. If Chkdsk needs to check the system C partition, as with the graphical interface, a computer restart will be required. After a message appears in the command line about the impossibility of locking the specified disk, you need to enter "Y", then restart the computer.

In addition to the / f parameter, which is responsible for fixing disk errors, Chkdsk can be run with the / r parameter, which is designed to find bad sectors and recover data. As a result of Chkdsk's work with this parameter, hard disk clusters with unreadable sectors will be listed as damaged (bad blocks) with the transfer of their functions to a new cluster. Therefore, it is recommended to run Chkdsk with the / r parameter only when the usual error correction - running the utility with the / f parameter - did not bring the desired results. Using the example of the same drive C, the command will look like this:

3. Running Chkdsk in non-bootable Windows

If Windows freezes at a certain stage of the boot, one of the possible reasons this problem is a file system error. In this case, you need to start Chkdsk by booting from the rescue media. As such, you can use a regular installation media with Windows versions 7, 8.1 or 10. With its help, we will run the Chkdsk utility inside the command line. At the first stage of starting the system installation process, press the command line launch keys - Shift + F10.

In the command line that opens, before running the Chkdsk command, you need to specify what letters are used to define the disk partitions. It's easy to do this with notepad. Run it with the command:

Click the notepad menu "File", then - "Open".

In the explorer that opens, we remember the new designations of the disks. As a rule, in Windows 8.1 and 10, the partition of the C drive (as it is inside a working operating system) is listed as D, since the letter C is given to the first technical section of the system. And all other sections are offset by one letter of the alphabet.

Having decided on the letters of the disk partitions, close the notebook, then, returning to the command line, enter a command of this type:

As with working with Chkdsk inside Windows, you must first try to fix disk errors by running the utility with the / f parameter. And only if the problem is not solved, only then we run the command with the / r parameter, as indicated in the previous paragraph of the article.

For cases of inability to boot Windows, you can pre-burn an emergency Live-disc with a selection of various tools to restore the operating system. These include, for example, the WinPE-based AdminPE. Its image for burning to disk or USB flash drive can be downloaded from the official website of the Adminpe.Ru project. With AdminPE, you can start a command prompt and enter the Chkdsk startup commands discussed above. But in this Live-disk, the Chkdsk utility has its own interface and is launched using a script. The shortcut for launching the utility has been moved directly to the desktop.

In the drop-down list for checking the disk, select the desired disk partition. Next, activate the checkboxes for recovering damaged sectors and forcibly disconnecting the partition (volume). Launches the check.

The AdminPE toolkit includes a number of other utilities for working with hard drives, as well as the well-known Hard Disk Sentinel and Victoria programs.