CHKDSK - what is this? The CHKDSK utility. CHKDSK - how to start?

In our time, the computer is perceived as ordinary household appliances, the presence of which in each house no one surprises. But it was not always so. Surely most readers will remember what a miracle quite recently had their own computer, which cost as a car.

And it does not matter that his power was sometimes enough only for the most primitive toys, but you could spend hours studying his "giblets" and getting acquainted with the principles of the equipment. As a result, in those years there were few PC owners who did not know even the most elementary principles of caring for it.

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

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

Basic information

To begin follows from afar. In case you have at least basic concepts about the organization of data storage on hard disks, then you also know about the possibility of various errors. They appear for various reasons, but the result is one - data corruption and the need to format the media.

Of course, to such serious consequences, it does not always happen, but everything happens. It is to prevent such cases and need the utility CHKDSK. What is this program? Simply put, this application is responsible for checking the hard drive for logical and physical errors, as well as for their correction.

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

What is done with physically damaged sectors?

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

As a result, the OS no longer writes any information to these cells. We remind you that the SCANDISK utility responded to this work in earlier versions of the operating system from Microsoft.

In general, if you run the utility with the checkbox on detecting and fixing physical errors, prepare to wait a long time. It is best to leave this operation for the night without touching the computer during its execution.

Run the scan on Windows XP / 7

First, we prefer the simplest path. It is absolutely easy to run the program in this way. To do this, go to My Computer, right-click on the disk that you want to scan, and select Properties from the shortcut menu.

A dialog box opens, in which you need the "Tools" tab. There is an item "Checking the disk for errors". Click on the corresponding button, after which the necessary utility is launched. Put the flags you need, then click on the "Start" button.

Possible problems

Attention! It is not so rare and there are various kinds of difficulties. The peculiarity of Windows is that when a disk used by some application can not be checked. In this case, a dialog box appears in which the user will be asked to defer the disk check until the next computer restart.

Do you remember how at the very beginning of the article we talked about this? At the moment when you start your computer, and the text interface CHKDSK appears. We have already found out what it is. If the disk you choose is not a system drive, then the test will be performed from under the Windows operating system itself.

Some nuances of Windows XP

In our country and to this day it often happens that in the heat of the working day, the electrical energy in the network suddenly disappears. Computers are disconnected in emergency order, the file system comes to a deplorable state ...

Naturally, the next reboot should run the disk checker, but with the old XP this does not always happen smoothly. Even if at the start of the CHKDSK system (which we already found out), it did not start automatically, it's better to run it forcibly.

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

Run from the command line

Above we have already described the simplest way with which you can run such a useful utility. But we would recommend doing this in command line emulation mode . For what?

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

Of course, beginners do not need all this, but eventually you will still need to use advanced settings.

Enough words, it's time to go. How do I run the command line? To do this, click on the "Start" button, find the "Run" item there. Click on it, and then you will see a field for entering commands. It needs to insert something like this: chkdsk with: / f.

Detailed information on startup parameters

How in this case will the program CHKDSK be launched? Parameters in this case are given by the letter "F". It means that the utility will detect and fix only logical errors on the hard disk. If you also put the parameter / v (chkdsk with: / v), then the utility will pre-display all the directories that will be checked.

In the case where you are interested in finding and repairing the damaged sectors of the hard drive, put the / r command at the end of the command. The value of this parameter is that the utility starts not only searching for this kind of problems, but also tries to save from the bad sectors those data that can still be read.

Important!

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

Use this method can only (!) On disks with the NTFS file system. The parameter / x in this case blocks the hard drive, after which the program can continue to work. By the way, the same command fully uses the / f functional, 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 for technological operations. Can I somehow shorten the duration of the utility CHKDSK? The parameters allow this. It is enough to enter into the command line this: chkdsk with: / i. In this case, the verification will be performed with less thorough verification of index entries.

Attention! This option should also be used only with disks on the NTFS file system. So before you run the CHKDSK utility, we strongly recommend that you double-check everything.

It must be remembered that there are a lot of teams and conditions for using them. To fully characterize them all, the scope of this article is clearly not enough. If you want to learn more about some parameters in detail, use the following command: chkdsk with: / ?. In this case, a very detailed help will appear on the command line.

Important note

Reading this article, you have repeatedly stumbled upon some comments. In short, one more morality does not hurt! The fact is that beginners often do not get to use any team, because the OS displays messages like: "Access is denied".

What happened? It's simple - your account does not have the necessary rights. Yes, the vast majority of domestic users are constantly working under the "Administrator", but in the latest version of Windows (starting with Vista), there is a good "protection from a fool."

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

Before you start the CHKDSK program with extended privileges, you must click on the "Start" button, and in the "Search" field write the CMD. In the right part of the window, a list of found files with this name will open. Click on the first (as a rule, more and will not be) the right mouse button, in the opened context menu select the item "Run as administrator".

All! After that, you can check the disk with the keys that are needed to perform the type of verification you need.

If the problem is more serious ...

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

You insert it into the drive, reboot into the BIOS, put it there starting from the CD. After that, you reboot again, waiting for the first inscriptions to appear. In Windows XP, to exit the console, you need to press the "R" key, and in Vista / 7/8 - you should select the item of the same name in the graphics menu.

When you go to the console, you will be asked to specify the Windows number for which you would like to use the CHKDSK utility. How do I start the required one? To do this, enter the number under which it appears in the listed list, then click on Enter.

If your account is password-protected, you will need to enter it. All. After that you can use the command CHKDSK. How do I start it with the parameters you need? It's simple. To do this, you should use the keys, which we already mentioned above.

Another important remark

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

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

Unfortunately, even its use does not guarantee anything. In particular, there are often problems with the launch of services, and even the program for checking the disk for errors can trite banal without explaining the reasons. Sometimes it helps to run it from under the administrator (as we already mentioned above). Most often, the CHKDSK error will continue to "please" you until you reinstall Windows.

Follow the installed programs!

Do not forget that not only in life, but in your computer everything is interconnected. On all the thematic resources, it has already been told how many times users were told that in no case it is necessary to install applications from questionable sources, but few people pay attention to these warnings.

If after installation of any utility when Windows starts the disk check (CHKDSK), then this clearly indicates that there is something wrong with this program. It is possible that it has a crooked installer. Also, there is a possibility that it is simply not too well established.

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

How can I remove a disk check from startup?

It happens that on a completely stable system, which has not been set up for a long time, a fairly annoying window of this utility starts appearing every time it starts. As we have already said, there can be many reasons. It is possible that with Windows CHKDSK you are given desperate signals by a hard drive, which is on the very verge of agonizing death.

Whatever it was, you can remove this program from startup. Attention! Do you do it solely at your own peril and risk!

First, click on the "Start" button, look for "Run" there, 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 section. Go to it, look for the BootExecute item, and then completely wipe all its contents. Click on the "OK" button, quit the Registry Editor, and then restart. As a rule, foreign windows do not appear when they are downloaded.

That's what CHKDSK is. How to start Windows 7 without it, you also already know.