It’s easy running Check Disk from Windows open File Explorer, go to This PC and then to Devices and drives, right-click the drive you want to scan for errors and choose Properties.
How to scan a drive for errors in Windows 10 Additionally, we will discuss running Check Disk (chkdsk.exe) from the Command Prompt and how to run even if you cannot boot into Windows.
However, I will point out the differences where possible.
Even if you are using Windows 7 or 8, it should still be easy to follow. But the screens in the steps below may look different, because we will be working with Windows 10 in this article. tool for drives that support it.Ĭheck Disk works pretty much the same in all Windows versions. So, keep a regular backup of your data and use a S.M.A.R.T. However, when Check Disk encounter problems that it can’t repair, data loss can occur. Check Disk also tries to fix bad sectors by repairing soft bad sectors and marking hard bad sectors, so that data is not written to them.Ĭheck Disk often rescues me from disaster and total data loss. Bad sectors can also be divided into two types – those caused when data is written badly, called soft bad sectors and those caused by physical damage to the drive, called hard bad sectors. Optionally, Check Disk can scan the surface of a hard drive for bad sectors. This includes master file table (MFT) corruption, bad file security descriptors and misaligned time stamp or file size information.
Check Disk basically scans the integrity of the file system and file metadata on a drive (disk), and fixes any logical file system errors. Moreover, running it regularly can help prevent bigger issues and permanent data loss. The Windows Check Disk ToolĪlthough the Windows Check Disk tool is not pretty and slow, it works. The first being the native Windows Check Disk tool or chkdsk as the techies call it, because chkdsk is the command used to invoke the Windows Disk Checker from the Command Prompt. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, there are several methods to deal with hard drive corruption or file system errors. Now that you know what causes hard drive corruptions and file system errors, we can discuss how to look for, and fix it. Scan hard drives for file system errors and fix it Although it can be caused by many other factors, hard drive corruption is the most common cause. For example files will refuse to open, files and folders disappear completely, or you receive error messages like, file name not recognized, and/or file format not recognized.īut the most common symptom must be the dreaded blue-screen-of-death (BSOD). Fortunately, there are some suspect symptoms you should look out for. Sudden power failures during file operationsĪs mentioned previously, hard drive errors can go unnoticed until it’s too late.But more specifically, below is a list of the most common causes.
Other causes of hard drive corruption include mechanical component issues, software errors or even electrical events. This prevents the hard drive from carrying out a requested read or write process properly, which result in file damage. For example, when your computer experiences a sudden shutdown due to a power failure or forced restart. Causesīasically, hard drive corruption occurs when a system cannot finish writing data to a file. On the other hand, logical errors are easy to repair, if you know how. Unfortunately, physical damage cannot be repaired using software alone, so toss it.
When faced with physical damage, and you can still access the drive use a good data recovery tool and retrieve as much data as possible. And the second is software related, known as logical errors. The first is caused by physical damage or mechanical failure. In the wild, there are two types of disk errors. What is hard drive corruption?Īlthough, I mainly refer to hard drives in this article, corruption is not isolated to magnetic storage devices – solid-state-drives, flash disks, memory cards and many other types of storage devices can suffer from corruption. But first, a little more about hard drive corruption. However, just choose the one you feel comfortable with all of them fundamentally work the same. In this article, there are a few methods to scan for, and deal with hard drive errors. I recommend you scan your hard drive regularly for errors to avoid system crashes. Moreover, it can cause numerous Windows errors that initially seem unrelated to hard drive corruption. Meaning that in some cases, it can go unnoticed for weeks, or even months, until it’s too late. Hard drive corruption or file system errors is not a pretty thing, and to make things worse, it is not noticeable at first.