Keeping your hard drive free from errors is essential to the performance of your Windows 8 computer. When it comes to computer repair, this is one of the first things I do. So, if your experiencing problems opening an application or file, it may be time to check your hard drive for errors with Windows 8 built-in disk checking utility, CHKDSK (Check Disk).
There are two ways to run CHKDSK, standard, and advanced. Here are the procedures for both.
Standard hard drive error checking in Windows 8
- Go to the Start menu.
- Right-click the Start menu background to bring up the app commands.
- Select 'All apps'.
- Scroll to the 'File Explorer' tile and left-click on it.
- Left-click on 'Computer'.
- Right-click the hard drive that you want to check, and then click 'Properties'.
- Click the 'Tools' tab, and then, under 'Error-checking', click 'Check Now'. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
- Select 'Scan drive'.
Advanced hard drive error checking in Windows 8
- Open a Command Prompt with Administrative privileges (click here for instructions)
- Use the following command-line syntax(s) and parameter(s) to run CHKDSK:
CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]] [/B]
[/scan] [/spotfix]
| volume |
Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name. |
| filename |
FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation. |
| /F |
Fixes errors on the disk. |
| /V |
On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file on the disk. On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages, if any. |
| /R |
Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /F, when /scan not specified). |
| /L:size |
NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number of kilobytes. If a size is not specified, it displays the current size. |
| /X |
Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid (implies /F). |
| /I |
NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries. |
| /C |
NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder structure. |
| /B |
NTFS only: Re-evaluates bad clusters on the volume (implies /R) |
| /scan |
NTFS only: Runs an online scan on the volume |
| /forceofflinefix |
NTFS only: (Must be used with "/scan") Bypass all online repair; all defects found are queued for offline repair (i.e. "chkdsk /spotfix"). |
| /perf |
NTFS only: (Must be used with "/scan") Uses more system resources to complete a scan as fast as possible. This may have a negative performance impact on other tasks running on the system. |
| /spotfix |
NTFS only: Runs spot-fixing on the volume |
| /sdcleanup |
NTFS only: Garbage collects unneeded security descriptor data (implies /F). |
| /offlinescanandfix |
Runs an offline scan and fix on the volume. |
The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run CHKDSK by skipping certain volume checks.