Chkdsk also marks any damaged or malfunctioning sectors on the hard drive or disk as “bad” and recovers any information still intact.

Chkdsk Command Availability

The chkdsk command is available from the Command Prompt in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP operating systems. The chkdsk command is also available via Command Prompt in Advanced Startup Options and System Recovery Options. It also works from within the Recovery Console in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Chkdsk is a DOS Command too, available in most versions of MS-DOS.

Chkdsk Command Syntax

chkdsk [volume:] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L:size] [/perf] [/scan] [/?]

Chkdsk Command Examples

In the above example, since no drive or additional options were entered, chkdsk simply runs in read-only mode. In this example, the chkdsk command is used to perform an extensive check of the C: drive to correct any errors and to locate any recovery information from bad sectors. This is best used when you’re running chkdsk from outside of Windows, like from a recovery disc where you need to specify which drive to scan. This chkdsk command runs an online scan on the C: volume so that you don’t have to dismount the volume to run the test, but instead of fixing any issues while the volume is active, the problems are sent to a queue that will be resolved in an offline repair. In this example, chkdsk will fix problems on the C: drive while you’re using it, and will use as much system resources as allowed so that it will run as quickly as possible.

Chkdsk is often used with many other Command Prompt commands and Recovery Console commands. The chkdsk command is similar to the scandisk command used to check a hard drive or floppy disk for errors in Windows 98 and MS-DOS.