Check disks in Windows

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In this tutorial: How to use Check Disk for testing and fixing file system errors in Windows XP, Vista or 7

Last modified: 2012-05-19 09:36:03 EEST

You need Disk Check when there are errors on hard drives or external drives. Disk Check is able to repair file system errors (files messed up on the disk) and recover data from bad/unreadable clusters. If you haven't already done so, read Memory and hard disks article to find out basic information about hard disks and partitions.

Open (My) Computer from Desktop or Start menu or press Windows Logo+E on your keyboard.
To check the drive where Windows is installed, right-click on an item that ends with "(C:)", for example Local Disk (C:) or Windows (C:). In Windows Vista and 7, the drive also has a small Windows logo (a four-color flag) on it. The drive might also end with "(D:)" or "(E:)" in case you have multiple operating systems installed. The drive or partition Windows is installed on is often called system drive.

All hard disks must contain at least one partition, but they may contain multiple partitions. Windows assigns each partition a different drive letter, such as C:, D:, E:, etc.
Drive letters A: and B: are usually reserved for floppy disk drives (FDD, often called "floppy").

You might have more than one hard disk or partition. In this case, repeat these steps for other items, too. You do not need to check CD/DVD or floppy drives.
Choose Properties from the menu.
Windows 7, Hard Disk Drive right-click menu in Windows Explorer. Click Properties.

Open Tools tab and click Check Now.
Windows 7, Local Disk Properties. Open Tools tab and click Check Now to perform a disk check.

In Windows Vista, User Account Control will open. Click Continue.

A check disk dialog opens, choose Automatically fix file system errors and then click Start button.
If you want to perform an exhaustive disk check, also activate the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors option. Please note that this test might take several hours to complete!
Windows 7, Check Disk dialog. Select Automatically fix file system errors. Click Start.

If this is your second or third hard disk, the disk check will usually be performed right away.
Windows XP, Checking Disk. Please wait. Windows 7, Checking Disk. Please wait.

Windows XP always opens the "Disk Check Complete" message after the process is complete. Click OK.
Windows Vista and 7 provide information on whether the scan found any errors. If the message says "Your device or disk was successfully scanned", there were no problems found and you can click Close.
Windows XP, Disk Check Complete. Click OK. Windows 7, Checking Disk, Your device or disk was successfully scanned. Click Close.

In case the message is "Some problems were found and fixed", you can click the See details button to find out what exactly was repaired. Or just click Close if technical details are of no interest to you.
Windows 7, Checking Disk, Some problems were found and fixed. Click See details to open full report. Windows 7, Some problems were found and fixed, See details.

Do not forget to check other drives, too!

If this is your only hard disk or the one that has Windows installed on it, you'll see a warning that the disk cannot be checked right now. This happens because many files are in use and cannot be checked while Windows is running.
In Windows XP, click Yes to schedule a disk check for the next restart.
In Windows Vista and 7, click Schedule disk check.
Windows XP, The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utilitu needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. Click Yes to set up an automatic check at next restart. Windows 7, Windows can't check the disk while it's in use. Click Schedule disk check to set up an automatic check at next restart.

Restart your computer now to let the check run.

After restarting, a screen stating "A disk check has been scheduled" appears. There is also a countdown of 10 seconds and you can cancel the disk check by pressing any key on your keyboard within those 10 seconds.
But this is not what we want, right? Wait and see how Windows checks the hard disk:
Windows XP, checking a hard disk at boot time. This takes time, stand by. Windows 7, checking a hard disk at boot time. This takes time, stand by.

It might take some time until the disk check completes. If you have a large hard drive full of data, the check might take even up to half an hour. In case you scheduled a complete disk check with testing for bad clusters, the test might run for several hours.

If everything is fine with the disk, Windows XP and Vista will start. Windows 7 will always restart your computer after a disk check.
Windows XP, hard disk check restarting the computer. Windows 7, hard disk check restarting the computer.

In case Disk Check could not fix all file system problems with one run, the disk check will start over after the restart. Please let it finish (your computer might be restarted again) and wait for Windows to start - it is very important that your hard disk is working properly. Sometimes it takes up to three restarts to fix all errors.