Chkdsk Commands:

Using the Chkdsk command reports information about a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Listed below
are the different types of Chkdsk Commands. Note that Chkdsk is most commonly used to find
errors and to fix them on the HDD.

CHKDSK C: /F

- This command is used to check the Hard Disk (Hard Drive) for errors and to repair
them.


CHKDSK C: >Myfile.txt

- Use this command if you want to redirect the output from the Chkdsk command to a
.txt or .doc file for later printing.


CHKDSK C: /V

- This Chkdsk command will display all the path and filename information for all
the files on a Hard Disk.

The Recovery Console in Windows 2000/XP is where Chkdsk is best used. For Windows 9x the
Chkdsk feature is best used from a startup disk.

CHKDSK C: /R

- The /R command will locate bad sectors and attempt to recover readable information. (implies /F).

CHKDSK C: /L:size

- NTFS only: Changes the log size to a specified number of kilobytes. If no size specified it will display current log size.

CHKDSK C: /X

- Will force the volume to be dismounted first if necessary. Any opened handles to the volume then will be invalid. This also implies /F.

CHKDSK C: /I

- NTFS only: Will perform a less vigorous check of the index entries.

CHKDSK C: /C

- NTFS only: This command skips the checking of cycles within the folder structure.

CHKDSK C: /B

- NTFS only: This will re-evaluate bad clusters on the volume. This feature implies /R.

Note: The /I or /C switch will reduce the amount of time that is required to run Chkdsk by skipping certain checks of the volume.

By opening Command Prompt in windows and typing Chkdsk /? you can recieve a list of these commands.

Hi,

Remember that CHKDSK /R is will check for bad blocks but not attempt data recovery.

If the Hard Drive decides that the block is really bad it will swap that block out for a spare. You will then lose any chance to recover the data from that bad block.

SpinRite will attempt data recovery before it then let's the drive swap out the bad block for a good one. Before anyone says it for me there are other programs which might work better for you

If you suspect that a drive has bad blocks then you might want to take a complete image backup of the drive before starting the CHKDSK or Spinrite process. If the imaging process shows read or CRC errors then you will know you have bad blocks.

If the CHKDSK process should fail or make the problem worse rather than better (for example the MFT or FAT becomes corrupted) then you can restore the image back (perhaps to a new drive) and then work from there.

Kind Regards

Simon

this is a good post but maybe what needs to be done is a list of all windows commands. That could then be stickied (if this forum has that ability yet)

A list of all windows commands wouldn't be a post, it'd be a website.

This topic was just for the Chkdsk commands. I been working on some other but haven't finished yet. Maybe thats something that could be added to the wiki, is all the windows cmds.

very good