Hard drive errors or peculiar computer behavior are often the result of improper or sudden shutdowns, software corruption, or damage to metadata. When your hard drive fails to function correctly, it can have significant impacts on your work and daily life. Hence, it is crucial to check and fix hard drive errors.

Why Check for Hard Drive Errors?

Why is it necessary to regularly check for hard drive errors? What specific benefits does checking disk errors provide? Regularly checking hard drive errors helps prevent unforeseen issues, address disk read errors, storage-related problems, and even system boot issues. This ensures the safety of your data, prolongs the lifespan of your hard drive, and enhances the stability and reliability of your computer system. By detecting and repairing errors in a timely manner, you can prevent data loss and ensure the smooth operation of your computer.

Of course, it significantly optimizes PC performance by checking and fixing hard drive errors in Windows 10 or other Windows OS. In the following content, we will offer you three main methods to check and fix hard drive errors in Windows 10 or other Windows systems.

How to Use Partition Master Free to Check and Fix Hard Disk Partition Errors

A free partition manager tool provides you with the easiest solution to check and fix partition errors on Windows 10/8 or other Windows systems with one click. Just download and launch the partition management tool, find your hard drive, and run "Check File System".

If your hard drive has some problems, you might get error messages saying things like,

    • "The tool detected errors on the operating system partition."
    • "The tool found some errors on the partition."

With AOMEI Partition Assistant, it can detect and fix hard drive errors automatically. Now, follow the steps below to easily check and repair your hard drive with this free partition manager. This method also works for fixing USB drive errors or hard drive errors on different Windows systems.

Step 1: Right-click on the problematic target partition.

Step 2: Choose Tools > Check File System.

Step 3. Choose whether to hide the partition.

Step 4: In the “Check File System” window, select the option to “Try to repair errors if found.”

Click “Start” to begin checking for errors on your partition.

Aside from hard drive recovery, Partition Master also offers other one-stop partition and disk management solutions for free. For example:

    • Resize/move partitions without data loss using simple drag-and-drop operations
    • Create, format, delete, and merge partitions as needed
    • Duplicate and clone a disk to another, even if the target partition is smaller than the source
    • Convert logical partitions to primary or primary to logical, FAT to NTFS partitions, MBR disks to GPT, or GPT disks to MBR
    • Permanently wipe all data from a hard drive to prevent information leakage or recovery

To easily optimize disk partitions and boost computer performance, a powerful partition manager tool is essential. Give Partition Master a try; it makes disk partitioning a breeze and helps you utilize your disk space efficiently.

How to Run CHKDSK in Windows 10 to Fix Your Hard Drive

Windows has a built-in utility called “Check Disk” ( CHKDSK ) that you can use to scan for and fix hard drive errors. If you just want a simple tool to scan a partition, rather than a full disk manager, try this utility.

Step 1: Open “This PC” > right-click on the hard drive you want to scan > and select “Properties.”

Step 2: Click the Check button on the Tools tab to run a spell check.

Check and fix Windows hard drive errors

Step 3: If everything checks out, you'll see a window telling you that the drive doesn't need to be scanned. If you want to run CHKDSK anyway, click “Scan drive on demand.”

Step 4: When the scan is finished, click the “View detailed information” link to see the Chkdsk log in Event Viewer.

How to Use CMD to Run Chkdsk to Check and Repair a Hard Drive

You can also launch and run CHKDSK from the Command Prompt, but this method requires that you type in commands manually. Because of the potential for problems if you enter the wrong command, we don't recommend this method unless you're comfortable with using command lines.

Note: If you can't boot into Windows 10 to run CHKDSK, you can refer to the solutions above 5 to fix UEFI boot issues in Windows 10.

Step 1: Press the Windows key, and then type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator.”

Step 3: Type in the following command: chkdsk E: /f /r /x. (Replace "E" with the letter of the partition you want to fix.)

Running the chkdsk command in Windows 10 Command Prompt

This option will run CHKDSK on Windows 10, checking for and fixing disk errors.

When used without parameters, it only displays the volume status without fixing any errors. When used with the parameters `/f`, `/r`, `/x`, or `/b`, it will fix errors on the volume. So what do these parameters (`/f`, `/r`, `/x`, ...) mean? Here are some common CHKDSK parameters and their meanings: 1. **/f** - Fixes errors on the disk. This includes repairing file system errors and marking disk areas as bad sectors. 2. **/r** - Detects and attempts to recover readable bad sectors. It performs a deeper scan to find and fix disk errors. 3. **/x** - Forces the volume to be dismounted before the check. This ensures the volume is safely dismounted if it's in use by another process, allowing for the check to proceed. 4. **/b** - Deletes the Bad Clusters list on the disk and reallocates them to new files. This helps manage bad sectors on the disk. 5. **/v** - Displays detailed information during the check. It shows the names of each file and directory and their locations on the screen. 6. **/o** - Applies only to the NTFS file system and allows reallocation of bad clusters during non-defragmentation offline. 7. **/c** - Skips file system verification for a quick volume check. This is typically used for a fast check of the volume status without fixing errors. 8. **/i** - Performs less validation of index entries, suitable for general-purpose volumes. This speeds up the check but might not detect all errors. 9. **/l[:x]** - Applies only to FAT/FAT32 file systems and specifies the cluster size to use (x being the cluster size, e.g., 4096 for 4 KB clusters). Note that these parameters can be combined based on your needs. Be cautious when running CHKDSK, as it can potentially impact your data. It's advisable to back up important data before performing any checks or repairs.

Parameter Parameter details
/f Fixes disk errors. The disk must be locked. If CHKDSK is unable to lock the drive, a message is displayed asking if you want to check the drive the next time you start your computer.
/r Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. The disk must be locked. It includes the functionality of /f and also analyzes physical disk errors.
/x Forces the volume to be dismounted first, if necessary. This will invalidate all open handles to the drive. It includes the functionality of /f.
/b NTFS only. Clears the Bad Clusters list on the volume, and scans all allocated and unallocated clusters for errors. It includes the functionality of /r. Use this parameter after you have restored a volume image to a new hard disk drive.
/v Displays the names of files in each directory as CHKDSK checks the disk.
/scan NTFS only. Runs an online scan on the volume.
/i NTFS only. Reduces the intensity of index entry checks, which reduces the time that CHKDSK takes to run.
/c NTFS only. Does not detect circular links within the folder structure, which reduces the time that CHKDSK takes to run.

Conclusions

Although there are 3 ways to check and fix hard disk errors on Windows 10/8/7, we highly recommend using a free partition manager for hard drive repair. It can find bad sectors on the system partition or other data partitions with one click and automatically fix them in a short time.

In addition, as mentioned, Partition Master Free also comes with a full suite of options to help you reallocate disk space flexibly, safely convert disks or partitions, and easily recover deleted or lost partitions, and more.

Tool Partition Master Hard Disk Repair Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some common issues about hard drive checking and fixing, Partition Master can provide you with the simplest solutions.

How do I fix a partition error?

You can manually fix partition errors by using one of the following methods:

Click “This PC,” right-click the disk you want to scan, and select “Properties.” Now, the Properties window for that drive will open. Here, click the “Tools” tab, then click “Check” under the “Error Checking” section. Wait for the scanning and repair process to complete.

How do I use Partition Master tools to fix bad sectors?

It's very easy to use the Partition Master tool to fix bad sectors:

Step 1: Open Partition Master on your computer. Right-click the hard drive you wish to check and select “Check File System.”

Step 2: In the Check File System window, select the Try to repair errors if found option, and then click Start.

Step 3: Wait for the scan to complete.

【Is AOMEI Partition Assistant safe?】

"This software is very secure and performs as advertised. We highly recommend Tools over any competitors. Their customer support is also excellent. Overall, it's a trustworthy and reliable software that we strongly endorse." - From Trustpilot

How do I use a partition master tool to clone a hard drive?

AOMEI Partition Assistant comes with built-in easy-to-use partition clone and disk clone features.

Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant on your computer, right-click the partition you want to copy, and choose “Clone.”

Step 2: Partition Master will automatically select the unallocated space on your computer as the target partition. Click “Next” to continue after verifying that it's correct.

Step 3: Resize the target partition as you need. When done, click “OK”.

4. Click the “Perform Operations” button on the top-left to preview the changes, and then click “Apply” to start cloning the partition.