What is ChkDsk Command Line Options, Switches, Parameters in Windows 10?

ChkDsk Command-Line Options, Switches, Parameters in Windows 10:

Check disk or chkdsk.exe is a built-in utility in Windows used to check for errors in the file system or the disk media. Ranging from the blue screen to the inability to open or save a file or folder if faced with problems one can run the check disk utility. 

We run the built-in Windows check disk utility whenever we need to detect or fix the file system or disk corruption. The chkdsk.exe or check disk utility checks bad sectors, file system errors, lost clusters and so on and can run automatically in the case of an abrupt shutdown or if it finds any file system dirty.

There are two versions of the check disk utility in Windows Vista and Windows 10 / 8 / 7. Most of us use the basic version but the other one is the command-line version that has more sets of options.

The Basic Version of the Check Disk Utility can be Accessed in the Following Ways-

• Open computer
• Right-click on the drive option
• Select properties
• Click on the Tools tab
• Select check now

Command-line chkdsk

Apart from just allowing you to set up regular disk checking using the task scheduler, the Command line version of chkdsk offers you several options.

• Open a command prompt using the Run as administrator option to check the command line check disk version
• Type chkdsk in the command prompt that will run chkdsk in read-only mode and display the status of the current drive.
• Typing chkdsk /? and then pressing the enter option will provide you with its switches or parameters.
• Use chkdsk c to get a report for drive c

To specialise in its operation you can also use the following parameters at the end of the command

• /f will help to fix the detected error
• /R will identify bad sectors and will attempt recovery of the information
• /v will help to display a list of every file in every directory on a fat32 and will display the cleanup message in NTFS.

The below-mentioned command lines are only valid on NTFS volumes.

• /c is used to skip the checking of cycles within the folder structure.
• /I  am used to performing a simpler check of index entries.
• /x  is used to Force the volume to dismount and also invalidate all open file handles but because of the possibility of data loss/corruption, this should be avoided in Desktop Editions of Windows.
• /l[: size]  is used to change the size of the file that logs NTFS transactions and is intended for server administrators only.

NOTE- Only two switches may be available when you boot to the Windows Recovery Environment.

• /p is used to perform an exhaustive check of the current disk
• /r  is used to repair possible damage on the current disk.

The below mentioned switches will work in Windows 8, Windows 10 on NTFS volumes only-

• /scan is used to run online scan
• /forceofflinefix is used to queue defects for offline repair and bypass online repair but this switch needs to be used along with /scan.
• /perf is used to perform the scan as fast as possible.
• /spotfix is used to perform spot repair in offline mode.
• /offlinescanandfix is used to perform fixes and run an offline scan.
• /sdcclean is used for Garbage collection.

The below-mentioned switches are supported by Windows 10 on FAT/FAT32/exFAT volumes only:

• /freeorphanedchains helps to free up any orphaned cluster chains
• /markclean helps to mark the volume clean in case of no corruption detection.

Additional ones-

ChkDsk /f is used to scan for and attempt to repair errors in the file system.
ChkDsk /r also includes /f but it attempts to repair them and also scans the entire disk surface for physical errors as well.