CHKDSK doesn’t complete

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This looks to be the correct forum.

I am running chkdsk and screen shows:
“Scanning and repairing Drive C): 10% complete”.

The problem is that it hasn’t moved from 10% for a long time, at least 80 minutes now.
Is it OK to close down manually, or must I wait 2 or 3 days for it to finish?

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FALSE ALARM

A few minutes ago the screen went entirely black with no message, making me fear the worst, but then said scan completed, and went on to boot. After such a scare it would have been nice to learn what, if anything, had been repaired.

Next time I will know not to get alarmed when the screen stops counting.

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Which parameter did you use – chkdsk /f or chkdsk /r ?

While you haven’t said which Windows version you are using, you can read the chkdsk report in Event Viewer.

For Win 7 go Start – type eventvwr and press enter.

When it has read all of the logs, expand Windows Logs – click on the name Application – in the menu click on Action/Find and in the Find box type chkdsk or wininit and press enter.

Cancel the Find box then read the report in the scrollable window.

Take particular note if it reports any KBs in bad sectors.

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Which parameter did you use – chkdsk /f or chkdsk /r ?
chkdsk /r

While you haven’t said which Windows version you are using
Windows 8.1 Home

It’s somewhat confusing because Event Viewer comes in 2 flavours exe. and msc., but neither seems very useful, especially as the latest events are at the end of many pages. Eventually finding the beginning of the report, didn’t really prove of any use – just page after page of things verified or failed, but the descriptions/names or whatever mean nothing to me. But it may have repaired some items.

The only things to be learn from the exercise are:
a) there are faults with my PC
b) it takes at least 1.5 hours to complete and leaves one wondering if anything is happening – much like installing a new OS.

But thanks for your help Sudo.

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You could run a chkdsk without any parameters which is a read-only mode and will tell you there and then if any corruption exists as well as any KBs in bad sectors.

You could also run dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth followed by a sfc /scannow for file corruption but chkdsk also looks at the condition of the HDD to a point.

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Thanks Sudo. Will give tham a try, but it will not be until Tuesday.

Not sure how to set chkdskto run without parameters

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George,

Not sure how to set chkdskto run without parameters

Just run CHKDSK [drive].

Zig

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From within Windows just enter chkdsk and there’s no need for a reboot as it will run there and then.

If you want to add the drive as Zig has suggested – although there’s no need, the cmd would be chkdsk c:

If you want to post the current chkdsk report, when you get back into Event Viewer to it, click on Copy/Copy details as text in the lower right pane then right click in the reply box and select Paste.

For some reason when you do this, it duplicates the report but you can edit it to one before hitting the Submit button.

To post the output of the read-only, right click in the text area of the command window – click on Select all and press enter then right click in the reply box and select Paste.

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Final report to wrap up this thread.

Shortly after #8 I ran chkdsk again and received a clean bill of health. I believe there were some items it had repaired, but am not certain, my memory not being what it was.

This morning I ran a series of tests, in preparation for the monthly image tomorrow. Starting with chkdsk, I was amazed that it took only about 10 minutes to complete, whereas my first attempt took 80-90 minutes. Anyway, it found nothing to report.

Next was dism which failed with the message “clean-up image’ not understood. Finally sfc /scannow gave the all clear.

As there have been no problems with the PC for a few weeks I’m fairly confident it’s now in reasonable condition.

My thanks to all who responded.

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How did you enter the dism cmd as that sounds like it was entered incorrectly.

Did you try it like this – dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth – ensuring there was a space before each forward slash.

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How did you enter the dism cmd as that sounds like it was entered incorrectly.

Did you try it like this – dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth – ensuring there was a space before each forward slash.

I thought it had been copied exactly as specified, ensuring there was a space before each slash, but there must have been an error somewhere. I normally write clean-up with the hyphen before ‘up’ rather than before the following word, and remember taking care over this point, but maybe I placed it before and after up.

This time it worked, but certainly leaves one wondering if anything is happening. The message about Deployment Image Servicing and the image version was followed after a few minutes by
[========20% ]
which was promising, but then nothing for another 20 minutes or so, which left me wondering whether it was waiting for me to click the enter key. Deciding to give it 30 mins. before doing so, my patience was finally rewarded.

Is this normal behaviour?

Attempt to include screen print failed, but the message was that component store corruption had been restored.

Thanks once more for your help.
George

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CHKDSK can literally take hours to complete if a large drive has bad sectors; doesn’t have to be a lot of bad sectors, either. I have in the past let it run overnight. I don’t run CHKDSK without parameters. I always use /r and I’m always prepared to wait when I launch it. I would advise against stopping it; let it run to completion.

I use Image For Windows for drive imaging and it will throw an error if a drive has bad sectors, so that’s my canary-in-the-coal-mine for drive error indication.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I believe that your chkdsk is fine and your comment that you have a clean bill of health is true

chkdsk taking only 10 minutes is normal

chkdsk /r taking 1.5 hours to complete and leaves isn’t unusual
I followed sudo15’s instructions in post 3 and got the following results for the last time I had run CHKDSK
— I didn’t post the complete report, but what is posted represents the necessary results to know that its ok
— Note that it runs 5 stages: that is why it takes some time
— Notice also that at the end it states:
Windows has finished checking your disk. Please wait while your computer restarts.

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Wininit
Date: 12/27/2014 7:50:43 AM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Larry
Description:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)…
83456 file records processed.
File verification completed.
384 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
2 EA records processed.
60 reparse records processed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)…
113884 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered.

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)…
83456 file SDs/SIDs processed.
Cleaning up 286 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 286 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 286 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
15215 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal…
36839984 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)…
83440 files processed.
File data verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)…
30780643 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

151780351 KB total disk space.
28419096 KB in 63964 files.
46316 KB in 15216 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
192367 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
123122572 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
37945087 total allocation units on disk.
30780643 allocation units available on disk.

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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Yes, I’ve seen it reported hanging for a good while at 20% and then suddenly completing, although it does make you wonder if something is wrong.

Have you followed it up with a sfc /scannow to confirm everything is AOK ?

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Yes, as mentioned in #9

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