Windows system provides an inbuilt disk repair tool – CHKDSK. It is believed that a majority of Windows users are familiar with it. It does play a great role in scanning and repairing disk. Yet, it also can fail in some cases. This post will expose 6 of them.
In Windows, when encountering disk problems, you will consider using CHKDSK to scan and repair the disk. CHKDSK is a vital and effective utility pre-installed in Windows. It admittedly has good performance in verifying file system integrity, detecting and fixing multiple errors in the disk. Nevertheless, at times, it may fail, too. Thereinafter, we will introduce 6 main cases of CHKDSK failure. You can refer to them to make some precautions.
1. Drive Is Used by Other Apps
If CHKDSK fails, you may receive a related error message, like this one – “Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process”. It refers to that the drive on which you are running CHKDSK is being used by the other programs. For instance, you’ve opened a Word document in Drive E. CHKDSK will surely fail to scan and repair the Drive E.
2. Drive Is in RAW Status
In addition, if the drive is in RAW state, CHKDSK will be unable to scan and repair it with error message like “CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.” RAW means that the drive doesn’t have file system. At that point, you cannot access the drive data, similar to being incapable of damaged PST file. In this case, you need to first restore the file system.
3. Drive Is Physically Damaged
Moreover, provided that the drive is subject to serious physical damage, like head crash, scattered platters and so on, CHKDSK will not succeed to scan and repair it. It is because that CHKDSK is only able to deal with the logical problems involving drive. Physically damaged drive has been beyond what the internal tool can do.
4. External Drive Is Disconnected
Assuming that the drive CHKDSK is scanning and repairing is an external one, it’s essential to insure that the drive is connected properly all the time. If the drive is disconnected, such as connection cable loosens, CHKDSK will definitely fail.
5. Computer System Failures
Furthermore, apart from hard drive issue, computer problem is also a key factor in CHKDSK failure. For instance, if your computer system malfunctions, such as abrupt system crash, freezing and so on, CHKDSK process will be interrupted and fail.
6. Virus/Malware Attacks
Last but not least, if the drive or the computer is attacked by viruses or malware, CHKDSK may be unable to scan and repair drive as well. To be specific, in current era, viruses have been so sophisticated to impact the operations of computer, like changing registry files and blocking CHKDSK, etc.
Author Introduction:
Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including corrupt mdf and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com