How to check disk on HDD or SSD storage

Storage such as hard disk (HDD) or Solid State Disk (SSD) that store data and OS, in many case will have problem such as lost clusters or file truncates, or even unreadable sectors or bad clusters. When your windows starts to operate slow or lag, these could be one of the reason that you should check your HDD / SSD first before proceed troubleshoot other possibilities such Clear virus on your windows or even repair Windows Systems. If you have practice of scanning or optimizing your storage frequent like at least once a week, the cause of a failure hard disk will be lower, but doesn’t it might not happen, as hardware tend to have a lifespan, or even depend on how your usage is. Some hard disk tend to fail or damage easily due to frequent force shut down without waiting for windows to close all application, or because due to systems hang and have to be force shut down.

For Windows 10, 8, 7 :

Option 1 Inside Windows: If you still able to login to your ( Windows 10, double click on This PC icon) or ( Windows 8 / 7 double click on Computer Icon ) on the desktop, if you do not have This PC icon on desktop, click on the yellow folder on the bottom taskbar.  Either you open This PC folder or the yellow folder windows, right click on C drive, and choose Properties. Then a Properties Windows will popup, click on the Tools tab, and then click Check button.

Drive Properties

A window popup Check Disk Local Disk (C:) will show, tick both options and click on Start button. Most of the time for local C drive, the windows will alert mentioning, Windows can’t check the disk while it’s in use. Click on the Schedule disk check, then restart your windows.

Schedule Disk Check

On startup, do not press any key, once it is boot up, the windows Check Disk will start scanning for bad sectors or lost clusters and so on. Let the process run by itself, depending on the size of the storage, it might take less than an hour or more than few hours. If the hard disk is not in good condition, it might even take longer period of time. The Check Disk will fix some of the errors and make your windows running smoothly again, but not all will do so.

Option 2 Command Prompt: If you still able to login to your Windows 10, simply click on the Start Menu on your bottom left or press on Windows Logo on your keyboard. Then click on the power button icon, then press and hold Shift key, while use your mouse to click on the Restart option. Do not let go the SHIFT key until you reach to the recovery page.  Image Shown below.

Then click on Troubleshoot and then click on Advance Options, and last click on Command Prompt. If you have password login, you will be ask for the login password. A windows screen will pop up, which is a command prompt where you can type in command line. At the command prompt, type in as below

chkdsk c: /x /f /b /r

Where c: is the OS drive, if you have more than 1 partition or drive, you might need to check few times after 1 process is finished.

If there is Bad Sectors detected on your hard disk, we would recommend you to backup all files if can, and get a new hard disk installed with a new windows.