How Long Should CHKDSK Take?

⏰ Several factors affect how long CHKDSK takes to run, but a scan requiring an unusual amount of time may signal additional problems.

⏰ CHKDSK takes forever
The amount of time CHKDSK should take depends on the speed of the disk it’s scanning, the speed of the disk interface, the amount of data on the disk, and, if you’ve asked for a surface scan, the capacity of the disk. Normal times range from minutes to hours, but physical errors on the disk can slow progress significantly. As long as you’re backed up, though, you have options.

Chapters
0:00 How Long Should CHKDSK Take?
0:25 It depends
0:30 What is CHKDSK?
1:30 Run CHKDSK
2:12 Time depends on the amount of data to process
2:50 CHKDSK /R
4:40 Should I let it run?
5:40 How to stop it

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#askleo #CHKDSK #checkdisk

[jec_ecart]

My 5tb backup HDDs seem to take 2 or 3 days for a full chkdsk including surface scans. I sometimes put them to scan on a weekend. Put a USB fan on top of them to keep em comfortable. Seems to help.

[YTManWithBeard]

Thank you for this video. Been running an /r command for about 30 hours now over my WD 900GB external that's showing up as simply local disk. Sadly I didn't back it up and have precious data on there. What I'm scared of is... every single file record segment is showing up as unreadable... and it's only at 38%... (And it's delete some corrupt files). Someone please say there's something that can be done...

[MeaganEater]

We need to move a small 200 meg partition on a Samsung Pro 4T NVME SSD. We were told it will not let us move the 200 Meg system restore partition unless we CHKDSK the drive first. So, we run CHKDSK on reboot and after several minutes, it says it is 100% complete, but we still have this spinning dots as if Windows is waiting for something to be done and I mean for like an hour it has said 100% complete. This is a 4T drive but we cloned over a 500 Gig drive, so most of the 4T drive is unpartitioned. Can most of the drive not being partitioned cause CHKDSK to sit there at 100% Complete and spin those Dots with the Windows logo on the screen? We are using Windows 10. Should we just wait until tomorrow 8 hours and then if it is still spinning the waiting dots on screen, CTRL + Delete to reboot out of CHKDSK?

We still have the 500Gig old drive as the backup, so if it causes a problem, then next time we Clone the drive with Clone Zilla, we will only do the 500Gig partition and then resize it, leaving 250 Meg and then reboot back into Clone Zilla and move the 200 Meg system restore partition. If nobody offers suggestion, we will go with waiting 8 hours and then CTRL + Delete. If there is an issue, we will un-partition the drive and start over with CloneZilla and do as I said, just move the 500Gig partition and then resize, leaving 250 Meg of space, then move the 200 Meg partition over last.

Then report back here by editing this post to let anyone who comes along know what worked.
Yes, the 4T Samsung Pro NVME SSD is new.

[pinatacolada]

From my experience using the CHKDSK /f command, a large number of files can slow this down significantly. It's not so much the file sizes but the file count.

[jec_ecart]

Does it actually "repair" bad Sectors? . I don't want any weak or problematic sectors being marked as 'good' or usable because it can cause problems further in time. Can't I avoid the repairing and just mark them bad?

[NoEggu]

The person writing in, about chkdsk taking a super long time, might be using an external drive, plugged into a USB 2.0 port.

[fotuneTechGlobal]

I unplugged my external hard disk when it told me i can't disconnected because its being used while it wasnt in use. After i did so, i couldn't find my files, i am wondering if this can fix it?

[rossgeography]

thanks Leo - having real trouble with a MacMini 2018 I'm running as a Windows machine - runs very hot - tried to create a bootable back-up using Easeus but it or resizing to fit the external drive really screwed up the partition - after 2 days I've decided to cut my loses. Will do as you advise, deep format and run chkdsk /r again

[ryanworkman]

Is it better to run it on individual partitions one at a time after partitioning them or on one large partition before dividing into separate smaller partitions?

[sacheendrucker]

Does the utility try to repair any bad sectors at the time it finds them, or does it wait until it completes the entire scan to then try to repair all the bad sectors it found? I’m asking because i want to understand if all progress is lost if I have to end the scan early, or if there still is some benefit of running a scan even if I have to end it early.

[johnygthing]

Is there any need to do this in a new laptop, ,would it identify and damge feom handling/droppage etc?

[Lines]

My computer restarted and went right into chkdsk and it's been running for two days so far. It's a 1tb hard drive with a lot of video on it.

[ryanworkman]

I was running chkdsk on an external hard disk when it was accidentally came unplugged. What could have happened to it?

[LeylaA.-bkch]

Hello Mr., thank you for your video. I used this command for 2 TB Hard disk (HDD). Although it has been 3 days, only 30% progressed with this command. If you have a suggestion, I would appreciate it.

[sudiptadas]

Is there any way to stop the run, its taking too long.

[Referee]

Leo, as you started to run chkdsk, you said, "... I'll run it as Administrator just in case.". What did you mean when you said "just in case?". Just in case of what?

Also, what does running something as Administrator do? Thanks

[MeDecade]

I have a 6 TB external drive. It's probably a little more than half-full. I got a new(ish) computer and I got the dreaded "there's a problem with this drive". So I've been running CHKDSK /r on it. It's been going for at least a week now. Is there a way to tell how far into the scan it is, percentage-wise? My computer is begging me to restart for updates but I don't want to stop the scan and potentially cause even more problems.

[delvinciposterkid]

I'm still running chkdsk from a month ago.

[Karuro]

doing this on my brother's external HDD and it takes forever 50 of 27905

[ShortCut]

for me with my 1000 GB HDD it takes 10 hours