Short for Check Disk, chkdsk is a command run utility that is used on DOS and Microsoft Windows-based systems to check the file system and status of the system’s hard drives. The chkdsk command lists and corrects errors on the disk. Used without parameters, chkdsk will display the status of the disk in the current drive. The parameters are as follows:
- drive : (specifies the drive that you want to chkdsk). For example, chkdsk C:
- /p (Performs an exhaustive check)
- /r (locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. Implies /p)
- /f Finds and repairs errors. For example, chkdsk /f C:
The complete syntax for Check Disk is as follows:
CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]]
On a Unix-based system, the equivalent utility is called fsck.
