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One question I see pop-up from time to time is
How often should Check Disk/Error Checking be ran on my system? Is it necessary as a form of preventative maintenance?
It's gotten me curious as to whether or not any form of Check disk is run on a regular schedule in any iteration of Windows, and, if so, at what iteration did it start?
QMord
Posted 2017-08-06T23:16:45.673
Reputation: 666
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Windows 10 will regularly optimize your drives by default. However it appears that a CHKDSK is not included in an optimize; only a defrag.
You can check if a disk optimization is scheduled to run by checking the following location:
There is no indication that chkdsk is run on a schedule automatically. However if the scheduled disk optimization fails, it is a good indication the the CHKDSK utility needs to be run.
Ashton
Posted 2017-08-06T23:16:45.673
Reputation: 735
Does optimization include a file system check (CHKDSK) ? – Dawn Benton – 2017-08-07T00:50:25.627
I was under the impressions that CHKDSK was run as part of the optimization, but I can't find any documentation to confirm this. The closest I can find on forums suggests that if the optimization (defrag) fails, manually run a CHKDSK. So it would indicate otherwise. Clarified response to indicate this. – Ashton – 2017-08-07T01:22:21.197
CHKDSK can only be performed on an unmounted drive because it requires an unchanging filesystem. If it's not the system drive, then that drive can be unmounted, and would be inaccessible. This condition is not conducive to arbitrary scheduling, but rather is best performed under explicit admin control. The system drive can only be checked prior to booting, and can be scheduled for the next boot. IIRC Ubuntu Linux performs the equivalent
fsckoperation automatically for old ext2 filesystems every 30-or-so boots. Journaled filesystems (which includes NTFS) are much more robust. – sawdust – 2017-08-07T05:23:35.517