what are the signs that a check disk/disk repair is not working?

Question

I'm trying to understand whether the current state of my Windows 10 PC should be interrupted and force a reboot. I see an arrow cursor on my screen with a black background, and if I move the mouse, the cursor will move also.

My Windows 10 machine froze and needed to be rebooted. It happened twice today, which is somewhat unusual. It prompted me for a checkdisk upon reboot which I accepted. It gets stuck at about 8% or so or then reboots to repeat things again. Once or twice it boots into Windows semi-normally. During those occasions, I could see the Windows desktop screen, but startup icons didn't load properly and I can't start any program (though I can right click the desktop and see some options. Now I only see the arrow icon on the screen (it's been that way for about 30 minutes).

One complicating factor is that the hard disk is almost full (100 gigs of a 2 TB hard drive). (I haven't had the chance to back up to an external drive). I'm assuming that this will complicate a checkdisk/repair action. Also, I just updated Windows 10 earlier today.

So far the arrow icon with a black background has been on my screen for about 30 minutes. I realize that I should wait longer, but how do I know that the checkdisk repair is no longer "doing anything."? Should I just wait until the arrow cursor is frozen?

Also, if I were to force a hard reboot and repeat the process, would the time needed to do checkdisk be reduced by how long it was running that process prior to the reboot?

Answer 1

Seems like the OS processes are having issues to start correctly.

Please try this:

• Start your system and wait until you get the black screen with only the mouse cursor moving.

• Hit Ctrl + Shift + Escape to get the task manager.

• Once you get the task manager, click on File menu button and select Run New task

• The task to Open is "explorer.exe" and hit OK.

This should force the system to start back up the explorer process and show you your computer desktop. If so, go ahead and save your data and proceed formatting the HD and installing Windows again. Don't recommend recover or reparing tools at Windows 10.

If your user desktop didn't come up, look for another computer and save your data putting the HD as an slave in another system via USB with an adapter or SATA cable if there is a Desktop computer.

This happens often after Windows 8 update to Windows 10 without reinstalling or Windows 10 being turned off without advise.

Hope this helps you to find a way to solve your issues.

Regards,

Luis