CHKDSK Runs Too Frequently

[cavuman1]

Our completely up-to-date Windows 10 Toshiba laptop has recently started auto-running Chkdsk every 48 hours or so. (Perhaps every boot.) When prompted to restart, it takes nearly an hour to "repair errors". Is there an easy way to get the machine to stop auto-running Chkdsk? I cannot find adjustments for the subroutines of Scandisk or Chkdsk in Control Panel, Start Menu, or Security and Maintenance. I suspect that I'm making something very easy extra hard. What else is new? I know I can do it through a fairly lengthy regedit, but wonder if there's an easier way. Thanks for your assistance!

- Ed

[jimtherev]

Goes without sayin' there's something seriously wrong! As a starter, what AV software have you running?

[BFM]

I would suspect your hard drive is on the way out. Back up important files now before doing anything else.

[Repos]

I don't know if this helps. It may depend on how confident you are with the 'CMD prompt' . If it makes sense to you it may be simpler that the Regedit.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/check...tartup-windows

[cavuman1]

Thank you all for your suggestions. This hard drive is three years old and appears to be operating nominally and within normal limits. I do share, however, your sense of foreboding! We're backed up to thumb drives and The Cloud (Microsoft OneDrive.)

jimtherev - the only AV we run currently is Windows Defender, which, knock on wood, seems to be effective.

BFM - see paragraph one concerning back ups. When our computer's seven-year-old hard drive crashed, we were NOT fully backed up. We'll not make that mistake again!

Repos - excellent link! I'll give it a try and report back.

Gratefully,

Ed

[cavuman1]

Hard drive continues to function, but the Windows Action Center, Windows Start, and QuickBooks shortcut do not work! I suspect a software glitch (perhaps a Windows update) and have tried nine different approaches to solving the problem. Unfortunately, my restore points have also disappeared; I fear I may have to perform a clean install of Windows 10. Has anyone attempted that with success and without losing critical files?

A Rather Frustrated Ed

[Philoctetes]

"Has anyone attempted that with success and without losing critical files?"
Yup! Copy/Paste Docs, Pictures, Bookmarks, AddressBook, e-mails etc to external storage - USB pen or external drive. Then reinstall and copy back, it takes time!

[India Four Two]

cavuman1,

I suggest you make a bootable clone on an external drive. Doing that takes the guesswork out of which files to backup before you do the clean install AND you will have a disk to boot from if the clean install fails. I have only done this on a Mac, but it has saved my data while dealing with a couple of disk failures.

Here's a good place to start:

https://www.pcmag.com/feature/363387...e-a-hard-drive

[cavuman1]

Thanks for your advice India Four Two. I read you fife by.

- Ed

[Gerry Lawlor]

It may help to download and run the trial version of Hard Disk Sentinel which is currently still available on their website. A quick search will find it. It certainly warned me about the condition of a laptop HDD when I was considering soldiering on with occasional hiccups.

[cavuman1]

Interesting program, Gerry Lawlor, and I appreciate your recommendation! Hard Disk Sentinel indicated that my drive's performance was excellent, but that its health was only Fair. It predicts that the life expectancy of the hard drive is 258 days. Time for a new laptop, I suppose!

BTW, my great-grandfather, a Dubliner who taught English and History at Trinity University, came in second in the Irish Steeplechase. An excellent marksman, he was invited by Elliot Roosevelt, the brother of future President Theodore, to hunt buffalo in Atoka Indian Territory, which is now our State of Oklahoma. Great-Grandfather O'Beirne never returned home to Ireland; he settled in Dallas, Texas, where he built a hotel and started the first insurance agency in that then-dusty town. All of the male members of our family are numbered, not named (I am a III, my son an IV), but we all carry a precious reminder of The Emerald Isle: our middle name is Netterville. Great-Grandfather lived next door to Lord Netterville in Dublin. He figured that if he named a child Netterville, the good Lord might favor the family with a few Irish Pounds, of which the Lord had millions! Di nah happen, doncha know!

- E.N.O'B III

[Gerry Lawlor]

I would not junk the laptop unless otherwise unsatisfactory. Clone the HDD instead. I replaced the HDD on my dodgy Sony Vaio with a Crucial 240 GB SSD for about 35 USD - admittedly I had a suitable USB - SATA adapter to enable me to clone the old HDD to the new SSD before doing the changeover and Crucial provided suitable cloning software. Plenty of information available from the suppliers and generally on the web forums though for that task or else an adept teen will do it for you!
Interesting story from Cincinnati. My daughter is ex Trinity and is in San Francisco doctoring and my son also ex Trinity is in engineering management in Australia. So we still travel the world!
Good luck with the laptop

[cavuman1]

Bad News, Good News on My CHKDSK Problem

Holy thread revival, Batman, jimtherev's sagacious prediction was right! Our poor 10-year-old Toshiba laptop bricked three weeks ago We couldn't even get into DOS command level to attempt a reboot, so I'm unsure as to whether the fault lies on the HDD or the motherboard.

We broke down and invested in a new machine and, boy, has technology made a quantum leap forward in the last decade! Fortunately, I had had the presence of mind to back up all of our documents and photographs to thumb drives as well as Microsoft's OneDrive. As much as they're a company we love to hate, it was certainly a welcome wonder to find a terabyte of valuable data backed up and intact in the cloud! I really appreciate all the good advice given by my fellow Prooners.

Now if I can just find cheap copies of Word and Office....

- Ed

[kenparry]

Now if I can just find cheap copies of Word and Office....[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]

"QUOTE" in reply will not work as advertised...………………

But...…

Have you considered LibreOffice? there's a clue in the name .. it's free. It is compatible with MS file formats, and I have used it without problems for several years.

[cavuman1]

Thanks for the suggestion, kenparry. I shall give LibreOffice a try. I did run OpenOffice for a short time several years ago but found it to be clunky and counter-intuitive. We'll see if Senior Management/Long-haired Colonel likes your idea; if she does, I do too!

- Ed

p.s. Some hours after this original post - kenparry: you would be happy to know that SWMBO is delighted with LibreOffice! I give you my genuine gratitude and shall treat myself posthaste to a Cuba Libre....

[kenparry]

My pleasure!