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I'm trying to sort out a problem on my wife's laptop. The event log has many errors:

The device, \Device\Hardisk0\DR0, has a bad block.

So, I'd like to run chkdsk /r /f on it. I do that in a CMD window (as an admin) to schedule chkdsk on restart. But when it restarts, it attempts to run that command, then stops with 

chkdsk cancelled

Why would this happen?

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chkdsk /r /f is redundant, /r switch implies /f, chkdsk /r will perform both functions. – Moab Feb 14 '11 at 19:22
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migrated from serverfault.com Feb 14 '11 at 18:38

This question came from our site for system administrators and desktop support professionals.

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

The trick is to boot from a different device. In my case, I hunted out the Windows 7 upgrade disk, worked out how to get to a command prompt, and then chkdsk was able to run. That fixed my bad blocks (added them to the marked bad blocks list).

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Back your data up and replace the drive or risk losing data. – Moab Feb 14 '11 at 19:21
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up vote 0 down vote

Throw in a /x option. It will force the disk to unmount first before scanning.

This could be the issue since chkdsk will cancel if the volume is in use.

chkdsk /r /f /x

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No. That made no difference. Same message 'The disk check has been cancelled'. – David in NZ Feb 13 '11 at 9:17
Have you tried starting up in Safe Mode command line only and running the same command from there? – Mike Feb 14 '11 at 4:19
Safe Mode did not help either. – David in NZ Feb 14 '11 at 18:11
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up vote 0 down vote

Bad block errors typically mean a failing harddrive. We immediately replace these in my practice as an IT consultant.

For a personal user, however, a chkdsk COULD buy you some time, but then again, it may not. I recommend replacement as soon as possible, and if you have data you need I would avoid using it more until you can get a good backup!

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