If I run a windows chkdsk on a single partition and tell it to check for errors at boot time, does it check the entire physical drive, or just that partition?
So if you have a dual boot and tell Windows to scan its own partition for errors, does it check the other partitions for physical bad sectors, too? Please provide some kind of reference.
As started chkdsk will only check that one partition. If you are looking for a check on the full and think you might have data loss look into SpinRite, it isn't free but it can be very useful no mater what OS you run.
if you tell it to check a single partition then that's what it will do. but if your disk has some physical damage, there is a big chance there will be errors on other partitions too
It is performed on the specified partition only. Keep in mind the locking behavior. If it would scan the entire disk for bad sectors the entire disk - i.e. all partitions on it need to be locked.
