Windows 10: How to Safely Stop CHKDSK /f of External Hard Drive

Dear TenForums,

I have been unable to access my external harddrive for some time, why I chose to run CHKDSK /f. Unfortunately, I believe that the drive is fully corrupted since the check has now lasted 24 hours and is only at 2 percent (Please see screen dump from promt). I have been searching the inter-webs to find a suitable/safe solution to end the check, however, I cannot seem to find a conclusive answer. It is a 1 TB external harddrive with family photos and other nostalgic items. Therefore, I would like to do as little damage as possible to ensure that the files are salvageable.

My question is: How can I as safely as possible end the CHKDSK /f on my external harddrive?

Windows 10 Home Version 1909



:)

 

How to stop chkdsk on an external drive?

Up front: I was wrong to start a chkdsk on an large external drive. Reason was/is, I could not delete an empty folder and some site recommended run chkdsk.

Assuming it would be over and done with, within -say- an hour or so I started it. Much to my regret.
It is says it'll take more than a day now.

Any suggestions as to how to safely stop it.
Some say that probably only a few files might be ruined. It is no problem because I have copies of all files on different other drives, restoring wouldn't be too much problem.

But if the entire drive is completely ruined...

Is there a way to safely stop it, with a minimum on damaged files then?

Thanks.

 

How to stop chkdsk on an external drive?

The mistake was to use the /R option which checks every cluster for bad blocks. Just /F should have been sufficient for your purposes....

Stages 1 to 3 are the ones where you risk damage because they may be re-writing the ntfs file structure when you stop chkdsk.

You are on Stage 4 which is just reading from the disk, it will only write to the disk if it finds a bad block. It should be safe to stop it as the chances you actually have a bad block, and that chkdsk is repairing it when you stop it are so small they can be ignored.

As you appear to be running this in a Command Prompt, just close the Window to stop it. To reassure yourself afterwards, run CHKDSK /F (without the /R so that it completes quickly).

 

Chkdsk /f

Hi,

The error message "Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected." is usually occurring if there is a write protection tab on your hard drive or the partition file system is corrupted or damaged due to malware infection or
other unknown reasons.

For us to provide an accurate solution, we would need you to answer the following questions:

• Which build and edition of Windows 10 is installed on your computer?
• What changes have you made to the device before this issue occurred?

For initial troubleshooting, we suggest entering the command chkdsk E: /f /r /x in Command Prompt. Take note that you should replace
E with the drive letter for your PC's hard drive or USB drive. Once done, check if the same issue persists.

Important: While performing chkdsk on the hard drive, if any bad sectors are found when chkdsk tries to repair that sector, any data available on it might be lost.

We'll be waiting for your response.