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6 Methods to Use if Windows was Unable to Repair the Drive
Run a CHKDSK or use the System File Checker tool
7 min. read
Updated onOctober 16, 2023
updated onOctober 16, 2023
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You must have just encountered the error message Windows was unable to repair the drive.
Windows 10 OS has a built-in System File Checker and Disk Checker utility. If the OS detects a corruption or malfunction of the drive, it will ask you to run the CHKSDK utility to fix the drive.
The tool has a good record of repairing minor corruption and resolving problems with the hard drive.
However, the built-in diagnostic tools sometimes fail to repair the drive and show Windows could not repair the drive error.
What does Windows was unable to repair the drive message mean?
This error means you have a bad drive that can not be repaired by the built-in Windows tool. A few things may trigger this situation; the following are at the top of the list.
A few variations to this problem may include:
While there may be other triggers, these are the top ones, and we will show you the most recommended solutions.
How do I fixWindows was unable to repair the driveerrors?
1. Boot into Safe Mode
After your PC restarts, you should see a list of options. Press4orF4on your keyboard to start the PC in Safe Mode.
Windows will show a Recovery menu if it fails to boot normally three times over. You can manually interrupt the boot process by pressing the Power button when the Window starts to boot.
During the next restart, Windows will show the Preparing Automatic Repair screen and then asks you to select a user account. Windows will try to diagnose the issue and present you with an Automatic Repair screen.
Note that some of these fixes require you to be able to log in to Windows. If you cannot log in or if the boot process fails, you can try to boot Windows into Safe Mode.
Safe Mode is a diagnostic mode in Windows OS that helps you to clean boot the PC with absolutely minimal services running to boot the computer successfully.
This way, if the software or driver conflicts with the booting process, you can log in without the error for diagnostic purposes.
Now that you know how to boot into Safe Mode let’s dive in and look at the solutions to fix Windows that could not repair the drive error.
2. Run Check Disk tool from Command Prompt
The first solution is to run the check disk tool again but manually from the Command Prompt.
In the above command/rlocates bad sectors and recovers data where possible, and/fforces the drive to dismount before beginning the scanning process.
Wait for the check disk process to complete. Windows will automatically scan and fix the drive for any error and corruption issues.
3. Run a diagnostic tool
Assuming that the disk error is occurring due to your external hard drive, you can use any diagnostic tools to pinpoint the problem and fix the bad sectors.
Some hard drive makers like WD offer their diagnostic tools. If not, you can always use third-party software like the one recommended below to run and test the drive for errors.
While this software may not fix the error, you can always prevent the hard drive from serious damage due to continued use under bad conditions.
Stellar Data Recovery
4. Run the SFC scan
5. Check the hard drive for hardware failure
It also might be that you can’t boot into Windows even with a bootable USB flash drive, which means you probably have a bad hard drive.
Whether it is an internal SDD/HDD or external HDD, the only way to make sure of the hardware failure is to remove the drive from the computer and connect it to another working computer.
If the other computer does not recognize the drive, you mostly have a faulty one and need torepair or replace it.
Connect a spare drive, if you have one, to your non-working computer and try to boot from it. If the PC recognizes the hard drive, it could be a hard drive failure.
In this case, you do not have many options. You can try to return the hard drive, claim the warranty, and recover the data from the hard drive, taking professional help.
6. Clean Install Windows
Assuming you don’t have a hardwarefailure, you can try to perform aclean install of Windowsas a last resort.
This is a solution that many don’t like, but at times, this is the last option to get your computer working again.
If you can log in to Windows, you must create a data backup of your important files and folders.
If you cannot boot into Windows, but your hard drive is not dead, you canstill recover the data from the hard driveusing Linux Mint OS via a USB drive.
This isn’t the only error, and many reportedUnable to determine volume version and statein chkdsk, but we have addressed this issue in a separate guide.
Windows cannot repair the drive while it’s in use errors can be fixed with CHKDSK or the System File Checker tool most of the time. You can format the disk on an external hard drive or USB drive if feasible.
However, if the problem is with the primary local drive, the error can create serious issues. Follow all the solutions suggested in this article that may help you fix the error on your Windows PC.
Please let us know if any solutions did the trick for you or if you have a new solution that deserves to be on the list in the comments.
Tashreef Shareef
Tashreef Shareef is a software developer turned tech writer. He discovered his interest in technology after reading a tech magazine accidentally. Now he writes about everything tech from Windows to iOS and streaming services to IoT at WindowsReport.
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