Q: I bought a Dell Inspiron 1420 in February this year.

I ran CHKDSK on it and at the final step 5, when the transaction was half completed, it got stuck.

Even after two hours, the transaction bar had not moved. As I needed to use the notebook, I did a cold boot and skipped out of the CHKDSK to get some work done.

I then tried CHKDSK a day later and the same problem recurred. The same thing happened when I tried it two days later.

I have run CHKDSK on all my other notebooks periodically and have no problems as I am quite familiar with the process.

Please let me know what is causing CHKDSK to stop halfway.

Agnes Lee

A: The problem may be the hard disk drive that is causing the CHKDSK application to stall. Here is how you can diagnose the possibility of corruption or damage to the hard drive:

• Open the Windows Command Prompt, press the Windows key and R and input CMD select OK.
• Type in CHKDSK C: /I /. By running the CHKDSK utility without the /F command, it runs in Read-Only mode and will not attempt to fix errors found.

If CHKDSK indicates a problem and every time you attempt a full CHKDSK process (not Read-Only) using the /F command line option it continues to hang at step 5, you have a couple of choices.

Either let it run with the hope that it can eventually finish or if the unit is still under warranty, speak to Dell about the possibility of a faulty hard disk drive.

If you approach Dell, make sure you have your data backed up because they will most likely replace or re-format the unit back to factory settings.

Answer by Chester Chen, a recognised Microsoft Most Valuable Professional specialising in Windows desktop experience

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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