How to Disable Auto CHKDSK During Startup

The CHKDSK utility can potentially prevent data corruption on a hard drive.

In Windows, the CHKDSK utility scans the hard drive for various file system errors and attempts to repair them before they can cause data loss. In some circumstances, the CHKDSK utility may run automatically when the computer starts. In most cases, it is wise to allow CHKDSK to run. However, if you find that it continually runs each time you start the computer, you may decide that you would rather prevent this from taking place.

Instructions

1. Click the "Start" icon, and type "regedit" without quotation marks in the "Search programs and files" box at the bottom of the menu. Press "Enter" to launch the registry editor application.

2. Open the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" folder in the left pane of the window, and continue by opening the "SYSTEM," "CurrentControlSet," "Control" and "Session Manager" folders. Click the "Session Manager" folder. You should now see an entry on the left side of the window called "BootExecute." In the "Data" column for this registry entry, the screen reads "autocheck autochk *."

3. Double-click "BootExecute," and change the "Value Data" box to read "autocheck autochk /k C: *."

4. Click "OK," close the registry editor and restart the computer. Windows no longer runs the CHKDSK application automatically.

Tips & Warnings

• Before disabling the automatic CHKDSK in Windows, allow the operation to run fully and restart the computer. The CHKDSK operation is intended to scan for and fix problems with the hard drive, and disabling CHKDSK could cause a hard drive problem to go uncorrected.

References

• Windows Reference: How to Disable Check Disk at Startup in Vista