Sometimes your computer might reboot unexpectedly or have some other problem that causes it to run an automatic CHKDSK (check disk). This is a built-in utility in Windows that attempts to repair damage to the data on your disk. If CHKDSK runs when you don’t expect it or when you’re not at your computer, it can be challenging to see what happened during the scan. The most important part of CHDSK is the results at the end of the scan. For this post, we’re going to focus on how to see the results of the CHKDSK utility in Event Viewer.
After CHKDSK completes, the results are logged in the Windows Event Viewer. Here’s how to find the results:
Event Viewer
Click Start -> type “event” -> click on “Event Viewer”
Expand “Windows Logs” -> select “Application” -> click “Find” on the right side
Search for “wininit”
Viewing the Results
It may take a while to search, but eventually you should see some search results for Event ID 1001 in the Application log:
When you click on the item with “Wininit” in the Source column, you should see the results of the CHKDSK scan in the main pane in the middle of the screen (see picture above).
Interpreting the Results
You can read the results of the scan, and it may be clear to you what the problem is. It may also tell you that the problem has already been resolved. CHKDSK will try to resolve problems automatically if it can. If it’s not clear, or if you’re not sure if you need to do anything else, leave a comment below (or use the Contact form) and send me the results of your scan. You can copy and paste the information given in the “General” tab of the results.
I hope this helps!
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