Summary:
Windows automatically suggest to run Scan and Repair to fix any kind of corruption in USBs or external drives when the drive is connected . What if disk checking process itself stuck? How to fix error checking scanning and repairing drive is stuck? With the help of various troubleshooting steps given in the article, you can easily fix the issue on hard drives (C drive) and externals drives (USB).
Quick Navigation
What is Error Checking Scan and Repair?
What Makes Error Checking Scan and Repair To Get Stuck?
How to Fix the Error Check Scan and Repair Stuck?
Fix the Error Checking Scanning and Repairing Stuck in Windows C Drive
Fix the Error Checking Scanning and Repairing USB Drive Stuck
About Error Checking Scan and Repair
Scan and repair function is a disk checking process that comes under Windows Automatic Repair which is also known as start-up repair. Generally, when you start your laptop or PC, Automatic Repair runs automatically to fix any issues with booting. Similarly, whenever any external drive or USB with bad sectors or virus are inserted, your Windows asks to scan and repair it.
Error check Scanning and Repairing can get stuck, when you are trying to repair USB drives, hard drives, or any other external drives. Windows displays an error message There’s a problem with this drive. Scan the drive now and fix it. If the Scanning and repairing drive process gets stuck, it means that Windows cannot read the drive. However, Drive corruption can be due to several reasons but, what makes the Error checking Tool to stop working or stuck during the repair process?
What Causes Error Checking Scan and Repair to Get Stuck?
The problem is usually encountered when you abruptly shut down the PC due to power failure or force shutdown. Sometimes the issue may occur if you shutdown your PC after long time (when you restart the PC after shutting down it irregularly by keeping it in sleep mode for long days).
There are some other reasons that leads to the Error Checking Scan and Repairing drive stuck. Most common reasons are bad sectors on external drives, virus/ malware, incorrect driver configuration and severe damage to the file system can lead to the error.
How to Fix Error Checking USB Drive Scanning and Repairing Stuck Issue?
When Scanning and Repairing Drive C or D (USB) Stuck at 0%, 10%, 11%…100%, below given are the simple troubleshooting methods that help you fix the scanning and repairing drive stuck issue.
Wait for a While:
Be it on Windows C drive or D(USB), if Error checking scan and repair taking too much to scan doesn’t mean it is stuck. Minor issues on drive can be fixed in less time by scan and repair. If there are major issues on drive, scanning and repairing drive may take longer than expected time, sometimes it may take hours to complete the process. At times, you can find some of your files deleted by chkdsk scan and from Scan Fix. Therefore, make sure you keep a backup of your important files and data.
Let us see various methods to fix Scan and Repair stuck based on the type of the drive you are encountering the issue with.
Based on the Drive |
Solutions |
Fix Error Checking USB Drive Scanning and Repairing Stuck – For Hard Drives |
1. Check a Disk Connection |
Fix Error Checking USB Drive Scanning and Repairing Stuck – For USBs/External drives |
2. Run CHKDSK Scan in the Safe Mode 3. Windows Error Checking Tool |
Fix Error Checking USB Drive Scanning and Repairing Stuck – For Hard Drives
Check Disk Connection
If you have moved your PC recently this may cause displacement of computer disks. Hence, leads to improper working of Scanning and repairing drive and stuck might be the connection issues between the disk and the computer. In such cases, verify the cable and port to make sure the disks have been connected to the PC properly.
Stop Windows from Scanning and Repairing the Drive
You can easily stop Scanning and repairing process in Automatic Repair. With this, you can easily bypass Scanning and repair by pressing any key.
Step 1: As you are stuck at Scanning and repairing drive, shut down the computer using power button.
Step 2: Now, again Start the computer and you will see the Preparing Automatic Repair screen >> Diagnosing your PC
Step 3: Here, before the disk checking starts, press any key such as the spacebar or others to disable the disk checking.
Disable Automatic Repair
To avoid problems like Scanning and repairing being stuck you can easily disable Automatic Repair. To perform these steps, you will need to enter in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) or the Windows installation media. However, Windows installation media will not be available to everyone, follow the steps to disable automatic repair in WinRE.
Step 1. Shut down computer. Press power button for 10 seconds.
Step 2. Once again start the computer. Once you see that Windows has started, hold down the power button for 10s again and turn off the device. Repeat this until you see computer in WinRE.
Step 3. Once you see, Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot >> Advanced options >>Command Prompt
Step 4. Enter bcdedit and remember the values for identifier and recoveryenabled under Windows Boot Loader, Mostly, it’s {current} and Yes.
Step 5. To disable Automatic Repair, enter bcdedit /set {current} recoveryenabled no.
{current} indicates the current OS and change the value yes to no will abort Automatic Repair.
Now, Restart the computer without Automatic repair enabling Scan and Repair drive function.
Enter in Safe Mode and Check the drive
Usually, Scanning and repairing drive gets stuck due to disk errors like bad sectors and file system errors. You can choose to enter Safe Mode and run CHKDSK to fix the errors, this will make scan and repair work effectively without being stuck. Also, Safe Mode starts the computer with only required services and drivers.
Step 1. Hold down the power button for 10s to shut down the computer. Repeat this until you see computer in WinRE.
Step 2. On the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot >> Advanced options >> Startup Settings >> Restart.
Step 3. After system restarts, a list of options appears. Select 5 or press F5 to enable Safe Mode with Networking.
Step 4. Go to This PC, right-click the drive (C or USB drive) that Windows is stuck at scanning and repairing, then choose Properties.
Step 5. Go to the Tools tab >> choose Check.
Fix Error Checking USB Drive Scanning and Repairing Stuck – For USBs/External drives
When you are trying to fix any error on USB and external drives, it becomes important to keep your data safe. Before heading to the solutions to fix corrupt USB drive, it is recommended to recover your data from the trouble causing USB.
When the USB drive is not detected or recognized, the best solution is to make use of a third party tool and recover files from USB drive.
SFWare USB recovery tool is the most recommended tool to recover data unreadable or unrecognized USB. The software not only helps you recover data but also scan the drive for any bad sectors and recover files without any hassle. With its unique design and advanced data recovery algorithms it can efficiently recover inaccessible data from the USB drive.
Check the Drive connection
Any incorrect or improper connection of USB could lead to the problem Scanning and Repairing drive being stuck. Therefore, ensure the USB drive connection is secure before heading into any troubleshooting steps given below. In few cases, you might even encounter USB not recognized error as well.
You can try re-inserting the USB or unplug all the externally connected drives and restart your PC to check if the problem still exists.
Run CHKDSK in Safe Mode
Running a CHKDSK scan is one of the quickest and easiest ways to check the computer drive for system file errors. Therefore, this would reduce Scanning and repairing drive getting stuck in the process.
Step 1. Hold down the power button for 10s to shut down the computer. Repeat this until you see computer in WinRE.
Step 2. On the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot >> Advanced options >> Startup Settings >> Restart.
Step 3. After system restarts, a list of options appears. Select 5 or press F5 to enable Safe Mode.
Step 4. Now, go to Windows start and type cmd in the search box. Command Prompt >> select Run as administrator.
Step 5. Once command window appears, type the chkdsk command & hit Enter.
Step 6. if any errors appear on the drive, type chkdsk/scan & hit Enter.
This will scan the drive and fix if there is a problem with this drive.
Note: If you see …queued for offline repair, it means the drive severely corrupt and PC needs to reboot and need Automatic Repair for scanning and repairing the problematic drive.
Step 7. Next, type the command chkdsk /spotfix and tap the Y key when prompted.
Now, restart your system and wait until the scanning and repairing USB drive process gets completed.
Use Windows Error checking Tool to fix error checking USB drive scanning and repairing stuck
Windows Error-checking tool checks and automatically fixes the issues that can lead to scanning and repairing stuck problem.
Step 1: Click on the File Explorer >> This PC >> expand Devices & drives.
Step 2: Right click on the USB drive causing scanning and repairing to be stuck and choose Properties. Click on the Tools tab >> under Error Checking >> click the Check button.
Step 3: if you USB drive has any error, you’ll be asked to repair a drive.
Disable the Check Drive on Booting and fix scanning and repair USB drive stuck
If you find that there is no issue in your USB drive & still the scanning & repairing stuck error is appearing, then you should try modifying a registry & disabling the CHKDSK on booting.
Step 1: Enter into Safe Mode (follow the steps given in above solutions) >> press the Windows+ R keys together to launch the Run dialog & type regedit, and click OK.
Step 2: Tap Yes when asked for permission to make changes.
Step 3: Go to a Session Manager >> BootExecute in the right column.
Step 4: on the next window, change a Value data to the autocheckautochk /k:C * & hit OK to confirm the changes.
Now, finally exit the Safe Mode & restart your PC to verify whether the issue of scanning & repairing the drive stuck is solved or not.
Fix error checking USB drive scanning and repairing stuck using Windows PowerShell
In this method we use PowerShell to run a Repair-Volume-DriveLetter command to scan and fix the drive errors that might lead to Error Checking Scanning and repairing stuck.
Step 1: Enter you PC into Safe Mode as mentioned in the above solutions
Step 2: Type Powershell on the search box >> Run as Administrator.
Step 3: Now, on the opened panel, type the repair-volume -driveletter x command & hit Enter
Finally, restart your computer and check for the error scanning repairing USB drive stuck
Conclusion:
Error Checking Scanning and Repairing drive stuck is not an uncommon error. The usually occurs when the drive is severely corrupt and unable to scan the drive. With the help of above-mentioned methods, you can easily fix the issue and fix the errors in hard drive and external drives like USB, SD cards as well.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How long does it take to scan and repair a USB drive?
The process of Scan and Repair, repairing a drive varies from drive to drive. If the computer is scanning and repairing a hard drive, it may exceed more than expected hours to complete. If the computer is scanning and repairing a USB, the process depends on bad sectors and corruption on USB file system. And it may get stuck around 11% or 20% or abruptly completes 100%.
How do I fix scanning and repairing C drive stuck at 100 %?
The easiest way to fix scanning and repairing C drive stuck at 100% is to stop Windows from Scanning and Repairing the Drive. Perform the hard shutdown by holding the power button for 5 to 10 seconds and when Windows restart press any key to cancel the scan and repair process.
Does scanning and repairing drive delete files?
Scan and Fix process only scans the drive and repair if any file system error, bad sectors and logical errors are encountered. The whole process doesn’t delete any of the files from the drive. However, if the drive is severely damaged or corrupt, there might be the changes of files getting deleted from the drive. To keep your data safe, is always recommended to keep a backup of your files or make use of any data recovery software.
Is it safe to scan and fix hard drive?
Yes, it is absolutely safe to use Scan and repair function to fix errors in the drives. The process works on both hard drives and external drives like USB, SD card etc. with the hep of Scan and Repair, you can easily fix any bad sectors on the drive and minor file system damage on the drive.