How do I find out which files/folders my ChkDsk Errors are associated with?

I did a routine checkdisk on my data HDD after migrating computers and found errors.

I've backed up the HDD and am about start the repair utility.

If the repair deletes or corrupts some data during the process, how will I find out which files to check in case I need to restore them from an even older backup?

How do I find out which files/folders my ChkDsk Errors are associated with?

If the repair ... corrupts some data during the process

  Sorry, I couldn't let that one go.

First, CHKDSK doesn't corrupt data.  If something is flagged, that data is already corrupted.

That being said CHKDSK finds lost blocks throughout the disk, and assemble them in the Lost & Found directory.  There's no easy way to find out where they came from unless opening each file segments with a HEX editor (hexadecimal characters) for a hint of their content.

My suggestion to find out which files are recovered or which files are lost is to compare the filenames on the corrupt disc to the filename list of one of your backups.

If you run chkdsk /r, it will find bad sectors, mark them for disuse, and relocate the data in those sectors to another location (and fix the pointers). Don't overthink it - just go ahead and run it.

I was using a thirdparty portable Check Disk by Dirk Paehl GUI which reported errors.

Then I used Windows to Scan the drive by right-clicking on its properties.

It warned me there was no need to scan the drive because it didn't have errors.

I scanned anyway, and then it showed errors on 30 files I didn't care about.

I clicked on details, which launched Event Viewer Application Log, which showed me filepaths for most of the corrupted files.

I clicked to fix them and then the same log showed me what was fixed by clicking on details again afterwards.

Edited by hmp3, 26 June 2024 - 08:12 PM.