my pc has went into checkdisk mode fixing stage 1 at startup.
its going to take forever
eta 297 hours
1874176 things to check only done 4818 of them after 20 mins
any way i can stop this?
otherwise im just gonna have to hold power button in,as dont want to leave running all night
only going to take another 333 hours now.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2026 at 12:14 AM

That ETA is bogus. Checkdisk always lies early on. If you hard power off, you could make any corruption worse.

Try control+c or some other keyboard shortcut to quit it.

 

your best chance at a working computer is to let it run. sucks that your drive is corrupted but it is what it is. you may have to rebuild anyway, but keeping as much of your data as you can is worth it.

though, if you have a recent backup you may as well start restoring it now

 

watchout. that happened to me. the more you keep going with the chkdsk the more you'll be damaging the harddrive - if it's an hdd and somthing happened to it, like falling. i had to send my drive to a special recovering facility and ended up paying somthing like 1500€ to recover my data. and still about 35% of it was corrupted and forever lost. one of the disks of the hdd went to the can and all that was in it gone. spent 3 months waiting for the outcome. so if you value what you got in it i'd take it to the professionals.

 

Install CrystalDiskInfo and post the screenshot here! This tool reliably shows you actual hard drive errors!

How to Use CHKDSK to Repair & Fix Windows Hard Drives
A buggy PC can derail your entire week. Thankfully, the built-in Windows CHKDSK (check disk) utility can find and repair bug-causing errors easily. Keep reading to learn how to use CHKDSK to improve the performance of your computer. Then, get a powerful optimization tool to keep your computer running smoothly.
https://www.avast.com/c-chkdsk-windows

Spoiler: Here’s how to run CHKDSK from Command Prompt on Windows:

Here’s how to run CHKDSK from Command Prompt on Windows:

1. Type cmd (Command Prompt) in the Start menu search bar, then click Run as administrator.
   
   
2. Type chkdsk and hit Enter. CHKDSK will scan for drive errors and let you know if it found any you should repair, but it won’t try to fix them without a command.
   
   

This command should work for all Windows versions, whether you’re running CHKDSK on Windows 11 or Windows 7.

CrystalDiskInfo
- A HDD/SSD utility software which supports a part of USB, Intel RAID and NVMe.
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

How to Fix Windows with a Repair Install
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/how-to-fix-windows-10-with-a-repair-install

Run System File Checker
In the Command Prompt window, type the following command, and press ENTER:
sfc /scannow
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...em-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e

 

i went to bed and left it running,woke up few hours later went in to look at pc and it had finished.
going like a charm now.
before it was taking at least 10 mins to shut down.os is on an ssd the disk that was being checked was an hdd

 

I think its time to replace the HDD

 

Its not that its lying per say, its telling you the estimate if every sector it had to check was the same as the sector it was checking at the time. it starts with the most full sectors and works down. But yes very inaccurate, and powering off during chkdsk is indeed a terrible idea. might as well turn it off during a bios update and sink the fckr lol

 

Do yourself a favor and install this: CrystalDiskInfo - An HDD/SSD utility software that supports some USB, Intel RAID, and NVMe. https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/ Windows usually repairs or replaces bad sectors. With this tool, you can monitor the errors and the health of your hard drive. If you'd like, post a screenshot here.

 

Your HDD is going bad. Check its SMART status (ChrystalDisk will do, HWInfo also) for any reallocated sectors.
If there are some, it's time to make a backup and keep an eye on it. If you get problems with shutdown and the number of reallocated sectors is growing, it's time to change it.

Sometimes people kick/hit/drop a hard disk and damage it, but it can still work normally after repairing it with chkdisk. When it's worn out and old - no chance, too unreliable to use it. Maybe store tutorials and porn on it, and use it as an unreliable external backup HDD.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2026 at 2:03 PM

here is image from crystaldiskinfo

 

Your hard drive has been in operation for 7600 hours. --> Try to purchase a new hard drive soon.

Reallocated Sectors Count

Essentially, your hard drive has noticed a problem with a part of the disk. Instead of saving your data there, which is risky, it moves the data to a safe part of the disk and continues on with what it was doing.

The reallocated sector count can be an early warning sign of a failing hard drive, and increases in reallocated sectors are one of the telltale signs of a drive that’s dying. Reallocation is a normal part of a hard drive’s operation, but when the reallocated sector count continues to increase, it can slow down your drive by 10% or more. Worse, you may no longer be able to open files containing missing data. Unless you enjoy living dangerously, back up your data regularly and consider buying a new hard drive when the count becomes too high

 

bottom part

 

C5 Current Pending Sector Count

Current Pending Sector Count S.M.A.R.T. parameter is a critical parameter and indicates the current count of unstable sectors (waiting for remapping). The raw value of this attribute indicates the total number of sectors waiting for remapping. Later, when some of these sectors are read successfully, the value is decreased. If errors still occur when reading some sector, the hard drive will try to restore the data, transfer it to the reserved disk area (spare area) and mark this sector as remapped. This is a critical parameter.

Degradation of this parameter may indicate imminent drive failure. Urgent data backup and hardware replacement is recommended.

- Count of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of unrecoverable read errors).
- If an unstable sector is subsequently read successfully, the sector is remapped and this value is decreased.
- Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector immediately (since the correct value cannot be read and so the value to remap is not known, and also it might become readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and will remap it the next time it's written.

However some drives will not immediately remap such sectors when written; instead the drive will first attempt to write to the problem sector and if the write operation is successful then the sector will be marked good (in this case, the "Reallocation Event Count" (0xC4) will not be increased).

This is a serious shortcoming, for if such a drive contains marginal sectors that consistently fail only after some time has passed following a successful write operation, then the drive will never remap these problem sectors.

 

all my hd154ux series drives died like five years ago, they were backups so only 100 ish hrs power on time - you should replace it. Btw Platters are great mirrors if you plan to do diy stuff with lasers or telescope builds.

 

I bought a new Seagate ironwolf 2tb oct24.
£70.same one now at least £130. Joke
There are refurbished HDDs on eBay,says the smart reading is spot on.
Should I avoid?

 

You're better off buying a new hard drive, as you have a 2-year legal right of return.
Some people have reported that hard drives failed quickly, and after sending the drive in, they received a brand new one back.

Hard drives should be bought new with a warranty, because damage can occur during shipping that might not be immediately apparent. How will you prove that the sender is at fault if the hard drive is defective or damaged?

Seagate IronWolf 2TB (ST2000VN003)

Product Overview: 2 TB SATA III (SATA 600) 5400 RPM Data Transfer Rate 180 MB/s Power Consumption (Operating) 3.1 Watts Power Consumption (Idle) 2.8 Watts Noise Level (Operating) 21 dB 3.5-inch Form Factor 20.2 mm Height

Germany --> www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/202262324_-ironwolf-2tb-st2000vn003-seagate.html

89,22 € bis 119 €

 

thanks,unfortunately i would have to pay a tax on that would still work out around£130

 

A lot of money, but a necessary purchase. Yes, England, I've been there, it's very expensive. You're a big island and have high prices and taxes. Food sometimes arrives by plane. You also left the EU, which was a free trade zone.