To Skip Disk Checking Press any Key: How to Disable it

One of Windows annoying so called “features” is the Windows disk checker (Chkdsk) being automatically executed whenever you don’t shut down your computer properly. The blue colored screen appears on Windows XP or black colored screen for Windows Vista and 7 during boot that says:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended that you continue.
To skip disk checking, press any key within 10 seconds(s).

Simply pressing any key would stop Check disk from running but when you restart your computer, you’ll get this prompt again because Windows still thinks the drive needs scanning and will keep reminding you until it is checked. Sometimes, even after letting Check disk scan the drive that it wants to, the checking process would still automatically run at next boot and it wants to check the drives again.

Disable CHKDSK at startup

What we have found out is that when Windows detects there has been an improper shutdown or a drive such as a USB flash drive has been ejected before the system has finished with it, a secret value is stored on the drive to let Windows know about the issue and force a Check disk request. This value is known as a “Dirty bit” and is a single hex value (2 values for Windows 8) that Windows looks at on boot for system drives or when the the external device is inserted.

One easy way to determine if a drive letter is marked as dirty and will require auto chkkdsk on boot is to run the command fsutil dirty query C: in Command Prompt. If the fsutil tool reports that the drive letter is not dirty, the disk checking process will not want to run for that drive. However, when a drive letter is being marked as dirty, we discovered the location of the hex values on the drive that are being modified and resetting the dirty bit hex value to default will magically stop the auto disk check on boot.

fsutil dirty query

While resetting the dirty bit manually would be the best solution for many situations, it is more difficult to do on system drives such as C because they will be locked and not allow editing from within Windows to change the bit value. Another option for these drives is to simply instruct Windows not to bother checking whether they have been marked as dirty on boot, so you’ll never get a request to auto check them again. Here’s how to disable or stop Check disk from scanning your drives in Windows boot for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 8.

There are people who suggest editing the registry to do this which works if done properly, but the recommended and safer way to disable auto Check disk from starting up is using the /x switch via the chkntfs command in Command Prompt. This switch will exclude a drive from the default boot time check. To get to the Command Prompt, go to:

Start -> Run (or Win key+R) -> type cmd and press enter

If you have drive C: as the drive you want exclude, then the command to disable chkdsk from scanning the C: drive would be:

chkntfs /x c:

chkntfs switch

If you have a second drive to exclude, C: and D: for example, you can disable Check disk with the command below. Simply add all the drives you want to exclude in this way, separating them with a space.

chkntfs /x c: d:

exclude 2 drives from chkdsk

Sometimes users don’t like editing the registry or using the command prompt, which is why for your convenience, we have created a simple batch file to run the command for you. Download and run the .bat file, then enter the drive letter(s) to exclude from autocheck when prompted, the rest is automatic. Make sure to right click and “Run as Administrator”.

Download Autocheck Boot Exclude.bat

autocheck boot exclude

There are some experts who believe that it’s better not to disable Check disk from scanning your hard drive. But sometimes it makes sense if you don’t want it to scan your hard drive because if it finds anything bad, damaged files will be changed to File00001.CHK. When that happens, you will have to use data recovery software or some third party tools to recognize and recover the CHK files.

There are other important functions the Windows chkntfs command performs you should know about, which are discussed in more detail on page 2.

135 Comments - Write a Comment

  1. col 3 years ago
  2. Nazi 3 years ago
  3. ann 3 years ago
  4. Jack 3 years ago
  5. [Name} 3 years ago
  6. kevin 3 years ago
  7. Vladimir 4 years ago
  8. Zerry 4 years ago
  9. dale 4 years ago
    • HAL9000 4 years ago
  10. Michael Charles 4 years ago
  11. Andrei 5 years ago
  12. nikos3194 6 years ago
  13. Matt 6 years ago
  14. Paul 6 years ago
  15. Sean 7 years ago
  16. ame 7 years ago
  17. Vikas Chaturvedi 7 years ago
  18. Peter - UK 8 years ago
  19. Bead 8 years ago
  20. Sop 8 years ago
    • MCTomkat 2 years ago
  21. Graham Ansell 8 years ago
  22. Hector Ayala 8 years ago
  23. donny 8 years ago
  24. Ronnie 8 years ago
  25. Liv 8 years ago
  26. Alan 9 years ago
  27. shubham 9 years ago
  28. Jack 9 years ago
    • nath bagde 9 years ago
  29. Chris 9 years ago
  30. C Kalana 10 years ago
  31. rocky 10 years ago
  32. suresh 10 years ago
  33. ricohflex 10 years ago
    • Teduardo Martinique 9 years ago
  34. sailesh 10 years ago
  35. siraj 10 years ago
  36. AS 10 years ago
  37. vishal joshi 10 years ago
  38. sir simon 10 years ago
  39. John 10 years ago
  40. kiran 11 years ago
  41. Thony 11 years ago
  42. Trevor 11 years ago
  43. James 11 years ago
  44. Dodko 11 years ago
  45. L 11 years ago
  46. Endriago 11 years ago
  47. Joe 11 years ago
  48. acatatease 11 years ago
  49. manoj 11 years ago
  50. Rave 11 years ago
  51. متوكل عبدالله 11 years ago
  52. Chris 11 years ago
  53. Sukanta 12 years ago
  54. Paranoid 12 years ago
  55. Hawkeye 12 years ago
  56. sher2011 12 years ago
  57. majid 12 years ago
  58. Cu 12 years ago
  59. nash 12 years ago
  60. Károly Molnár 12 years ago
  61. Leo Masagca 13 years ago
  62. Marc Lester C 13 years ago
  63. justshootme 13 years ago
  64. dimuthu 13 years ago
  65. yasir 13 years ago
  66. Rap Music Guide 13 years ago
  67. Anil G. Gajera 13 years ago
  68. mario0ne 13 years ago
  69. Rudra 13 years ago
  70. Atish 13 years ago
  71. Bharath 13 years ago
  72. vinay chavan 13 years ago
  73. voltsky 13 years ago
  74. Jacques Bouchard 13 years ago
  75. Kirykiry 13 years ago
  76. Grace 13 years ago
  77. n3o 13 years ago
  78. Brahim 13 years ago
  79. sanjay shaw 13 years ago
  80. kryshna 13 years ago
  81. cris69 13 years ago
  82. Hyns 14 years ago
  83. adol 14 years ago
  84. notts 14 years ago
  85. hehe 14 years ago
  86. Joseph 14 years ago
  87. gautam 14 years ago
  88. Franz Capones 14 years ago
  89. Richard 14 years ago
  90. P 14 years ago
  91. Brummie from UK 14 years ago
  92. bob parrish 14 years ago
  93. jeremiah 14 years ago
  94. Cary 14 years ago
  95. Aryan 14 years ago
  96. wez 14 years ago
  97. alkita 15 years ago
  98. Satyaranjan Chongtham 15 years ago
  99. Gre 15 years ago
  100. Kent 15 years ago
  101. Alternal 15 years ago
  102. woross 15 years ago
  103. Barbara Stebbins 15 years ago
  104. Jag 15 years ago
  105. jp 15 years ago
  106. Shivam 15 years ago
  107. ajithkumar.r 15 years ago
  108. ROb 15 years ago
  109. Jim 15 years ago
  110. Krishnan 15 years ago
  111. Naqqash 15 years ago
  112. spunker88 15 years ago
  113. baohp 15 years ago
  114. Rex Aguillon 16 years ago
  115. bashka 16 years ago
  116. arvelle 16 years ago
  117. red 16 years ago
  118. kristijan 16 years ago
  119. Eriek Haelnx 16 years ago
  120. Jagdish 16 years ago
  121. Horace 16 years ago
  122. Chris 16 years ago
  123. Charlie 16 years ago
  124. Chief_runningwater 16 years ago
  125. Nishant 16 years ago
  126. Ryu 16 years ago
  127. John C 16 years ago
  128. Elvis 16 years ago
  129. irjan 16 years ago
  130. bugtea 16 years ago
  131. Nelson 16 years ago

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Your comment is subject to approval. Read our Terms of Use. If you are seeking additional information on this article, please contact us directly.