How to disable disk checking in Windows 10 or Windows 11

Shaant Minhas

hard drive

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Disk checking is your PC’s way to examine your Windows HDD for errors. If it finds any mistakes with your hard drive, it tries to correct them immediately. However, for a variety of reasons—primarily because of its long completion time—some users prefer to skip the disk checking process altogether.

In this article, we explain how you can disable the disk checking option once and for all. So, let’s dive in right away.

How to disable disk checking on Windows 10 or Windows 11

Open the Command prompt

Head to the Start menu search bar, type in ‘cmd,’ and run the Command prompt as administrator.

Enter the command to disable disk checking

Now type in the following command in your drive and hit Enter:
chkntfs /x Drive:
‘Drive’ here represents the drive you’d like to exclude from your scan.

Execute the command

As soon as you execute the above command, your disk checking will be disabled.

Disable CHKDSK using the Registry

If the above method doesn’t work, you can try your luck with the Windows Registry. The registry is a database of information about your PC’s different software and hardware settings.

Unsurprisingly, you can also use the Registry Editor for doing a host of other things; and in this case, this means you can disable your disk checking through it as well. Here’s how you can get started.

  • Head to the Start menu search bar, type in ‘registry editor,’ and select the best match.
  • In the Registry Editor, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key and click on SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control.
  • From there, click on the Session Manager and double-click on BootExecute.
  • Set the Value data in the following dialog box to autocheck autochk k:Drive (where Drive is the drive you’re canceling the ) and click OK.

Disk checking will be disabled as soon as you complete the above steps. And, if you’d like to enable it again in the future, then all you’ve to do is type in autocheck autochk * in the value data exchange again, and everything will be back to normal.

Disabling disk checking on Windows

Running disk checking, or CHKDSK, is a handy way to look for and care for your PC’s health. However, the process takes its time, so if you’re in a hurry, you can follow the above methods to stop any disk checking procedures you might’ve enabled in the first place.