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Windows detected an error on one of my nonessential drives in my desktop PC. It said it needed to reboot to fix the errors, so I rebooted and it started scanning the drive. However it is taking a very long time, and I need to get back to work. The drive in question is not the system drive, so I want to just cancel it, finish working, and then let it run overnight.

I don't see an option to cancel the drive repair, so I can't log in to Windows. Is there any way to cancel it without booting into safe mode?

EDIT:

To be clear, my ultimate goal is to log into Windows without doing a disk check. The Windows 8 disk check doesn't seem to have a cancel option like past versions did, so rebooting or pulling the plug won't work, because it'll just reboot back into the disk check.

Phil
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    If your willing to lose the data on the drive then the scan can be cancalled. – Ramhound Apr 05 '13 at 16:23
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    @Ramhound That's the point, I can't cancel the scan. This is at boot time. – Phil Apr 05 '13 at 16:33
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    I just assumed this was a chkdisk scan which can be skipped. You can simply turn the pc off to cancel the scan if its running. As I indicate not scanning the drive, if there is actually a problem, can result in data being lost. – Ramhound Apr 05 '13 at 18:05
  • Why don't you want to boot into Safe Mode? If you can run into safe mode, then see my answer here as it may help http://superuser.com/questions/469521/why-does-windows-run-chkdsk-on-every-boot – Dave Dec 20 '13 at 08:23
  • I don't run Windows at all anymore, but you can always try pressing ctrl+c or ctrl+break (pause key) and see if that does the trick for you. – Waxhead Jan 06 '14 at 19:47

1 Answers1

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Find command prompt and launch as administrator. run the command chkntfs /x c: (Replace c: with the appropriate drive letter) This will disable chkdsk from automatically running when the dirty flag is set (usually due to improper shutdowns). Be warned this makes it less obvious when your disk is failing or needs attention. To undo this run chkntfs /d

Hefewe1zen
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    How do I find a command prompt before the computer is booted? – Phil Jan 14 '14 at 14:24
  • If you can't cancel the disk check prior to it running then boot into Safe Mode and run those commands (keep hitting F8 just after BIOS screen disappears) – Hefewe1zen Jan 14 '14 at 23:27