Windows 7 includes a disk checking tool called CHKDSK which is similar to the "scandisk" tool from older versions of Windows. This application scans your hard drives for errors such as lost sectors, bad sectors and corruption. You can launch CHKDSK using two methods (the former being the, 3 Run chkdsk /f (or equivalent) to fix file system errors. Do not run chkdsk /r as it is not necessary to check for bad sectors. The intensive disk activity for the check is unnecessary wear on the SSD, and is generally recognised as a bad idea. Note that >= Win8, use /scan and /spotfix instead of /f. Win7 and older still uses /f., 48 chkdsk /r does the same thing as chkdsk /f only it also checks for bad sectors on the disk and recovers any readable information. Running chkdsk /r implies that also chkdsk /f is run. chkdsk /f only checks for disk errors, not bad sectors. Microsoft has a detailed page for chkdsk. The following is a snippet explaining /f and /r parameters., Is it better to run ChkDsk /f first, then Sfc /ScanNow or is it better to run the other way around, and does it matter which is run first, as I see no guides online saying which is the best option?, Here's how to do it from the installation media: Press Shift + F10 at the Install Windows prompt Run DISKPART Run LIST VOL to list volumes available to check. If the letter of the drive you want to check isn't there, go to B Run EXIT once to exit diskpart. Run CHKDSK D: /X substituting D with your drive letter., From reading the documentation and running CHKDSK several times with each option enabled, it seems that running CHKDSK with the Fix /f or Repair (and Recover) /r options is what enables the files to be deleted and renamed as .chk files during the scan..