checking disk via properties and now it's frozen

[tgfyhre]

I connected an internal backup drive I haven't used for a couple months and decided to run a check on it. I right-clicked the drive and selected properties>tools>error checking>check now. It ran for a while but at 818353 it seemed to freeze. After half an hour it hasn't changed, and the hard drive activity light is on steady.

There's an option in the small window to "cancel", but I keep reading never stop a disk check while it's in progress. Is this the same thing? Why would there be an option to cancel if I'm not supposed to do it? What should I do?

The drive is mounted right now because I can see it and actually open the drive letter and browse the files. But the "checking disk" window is still frozen.

Do I shut down? Hit cancel? I don't want to risk losing any data but I need to do something since it's apparently stuck.

 

[Brink]

Hello tgfyhre,

While you can safely click on "Cancel", it would be best to wait to see if chkdsk may eventually continue and finish as long as there is disk activity. Sometimes it could take a long time. Especially if there's an issue with the disk.

You just do not want to interrupt a chkdsk by restarting or shutting down the computer, or disconnecting the drive.

 

[tgfyhre]

Okay, thanks very much for the quick response. It's still in limbo. I guess when I hear "never stop a chkdsk in progress" they mean shutting down power like you said. I'll give it a while longer and see what happens here and if nothing happens I'll hit cancel.

 

[Brink]

If you do need to cancel, it could also take a bit for it to actually cancel after clicking on it.