How to check hard drive in bios windows 10

Updated: 05/03/2022 by Computer Hope

Table of Contents Show

Earlier versions of Windows System Information
IBM-compatible users
Determining the speed or RPM of a hard drive
Third-party utilities
Viewing S.M.A.R.T. hard drive information
Other disk utilities
Other methods of determining the hard drive
Product listing or specifications
Drivers or installation
Replacement or repair
How to Run Check Disk from BIOS
Run Check Disk in Windows 11
Run Check Disk: Mac OS X

If you'd like to view detailed information about your hard disk drives, solid-state drives, or external storage devices attached to your computer, we recommend the methods below.

In Windows, you can view information about your hardware (including disks) using the System Information utility.

Press the Windows key, type System Information, and press Enter.

Or, you can use the Run box to open the System Information utility.

Press the Windows key+R keyboard shortcut.
In the Run box, type msinfo32.
Press Enter or click OK.

In the System Information window that opens, in the left window pane, you'll see a list of hardware categories. Expand Components, then Storage. Then, choose Drives, Disks, or any category you'd like to view.

Earlier versions of Windows System Information

In earlier versions of Microsoft Windows, you can open the System Information utility by following the steps below.

Click Start and then click the Programs folder.
Click Accessories and then the System Information or System Tools folder.
Open the System Information file.
In the System Information window, click the + symbol next to Components.
Click the + next to Storage and click Drives. In the right-side of the window, you see information about the hard drive including its capacity and serial number.

IBM-compatible users

IBM-compatible users can usually enter the computer's BIOS setup to view additional information about their hard drive. Commonly, the CMOS lists the hard drive's serial number, model number, cylinders, heads, sectors, and the size of the hard drive.

How to enter and exit the BIOS or CMOS setup.

Note

If the CMOS is not configured to auto-detect the hard drive, it is important to note that the hard drive values may not be correct.

Determining the speed or RPM of a hard drive

To determine the hard drive RPM find the manufacturer and model of the hard drive in an area such as System Information in Windows.

For example, in Windows System Information we may determine that the hard drive model is: Toshiba MQ04ABF100.

Once you've determined this information, you can look up the drive on the hard drive manufacturer's web page or through a Google search to determine the RPM of the drive.

In our example, searching for the drive we determine that the Toshiba MQ04ABF100 is a 5400rpm SATA 7mm 2.5" drive.

Some manufacturers also list the RPM of the hard drive on the actual drive. If you open the computer and remove the hard drive, look on the top sticker to see if the RPM is listed.

Third-party utilities

There are many free software utilities designed to detect the hardware in your computer. These utilities can display the model of your hard drive and additional information.

How to find hardware and other computer specifications.

Viewing S.M.A.R.T. hard drive information

All modern hard drives now include S.M.A.R.T. to help detect and find problems with hard drives before they happen. In addition to detecting problems, S.M.A.R.T. also gives details about the hard drive including such information as the life of the hard drive. See our S.M.A.R.T. term for further information about this tool and how to access its information.

Other disk utilities

Many disk utilities designed to set up the hard drive will properly detect and configure it. Also, these utilities may also provide the user with some basic additional information about the hard drive.

For example, using the fdisk utility you can display additional information about the size of the hard drive and partition information.

Other methods of determining the hard drive

One of the best methods for determining additional information about a hard drive is to obtain information directly off the hard drive. The majority of hard drives have a sticker on the top of the drive containing complete information about the drive. If you cannot locate the information you need through software, we recommend you open the case and remove the hard drive to get the information you need.

Product listing or specifications

If you're trying to list all the specific information about your computer, specifying the manufacturer, model, type, and size of the hard drive is sufficient. Below is an example of how this may look.

Maxtor 54098H8 IDE 40Gig hard drive

Drivers or installation

How to install a hard drive or SSD.

Replacement or repair

If you're trying to determine the hard drive because it needs to be replaced or repaired, we recommend the drive be replaced with another hard drive. As long as you are using the same hard drive interface (IDE/SATA), the model or manufacturer of the previous drive should be irrelevant.

Computer hard drive buying tips.

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Working on something while finding your system disk is not selectable or displays a red X next to it? Or any of your tasks fails to run, showing The backup cannot be completed due to corruption?

Meanwhile, you may be trying to tear your hair apart in anger, thinking how this problem pops up out of nowhere on earth.

Well, don’t worry. This problem is well known to a tech guy like me, but maybe not to you. Whether you are a tech wizard or not, read till the end and solve your problem very quickly.

So, why do you need to run the check disk from BIOS?

You need to run the check disk from BIOS to ensure that your hard drive is okay. Check disk may not only detect your hard drive problem but also solve them. You have to allow check disk to run once and then check the log file afterward to see if any problems were found.

I will guide you through all the steps on how to run check disk from BIOS and stuff like that. So hop in, let’s take a ride, shall we?

Follow our guide to fixing CPU Fan Not Detected in BIOS.

How to Run Check Disk from BIOS

BIOS offers tons of stuff to do, change, and modify but doesn’t offer a disk check directly. Some may offer an advantage to erase the drive, wiping out the data.

Have some time to spare? Quickly check out our epic guide on how to fix motherboard can’t detect hard drive.

But though you can’t run check disk from BIOS directly, you can still perform this operation by going to the Command Prompt when booting up your PC, i.e., from BIOS. For this, you have to:

Save what you are working on. Then restart your PC. If your PC is turned off, turn it on.
Press the F8 key while your PC boots up. Thus, the Advanced Boot Options will appear. If you can’t find it in your BIOS, make sure you got it.
Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Selecting this will enable your PC to load up a list of drivers, and it will end up in a screen of command prompt.
Type chkdsk and hit Enter. This will help you run a check on the current drive without fixing any errors.
Type chkdsk X:/f. Replace X with the required drive letter you would like to fix.
Type chkdsk X:/r and replace X with the needed drive letter you would like to fix for locating sectors and retrieving data.
Restart your PC if the driver is in use. If prompted, press Y to accept.

Thus you can run check disk from BIOS. You may have questions like what to write when I need this driver to check and fix.

Well, chkdsk (Check Disk) is one of the most efficient powerful Windows utilities used to diagnose and repair disks. There are two types of repairs mainly; /f represents fix, and /r represents repair.

Go through our epic guide on how to Fix Keyboard Not Working In BIOS.

But there are other parameters in the check disk command. I am creating a table that contains parameters and descriptions on chkdsk.

Thus you can now get a clear idea about running check disk from BIOS. If you wish not to do it from the BIOS, you have another option. To know this, read till the very end.

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Check out our expert-recommended Gateway BIOS Updates.

Run Check Disk in Windows 11

If you are a Windows 11 user, apart from running chkdsk in BIOS, you can also run in the command prompt in your Windows 11. This is a very straightforward way to run chkdsk (Check Disk) in Windows 11.

Also, don’t forget to check out our separate post on how to fix motherboard HDMI no signal.

Here are the steps to run check disk in windows 11:

Turn your computer on and go to the search button from the system taskbar.
Type cmd. Command Prompt will appear on your screen.
Right-click to the Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
Go ahead and click Yes if you receive a user account control prompt.
Type chkdsk C: /r and hit Enter. It’ll help you to check your C drive. Changing C for D will check the D drive instead of the C drive.
Type Y when you’ll be asked, “Chkdsk cannot run… next time the system restarts?” Then press Enter.
Exit the command prompt and restart your computer. Next time your computer boots up, the scan will be happening.

Thus you’ll be able to run chkdsk to check your disk in Windows 11.

Also, check out our separate post on will SSD reduce high disk usage.

But if you want to fix your issues too, then:

Type chkdsk C: /f and hit Enter. It’ll help you to fix your problem in C drive.
Type Y when you’ll be asked, “Chkdsk cannot run… next time the system restarts?” Then press Enter.
Exit the command prompt.
Restart your computer. When the system restarts, the disk check will automatically scan for file system errors, bad hard drive sectors and attempt to solve them.

It depends on what you want and for that what command you are inputting in the command prompt. I have provided a list of parameters to help you understand what command you need to write to get your desired result.

Check out our latest fix for fix M.2 SSD Not Showing Up In BIOS.

There is an alternative way to check the disk in Windows 11. The check disk utility can also be run from the disk’s properties itself. You have to:

Open File Explorer and click on This PC.
Right-click on the drive you want to check and select Properties.

Click on the Tools tab.
Click on Check under the system error checking.

Tap into Scan drive even if check disk tells “you don’t need to scan this drive”.

The scan will start, and you will see how much time is needed to complete the process.

Thus you may also check the disk in your Windows 11. But everyone is not Windows 11 user.

Also check our exclusive tutorial on can SSD Improve FPS.

What if you are a Windows 7 user? Or you are a user of Windows 8, 8.1, 10? The question may arise in your head.

So, what to do to run chkdsk in Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10?

To run chkdsk (Check Disk) in Windows 7, you have to follow the exact methods stated above for Windows 11 one by one. Also, for Windows 8, 8.1, or 10, you have nothing but to follow the same instructions used for running check disk in Windows 11.

Have some time to spare? Check out our latest fix for BIOS Not Detecting USB.

Run Check Disk: Mac OS X

If you are a Mac user, you can also use check disk in it. To do so, you have to follow the below-mentioned steps.

Tip: Before starting anything, get a Mac OS X installation DVD.

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Step 1. Launch the Disk Utility. For Windows, there is chkdsk. But for Mac, there is Disk Utility. It provides the same basic functionality as chkdsk does for Windows.

Step 2. Turn on the Mac and insert the CD. Press and hold the C key.

Step 3. Choose your preferred language to continue.

Step 4. Open Disk Utility. You can find it in the desktop menu bar.

Step 5. Select the HDD you want to repair. Then click Repair Volume. If this is successful, you will be able to run Repair Permissions too.

Hence, you can check the disk on your Mac pretty easily.

Also, check out our separate post on fix M.2 SSD not showing up in BIOS.

Check out my new post on SVM Mode In BIOS.

Conclusion

Chkdsk is a command that can be run to verify the logical integrity of the file system. It is designed primarily to check disk for errors and fix them. I tried to cover not only how to run check disk from BIOS but also using command prompt in Windows or Mac.

I believe you have already resolved your problem. But if you find any difficulty doing so, comment below.