How do I run Chkdsk on bootup on non bootdrives?

I think questions_ has an answer. But you can also just go there & do it yourself...

(1) Click any Power icon (even on the sign-in screen) then hold Shift as you click Restart. This will reboot to the recovery environment, same as "START, Settings, Update & Security, Recovery, Restart now (under Advanced Startup)"...

(2) Click "Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt".

(3) Enter the following commands...

DiskPart <<<Enter DiskPart

List Vol <<<List the volumes & their letters

Exit <<<Exit DiskPart

Note the letter of your external SSD which may be different in this environment. Use it in the following command instead of E: ...

ChkDsk E: /R /V <<<Use the letter you saw on the SSD

(4) After it is done, close the Command Prompt, then click "Continue" to return to Windows.

Again, what I'm looking to do is for chkdsk to schedule a volume other than the C drive to be checked the next time the system restarts, mainly the E drive, an external SSD, because when I try to do error checking otherwise I get the message "Windows was unable to repair the drive. Close this dialog box, and then try to repair the drive again.", so whether or not it can run without a reboot is irreverent, and I'm not getting the prompt to schedule the volume to be checked the next time the system restarts. Again, there must be a way to do this because I'm certain I've done this before in the past, I just can't remember how.

Again, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

If you want to run chkdsk on a specific drive after reboot then you're looking for the following reply after entering the command:

The type of the file system is NTFS.

Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another

process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be

checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

If there are multiple disk drives then some can run without a reboot.

For the computer that I'm currently using I typically run the deepest chkdsk scans.

This is an example:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /b /v

The type of the file system is NTFS.

Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another

process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be

checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type: Y

Reboot.

The syntax for multiple drives is: chkdsk /b /v C: or chkdsk /b /v D: or chkdsk /b /v E:

This is a link:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk

The exFAT was not mentioned until your latest post so it was not under consideration.

The chkntfs /c command is only compatible with ntfs.

Unspecified errors can happen and most often the source cannot be found.

To test the drive these are suggested tests:

a) Sea Tools Long Generic test: https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/support-content/downloads/seatools/_shared/downloads/SeaToolsWindowsInstaller.exehttps://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-to-use-seatools-for-windows-202435en/

b) HD Tune Full error scan:

https://www.hdtune.com/

or

c) Macrorit Full surface scan: https://macrorit.com/disk-surface-test/disk-surface-test.html

d) HD Sentinel Overview https://www.hdsentinel.com/

These tests can run simultaneously and overnight:

a) Sea Tools long generic test

b) HD Tune full error scan

For chkdsk you can run the deepest scan overnight using the /b switch.

As a trial and error steps turn off controlled folder access to see if the unspecified error disappears:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/113380-how-enable-disable-controlled-folder-access-windows-10-a.html

This is a method for scheduling that will require some trial and error steps to get the preferred drive.

This should allow chkdsk to run on E: but not on C: or D:

By default:

a) all volumes are checked on startup

b) chkdsk runs on those that are dirty

chkntfs /d

chkntfs /x c: d: e:

chkntfs /c e: