chkdsk on remote host with Invoke-Command always fails with "An unspecified error occurred" message

Question

Hi,

I want to execute "chkdsk" on multiple windows servers and tried to use powershell Invoke-Command but it always fails.

D:\>powershell -Command "Invoke-Command -ComputerName <local host/remote host> -ScriptBlock {chkdsk C:}"
-> NOK

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
Progress: 25471 of 315096 done; Stage: 8%; Total: 25%; ETA: 0:00:20 .
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Progress: 259880 of 315096 done; Stage: 82%; Total: 77%; ETA: 0:00:07
Progress: 262644 of 315096 done; Stage: 83%; Total: 78%; ETA: 0:00:07 .

An unspecified error occurred (696e647863686b2e 136a).

Just running "chkdsk C:" on each hosts are fine.

Any ideas to fix this?

Thanks and Best regards,

Answer 1

Hi @ssw ,

I suppose it could be in conjunction with the Remote Access..I serached a bit and found something interesting here:
CHKDSK /F fails with An unspecified error occurred

https://www.tenforums.com/performance-maintenance/129008-chkdsk-f-fails-unspecified-error-occurred.html

It only fails if I have ransomware protection (aka controlled folder access) turned on in Windows Defender!

(which I do on all my machines)

So it could be that it runs locally, but is somehow blocked by Windows Defender or another AV Software when run remotelly.

Can you pleae try to ruke this out?

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Regards,
Stoyan

Answer 2

Hello @ssw

It is not recommended to invoke commands such as CHKDSK from Powershell, use instead "Repair Volume":

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/storage/repair-volume?view=windowsserver2019-ps

Hope this helps with your query,

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