Fix: Scanning and Repairing Drive Stuck at 0, 10, 100... in Windows 10

This page includes six solutions to help you get rid of Windows 10 stuck at scanning and repairing drive error. Refer to the manual tutorial and check out how to remove scanning and repairing drive stuck on your own: 

Windows 10 Stuck at Scanning and Repairing Drive

"My Lenovo running Windows 10 is stuck on boot and shows a message 'Scanning and repairing drive (C:): 11% complete'. It has been hanging there for about half a day now! How can I exit out of scanning and repairing drive?"

Getting stuck at scanning and repairing drive is one of the biggest headaches for Windows 10 computer users. It happens when CHKDSK's scanning and repairing hard drive seems to never finish, halting at a certain percentage value and not advancing. Generally, you might see Windows 10 get stuck at scanning and repairing the drive C: or D:. The scan will often partially complete, but then get stuck on a particular percent.

About Scanning and Repairing Drive

Scanning and repairing drive is a disk checking process in Windows Automatic Repair (the same as Startup Repair). When there is a boot issue on the computer, Automatic Repair will start automatically and you will see the computer screen showing Preparing Automatic Repair, Diagnosing your PC, and then Scanning and repairing drive C, D... You may also initiate the Startup Repair by yourself from the Advanced Options in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). If the "Scanning and repairing drive" process gets stuck, it suggests that there is trouble reading the drive, which might result from disk connection issues or disk errors like bad sectors and file system errors.

6 Fixes for Scanning and Repairing Drive C/D Stuck at 0%, 10%, 11%...100%

This guide offers six proven methods to fix the scanning and repairing drive stuck issue and enable you to boot the computer again.

Fix 1. Check the Disk Connection

Have you moved around the PC recently or done something familiar that is likely to displace the computer disks? If you have, the cause of the "Scanning and repairing drive" stuck might be the connection issues between the disk and the computer. If possible, recheck the cable and port to ensure the disks have been connected to the PC correctly.

Fix 2. Turn to Third-Party Boot Repair Software for Help

Note that mostly, when the computer gets stuck in the scanning and repairing process, it's highly possible that the computer is unable to load the OS file or disk information for booting up the PC. You can either choose to wait or turn to reliable boot repair software for help.

In this case, we suggest you take a second healthy computer and create a bootable media on a USB drive with the help of reliable partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master. Its newly released feature - Boot Repair allows you to boot up your PC into the EaseUS WinPE desktop and apply the Boot Repair feature to fix all boot errors on the disk and make your system run up with no errors efficiently.

Here is how to do so:

Step 1. Start EaseUS Partition Master after connecting the external drive/USB to your computer, go to "Bootable Media," and click "Create bootable media."

Step 2. Select an available USB Drive or CD/DVD and click "Create." You can also burn the Windows ISO file to the storage media.

Step 3. Connect the created bootable drive to the new computer and reboot the computer by pressing and holding F2/Del to enter the BIOS. Then, set the WinPE bootable drive as the boot disk and press F10 to exit.

Step 4. Boot the computer again and enter the WinPE interface. Then, open EaseUS Partition Master and click "Boot Repair" under the "Toolkit" option.

Step 5: Select the system you want to repair and click "Repair."

Step 6. Wait a moment, and you will receive an alert that the system has been successfully repaired. Click "OK" to complete the boot repair process.

Fix 3. Wait for the Scanning and Repairing Process to Finish

How long should scanning and repairing drive take? That depends. If there is a minor issue on the drive, that process won't take long. However, if the drive is in a bad condition, it may take hours for the "Scanning and repairing drive" process to complete. There are tested and proven cases that indicate being patient and waiting is a workable solution.

Fix 4. Stop Windows from Scanning and Repairing the Drive

As you may know, you can disable the automatic disk checking process in the Automatic Repair. During Windows startup, you will have the chance to bypass "Scanning and repairing drive" by pressing any key. Here are the detailed steps.

Step 1. Since you are now being stuck at "Scanning and repairing drive", you need to press the power button to shut down the computer.

Step 2. Start the computer and you will see the "Preparing Automatic Repair" screen and then "Diagnosing your PC".

Step 3. Before the disk checking starts, you need to press any key, e.g. the spacebar, continuously, and then you will get the chance to disable the disk checking. (You can also press "Ctrl + C" to have a try.)

If you stuck on the "Diagnosing Your PC", refer to the following article and fix it.

Fix 5. Disable Automatic Repair

Automatic Repair doesn't always work. It is known to cause troubles like Windows stuck at "Preparing Automatic Repair", Automatic Repair loop, and the one in the discussion, "Scanning and repairing drive" stuck. Therefore, you can disable Automatic Repair to avoid these problems. To get it done, you will need to enter the Windows Recovery Environment or the Windows installation media. Given that most users don't have the Windows installation media available, here I'd like to show you how to get things done in WinRE.

Step 1. Hold down the power button for 10s to shut down the computer.

Step 2. Press the power button to start the computer. Once you see the first sign of Windows has started, e.g. the logo of the manufacturer, hold down the power button for 10s again to turn off the device.

Step 3. Press the power button to start the computer. Once Windows restarts, hold down the power button for 10s to turn off the computer.

Step 4. Press the power button to start the computer and don't interrupt it this time. Then you will see your computer in WinRE.

Step 5. On the "Choose an option" screen, choose "Troubleshoot" > "Advanced options" > "Command Prompt".

Step 6. Enter bcdedit and remember the values of "identifier" and "recoveryenabled" under Windows Boot Loader, Generally, it's "{current}" and "Yes".

Step 7. To disable Automatic Repair, enter bcdedit /set {current} recoveryenabled no. ("{current}" indicates the current OS and change the value to "no" will abort Automatic Repair.)

Step 8. Restart the computer.

Fix 6. Enter Safe Mode and Run CHKDSK

Since the cause of "Scanning and repairing drive" stuck is highly likely to be disk errors like bad sectors and file system errors, you can choose to enter Safe Mode and run CHKDSK to fix the errors. Safe Mode starts the computer with minimal required services and drivers and thus is a diagnostic mode in which you can perform fixes.

Step 1. Hold down the power button for 10s to shut down the computer.

Step 2. Press the power button to start the computer. Once you see the first sign of Windows has started, e.g. the logo of the manufacturer, hold down the power button for 10s again to turn off the device.

Step 3. Press the power button to start the computer. Once Windows restarts, hold down the power button for 10s to turn off the computer.

Step 4. Press the power button to start the computer and don't interrupt it this time. Then you will see your computer in WinRE.

Step 5. On the "Choose an option" screen, choose "Troubleshoot" > "Advanced options" > "Startup Settings" > "Restart".

Step 6. After the restart, you will see a list of options as shown in the image below. Select "5" or press "F5" to enable Safe Mode with Networking.

Step 7. Open "This PC", right-click the drive that Windows is stuck at scanning and repairing, then choose "Properties".

Step 8. Go to the "Tools" tab and choose "Check". (This works the same as running CHKDSK in Command Prompt.)

Fix 7. Recover Data

In most cases, one of the solutions above will fix the "Scanning and repairing drive C, D..." stuck issue in Windows 10. But there may be exceptions that the C drive (the system drive) is severely damaged and you can't boot into Windows even after you try all the fixes. In such a situation, you will need bootable data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard with Bootable Media to rescue all the files from the non-working PC and then reinstall Windows. 

To create a bootable USB or CD/DVD:

Step 1. Create a bootable disk

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, choose "Crashed PC Recovery" and click "Go to Recover".

Select an empty USB to create the bootable drive and click "Create".

Warning: When you create a bootable disk, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will erase all data saved in the USB drive. Back up important data beforehand. 

Step 2. Boot your computer from the bootable USB

Connect the bootable disk to the PC that won't boot and change your computer boot sequence in BIOS. For most users, it works well when they restart their computer and press F2 simultaneously to enter BIOS.

Set to boot the PC from "Removable Devices" (bootable USB disk) beyond Hard Drive. Press "F10" to save and exit.

Step 3. Recover data from a crashed system/PC

After booting from EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard bootable disk, select the drive you want to scan to find all your lost files. Preview and recover the files you need to a safe location.

Step 4. Reinstall Windows.

Whenever you encounter a boot issue, you can apply the bootable data recovery software to perform data recovery. However, reinstalling Windows is the last resort to solve the scanning and repairing drive stuck. You can also send the PC for manual repair if possible.

Extra Tip: How to Enable Disk Checking or Automatic Repair

You may want to enable disk checking or Automatic Repair when the computer can boot properly considering the feature might help to solve some boot related issues.

To enable disk checking:

Step 1. Press "Windows + R" and enter regedit.

Step 2. Click "Yes" to allow the app to make changes.

Step 3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager.

Step 4. Find and double-click "BootExecute".

Step 5. Change the value from autocheck autochk * to autocheck autochk * /r\DosDevice\C: to enable disk checking.

To enable Automatic Repair:

If you have followed fix 4 to disable the feature, it'll be easy for you to enable it again.

Step 1. Type cmd in the search bar, right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator".

Step 2. Enter bcdedit and remember the values of "identifier" and "recoveryenabled" under Windows Boot Loader, Generally, it's "{current}" and "No".

Step 3. Enter bcdedit /set {current} recoveryenabled yes to turn on Automatic Repair in Windows.

The Bottom Line

"Scanning and repairing drive C" stuck always suggests disk issues. The solutions are clear: either fix the disk errors or let Windows skip them. Specify your situation and carry out the solution best suited to your needs. Hope one of the methods above could be useful to remove the "Scanning and repairing drive" stuck issue.

Next are some other questions related to scanning and repairing drive stuck. Check the answers if you're interested.

1. How long should scanning and repairing drive take?

If your computer is in the process of scanning and repairing a hard drive, that process will take in excess of 2 hours depending on the size of your drive and errors found. It typically stops updating around 10 or 11% and suddenly jumps to 100 when done.

2. Can I stop scanning and repairing the drive?

You can disable the automatic disk checking process in Automatic Repair. 

Step 1. Press the power button to shut down the computer.

Step 2. Start the computer and you will see the "Preparing Automatic Repair" screen and then "Diagnosing your PC".

Step 3. Before the disk checking starts, you need to press any key to disable the disk checking.

3. What does scanning and repairing drive mean?

Scanning and repairing drive is a disk checking process in Windows Automatic Repair. When there is a boot issue on the computer, Automatic Repair will start automatically and you will see the computer screen showing Preparing Automatic Repair, Diagnosing your PC, and then Scanning and repairing drive C, D...