A corrupted or damaged hard drive can cause long loading screens, game lockups, crashes, and performance issues. Try the troubleshooting steps below to diagnose and repair hard drive issues.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, you may need to take the computer to a computer repair specialist to have the hardware issue resolved.

Run ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter regularly to keep system file management at peak performance. Make sure you have closed all background applications, as they may cause issues.

 

Windows® 10 / 11

ScanDisk

  1. Click Start.
  2. Type This PC and press Enter.
  3. Right-click the hard drive you want to scan and select Properties.
  4. Select the Tools tab.
  5. Click Check.

Defrag / Optimize

Do not perform disk defragmentation on Solid State Drives. If you aren't sure what type of disk drive you have, consult your PC manufacturer.

  1. Click Start.
  2. Type This PC and press Enter.
  3. Right-click the hard drive you want to defragment and select Properties.
  4. Select the Tools tab.
  5. Click Optimize.
  6. Select the drive or volume and click Optimize.

Windows® 7 and Windows® 8.1

ScanDisk

  1. Click the Start button (Windows Key + Q in Windows 8).
  2. Click Computer.
  3. Right-click the hard drive that you want to scan.
  4. Click Properties.
  5. Select the Tools tab.
  6. Under Error-checking, click Check Now.
  7. Select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors and Automatically fix file system errors.
  8. Select Yes to schedule after restart.
  9. Restart your computer to run the scan.

Defrag

Do not perform disk defragmentation on Solid State Drives. If you aren't sure what type of disk drive you have, consult your PC manufacturer.

  1. Click Start (Windows Key + Q in Windows 8).
  2. Select Computer.
  3. Right-click the hard drive that you want to defragment.
  4. Select Properties.
  5. Click the Tools tab.
  6. Under Defragmentation, click Defragment Now.
  7. Select the volume to defragment.
  8. Click Defragment.

The Disk Utility can be used to diagnose and repair corrupted hard drive sectors.