How to reduce ChkDsk countdown time in Windows 11

The hard disk of your PC can take a hit if the power supply (SMPS) does not yield the desired output required for all the hardware and peripherals to function. This can lead to data corruption. During such instances, Windows makes the hard drive partitions dirty so that a scan can be performed on the next boot by Chkdsk utility. As soon as you boot again, the chkdsk utility proceeds with the scanning process, trying to find and fix any partition errors. However, before doing so, it displays a message that informs the user to press a key to bypass the check disk operation.

A disk check has been scheduled. To skip disk checking, press any key within 10 seconds.

If you wish, you can reduce ChkDsk countdown time in Windows 11/10.

Reduce ChkDsk countdown time in Windows 11/10

ChkDsk is an essential monitoring tool in Windows 10 that analyzes disks on a file system, creates reports based on the errors it finds and corrects the problems associated. Before the tool begins, it displays a countdown timer that lets you cancel the ChkDsk, should you wish to do so. The default could be 8, 10 or 30 seconds. If you wish to change the time, here is how the countdown time can be reduced to speed up the process without affecting the performance of the utility.

Open an elevated command prompt window by typing CMD in the Windows Search bar and right-clicking the Command Prompt and choosing Run as Administrator.

Next, type the following command in the command-line and press Enter to confirm the current countdown timer value:

chkntfs /t:seconds

Here substitute ‘seconds’ with the time in seconds that you want to set. It can range from 1 to 259200 seconds.

In the image above, I have selected 10 seconds. Once I set it to 10 seconds, I used the following command to confirm:

chkntfs /t

It had been changed from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.

You can also change the ChkDsk countdown time using the Windows Registry. Run regedit and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

Here you can set the value in seconds in the AutoChkTimeOut DWORD.

Thus you can change – reduce/increase the ChkDsk countdown time.

Hope this helps.

Read: ChkDsk stuck at particular % or hangs at some Stage.