How to stop scheduled chkdisk on windows 7?

Solution 1:

I'll put my answer of using a USB keyboard here (since it worked) It was possible that in rebuilding the laptop that it needed to do something to recognize the internal keyboard that would occur after the chkdsk.

Solution 2:

There is a Microsoft article that describes How to Cancel CHKDSK After It Has Been Scheduled, with a little gotcha. The way to do it is to update the registry:

1. Run the Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe). You must use Regedt32 and not Regedit.exe
2. Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
3. Change the BootExecute value from:
   autocheck autochk * /r\DosDevice\<drive letter>:
   To:
   autocheck autochk *

The gotcha is of course that you can't boot and call Regedt32 to modify the registry.
The possibilities are:

1. Use the recovery console to edit the registry. The following article was written for XP but is probably still valid.
2. The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor boot cd claims to contain a registry editor.
3. Do In-place Upgrade to repair the system, if all other advice has failed (this won't destroy your existing system setup).