Hard drive testing program. How to find out the condition of a hard drive: how long will it last?


The post contains a list of the 20 best free tools partitioning, diagnostics, encryption, recovery, cloning, disk formatting. In general, almost everything you need for basic work with them.

1.TestDisk

TestDisk allows you to recover boot partitions, deleted sections, fix damaged partition tables and restore data, as well as create copies of files from deleted/inaccessible partitions.

Note: PhotoRec is a related application to TestDisk. With its help it is possible to restore data in memory digital camera on hard drives and CDs. In addition, you can restore basic image formats, audio files, text documents, HTML files and various archives.


When you run TestDisk, you are presented with a list of partitions hard drive, with which you can work. The selection of available actions carried out in sections includes: analysis to adjust the structure (and subsequent recovery, if a problem is detected); changing disk geometry; deleting all data in the partition table; recovery boot partition; listing and copying files; recovering deleted files; creating a snapshot of the section.

2. EaseUS Partition Master

EaseUS Partition Master is a tool for working with sections of hard disk. It allows you to create, move, merge, split, format, change their size and location without losing data. It also helps to recover deleted or lost data, check partitions, move the OS to another HDD/SSD, etc.

On the left is a list of operations that can be performed with the selected section.

3.WinDirStat

The free program WinDirStat analyzes the used disk space. Shows how data is distributed and which ones take up more space.

Clicking on a field in the diagram will display the file in question in a structural form.

After loading WinDirStat and selecting disks for analysis, the program scans the directory tree and provides statistics in the following options: list of directories; directory map; list of extensions.

4. Clonezilla

Clonezilla creates a disk image of the cloning tool, which is also packaged with Parted Magic and is initially available as a standalone tool. Available in two versions: Clonezilla Live and Clonezilla SE (Server Edition).

Clonezilla Live is a bootable Linux distribution that allows you to clone individual devices.
Clonezilla SE is a package that installs on Linux distribution. It is used to simultaneously clone multiple computers over a network.

5. OSFMount

Using this utility makes it possible to mount previously made disk images and present them in the form virtual drives by directly viewing the data itself. OSFMount supports image files such as: DD, ISO, BIN, IMG, DD, 00n, NRG, SDI, AFF, AFM, AFD and VMDK.

An additional function of OSFMount is the creation of RAM disks located in random access memory computer, which significantly speeds up working with them. To start the process, go to File > Mount new virtual disk.

6. Defraggler

Defraggler - free program For hard defragmentation disk, which helps to increase its speed and service life. A special feature of the program is the ability to defragment individual files.

Defraggler analyzes the contents on the disk and displays a list of all fragmented files. During the defragmentation process, the movement of data on the disk is displayed. Those highlighted in yellow are data that is being read, and those highlighted in green are those that are being written. Upon completion, Defraggler displays a corresponding message.

Supports file NTFS systems, FAT32 and exFAT.

7. SSDLife

SSDLife - performs diagnostics solid state drive, displays information about its condition and estimates its expected service life. Supports remote monitoring, manages performance levels on some models hard drives.

By monitoring SSD wear, you can increase the level of data security and identify problems in a timely manner. Based on the analysis, the program concludes how often the solid-state drive is used.

8. Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN)

Quite popular free utility DBAN, used to clean up hard drives.

DBAN has two main modes: interactive mode and automatic mode. Interactive mode allows you to prepare the disk for data removal and select the necessary erasing options. Auto mode Cleans all detected disks.

9.HD Tune

The HD Tune utility is designed to work with hard drive and SSD. Measures the HDD/SSD read-write level, scans for errors, checks the disk status and displays information about it.

When launching the application, you need to select a drive from the drop-down list and go to the appropriate tab to view the information.

10.VeraCrypt

VeraCrypt - free application for encryption with open source code. On-the-fly encryption is used.

The VeraCrypt project was created on the basis of TrueCrypt with the goal of strengthening methods for protecting encryption keys.

11. CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo displays the status of hard drives that support S.M.A.R.T technology. The utility monitors and evaluates general state and displays detailed information about hard drives (firmware version, serial number, standard, interface, total operating time, etc.). CrystalDiskInfo has support external hard disks.

IN top panel all active ones are displayed on the screen hard disks. Clicking on each one reveals the information. Icons Health Status and Temperature change color depending on the value.

12. Recuva

The Recuva utility is used to recover accidentally deleted or lost files. It scans the desired storage medium and then displays a list of deleted files. Each file has its own parameters (name, type, path, recovery probability, state).

The required files are identified using the preview function and marked with checkboxes. You can sort the search result by type (graphics, music, documents, videos, archives) and immediately view the contents.

13.TreeSize

The TreeSize program shows a tree of directories located on the hard drive, providing information about their sizes, and also analyzes usage disk space.

Folder sizes are displayed from largest to smallest. This way it becomes clear which folders take up the most space.

Note: If you have Defraggler, Recuva and TreeSize, you can trigger the Defraggler and Recuva functions to specific folder directly from TreeSize - all three applications are seamlessly integrated.

14.HDDScan

HDDScan - utility diagnosing hard disk, is used for testing storage devices (HDD, RAID, Flash) in order to identify errors. Views S.M.A.R.T. attributes, displays hard drive temperature sensor readings in the taskbar and performs comparison test read-write.

HDDScan is intended for testing SATA drives, IDE, SCSI, USB, FifeWire (IEEE 1394).

15.Disk2vhd

The free utility Disk2vhd converts a valid physical disk into virtual Hard Disk(VHD) for platform Microsoft Hyper-V. Moreover, a VHD image can be created directly from a running operating system.

Disk2vhd creates one VHD file for each disk with selected volumes, preserving information about disk partitions and copying only the data that belongs to the selected volume.

16. NTFSWalker

The portable utility NTFSWalker allows you to analyze all records (including deleted data) in the main MFT file table NTFS disk.

Having your own NTFS drivers makes it possible to view file structure without Windows help on any computer readable media. Available for viewing deleted files, regular files, as well as detailed attributes for each file.

17.GParted

- open source disk partition editor. Carries out effective and safe management partitions (creating, deleting, resizing, moving, copying, checking) without data loss.

GParted allows you to create partition tables (MS-DOS or GPT), enable, disable and change attributes, align partitions, recover data from damaged partitions and much more.

18. SpeedFan

The SpeedFan computer program monitors sensor performance motherboard, video cards and hard drives, with the ability to regulate the rotation speed of installed fans. It is possible to carry out automatic and manual adjustment.

SpeedFan works with hard drives with SATA, EIDE and SCSI interface.

19. MyDefrag

MyDefrag is a free disk defragmenter that is used to organize data located on hard drives, floppy disks, USB drives and memory cards.

The program has a convenient function of working in screensaver mode, as a result of which defragmentation will be performed at the time designated for launching the screen saver. MyDefrag also allows you to create or customize your own scripts.

20. DiskCryptor

With the open source encryption program DiskCryptor, you can completely encrypt a disk (all disk partitions, including system).

DiskCryptor has quite high performance - it is one of the fastest disk volume encryption drivers. The program supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT file systems, allowing you to encrypt internal or external drives.

Today we will discuss the topic: How to check HDD for errors and bad sectors in Windows 7

There are several ways to check your hard drive.

Checking the hdd for bad sectors using Windows

First of all, you can check your hard drive for bad sectors using standard diagnostic tools of the operating system itself. To do this, you need to go to the “Computer” tab, select the hard drive and click on it right click mouse, select the “Properties” tab

The Properties window will open. local disk, where you need to go to the “Service” tab and click on the “Run check” button

The following local disk check window will open in front of you - there you should check the boxes for the actions that you would like to perform, and then click the start button.

If, during the check, you selected the main disk on which the system is installed, a warning from the system will appear on the monitor, where you will have to agree.

The next time you start your computer, it will start hard check disk for bad sectors and errors.

If another drive was selected, the hard drive check window will appear, after which a notification about the completion of the check will appear.

How to check hdd for errors and bad sectors in windows 7 via cmd?

The next method is slightly different from the first. Go to the Start menu and enter “cmd” in the search field. Right-click on the result found, and then select “Run as administrator” from the drop-down menu

In the console window that opens, you should enter the command: “chkdsk d: /f /r” and press “Enter”

The check for broken parts will begin. hdd sectors, after which the result will be displayed.

A program to check your hard drive for errors and bad sectors

In addition, there are external programs to monitor and fix your computer's hard drives. One of them is HDDScan.

You can download this program from the official website, and in this article we will look at how to check your hard drive for bad sectors using it. So, click on the program icon. The main window will appear where you will see the program work area

Click on the “New task” button, which is located in the middle, and select “Surface test” from the drop-down menu

In the next window, select one of the test options and click the “Add test” button

Let's take a quick look at what each test means:

Verify - Reading is in progress into the internal buffer of the drive without transferring SATA interface, IDE or other. The operation time is being measured.

Read - Data is being read, transmitted, checked and the operation time is measured.

Erase - the program writes blocks of data to disk one by one, measuring the operation time (All data in the blocks will be deleted).

Butterfly Read - just like the Read test, but the order of reading blocks is observed: reading starts simultaneously from the beginning and end of the range, block 0 and the last one are tested, then block 1 and the penultimate one.

For average testing, the Read test is usually suitable: after you check your hard drive, double-click on the test checking window and see the graph and test status

A computer or laptop is associated specifically with errors and malfunctions in the hard drive. In this article we will figure out how to check the health of your hard drive using Windows tools and programs specifically designed for this purpose.

Checking for errors using standard tools

This method is equally effective for Windows Xp, Vista, 7, 8 and 10. Required:

If you receive a notification that says "Windows cannot verify the drive that you are using this moment", click "Schedule scan".

So now we do a reboot, and when the system boots, it will run a performance test through the BIOS and fix media errors. Its duration can range from 2-3 minutes to an hour, depending on the characteristics of the hard drive and its capacity.

Checking the hard drive for errors via the command line

To start the scan, you must complete the following steps: go to “Start/All Programs/Accessories/ Command line" Right-click and click “Run as Administrator”.

In the window that appears, execute the command “chkdsk disk_partition: scan_parameters”. It should be taken into account that this method Works exclusively with drives that have been formatted in FAT32 or NTFS.

An example command is “chkdsk C: /F /R”. Its essence is as follows:

  • Section C will be checked for errors;
  • Any problems found will be automatically corrected (parameter F is responsible for this);
  • Damaged sectors will be checked and information will be restored (parameter R);


If you want to diagnose a drive used by the system in this moment, you will see a special notification. You will be prompted to run the scan the next time you boot your computer. To agree with this, press Y, to refuse - N. Based on the results of the check, you will have access to information about the verified data, the number of damaged sectors and errors found.

To obtain full list parameters, run chkdsk with question mark as a parameter. But if you need a regular check for errors and sectors, then the above information will be enough for you.


It happens that errors found during scanning cannot always be corrected immediately; it is likely that this is due to the program running at that time. In this situation, an offline scan of the drive will be required: it is disconnected from operation, diagnostics are carried out, and then it is connected back. To do this, you need to enter “chkdsk C: /f /offlinescanandfix” (C: - disk partition) into the command line. If it is not possible to disable it, the check will be performed at the next reboot.


If necessary, after the inspection you have the opportunity to study the inspection log. To do this you need:

  1. Go to Windows/Applications Logs;
  2. Right-click on Application/Search;
  3. Search for the word Chkdsk;


Software check

Of course, the above method is not always effective. Therefore, we will look at a number of programs such as Victoria. They will allow you to make the most of thorough analysis the state of the hard drive on a computer or laptop.

Victoria


A utility for diagnosing and testing hard drives. It will help you not only detect problems in its operation, but also eliminate them.
The program has a number of advantages and useful functions:

  • Reads the hard drive passport and provides detailed information;
  • 5 diagnostic modes;
  • Eliminates crashes;
  • Displays unstable areas;
  • Hides defects;
  • Evaluates media performance.

It is one of the best today. It can solve problems with bad sectors and quickly bring any type of hard drive into working condition.

HDD Regenerator


One of the most effective programs to assess the status and troubleshoot drives. It makes it possible to obtain information about the account current state SMART of the selected device and full control over it.
Among the main features are:

  • Simple and intuitive interface;
  • Complete security;
  • NTFS and FAT support;
  • Pre-scan mode;

HDD monitoring in real time;
That is, with the help of a regenerator you can test the hard drive as efficiently as possible.

TestDisk


Designed to determine the status and test drives. In addition to simple diagnostics, it also detects bad sectors and corrects any errors found. Its main functions include:

  • Perform an analysis of the current state of the hard drive;
  • Search for bad sectors;
  • Recovering deleted partitions;
  • MFT fix;

Checking external hard drives;
In addition, the utility has a number of functions that are related to the recovery of deleted files.

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test


An excellent program designed to find and fix problems on drives. It is universal, since diagnostics of any drives can be carried out. With its help, you can very quickly find out the current position of the hard drive, as well as obtain additional information about it.
Includes:

  • Quick but thorough check;
  • Support for all components;
  • Monitoring;
  • Data statistics;

This utility is suitable for all devices and can even be used on a netbook.

Seagate Seatools for Windows


Used to check and test the status of the hard drive. She finds any problems and failures.

  • The utility can fix:
  • Equipment incompatibility;
  • Violations file system HDD;
  • Errors in installed drivers;
  • Viruses and malware that infect the file system;

In addition, it provides complete information about the media and all related indicators. As the developers say, this utility incredibly effective for self-correction minor problems SSD errors and HDD, and is able to completely restore their functionality.

So now you have complete information Learn how to determine if your hard drive is working properly and how to fix problems with it yourself. Choose the option that suits you best or the one you like and act!

Video: checking the hard drive using standard tools

CrystalDiskInfo is a free program for checking and monitoring the status of hard drives. It allows you to give an overall assessment and control state of hard disk.

Interface CrystalDiskInfo programs simple, understandable and Russian-language. The program provides detailed information about the hard drive installed on the computer: firmware, serial number, total operating time. Displays parameters of the S.M.A.R.T. self-diagnosis system: performance, reading errors, track search time.

The program weighs only 4 megabytes. You can download it from the link given below.

After downloading, launch installation file: Click the “Run” button.

Select the folder where the program will be installed and click “Next”.

If you do not need to install an additional add-on and search engine Yahoo!, select with a marker « Custom installation» and uncheck the boxes. Click “Next”.

If not all screenshots for installing the program are shown here, then you don’t need to change anything in them, just click “Next”. After completing the installation process, click “Finish”.

The main functions of the program include the following:

— monitoring the temperature indicators of hard drives;
— viewing information about current modes and hardware characteristics;
— monitoring of data from the S.M.A.R.T. self-diagnosis system;
— ability to change noise/performance settings;
— temperature change graph;
— resetting counters for sectors with failures;
— support for external hard drives.

After starting the program, its main window appears. Pay attention to the state of the processor. If the value is Good, then no action needs to be taken - the disk is stable. The processor temperature is indicated below: it should not exceed 50 degrees. All Additional Information information about the hard drive is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

So that the program is loaded along with operating system, go to the tab. By selecting the “Launch Agent” item, the tray will display hard temperature disk.

Will give you the opportunity to quickly check the current status and performance of hard drives.

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Bad sectors are found on almost all HDDs. Especially those that are actively used for a long time. Sometimes the problem gets out of control and turns into a real disaster, destroying all data on the HDD in any partitions. To prevent this from happening, find out how to repair bad hard drive sectors at home.

What are bad sectors and why do they appear?

You can imagine a bad block as a book with the last chapter torn out. You can read it up to a certain point. But as soon as there is a gap in the pages, you will not be able to finish reading. HDD works the same way. The magnetic head reads information within the track, but in some area it encounters a damaged surface or an empty bit of information, which makes it impossible to extract the information completely.

Almost all hard drives have broken partitions. There may be one or several, and in most cases it is not scary. But over time, there are more and more of them, and they make it increasingly difficult to operate information on the HDD. Such areas can be identified scanning hard disk for bad sectors using special utilities.

There can be many reasons for the appearance of bad sectors:

  • impact of the disc or use in improper conditions;
  • interrupting recording by turning off the power;
  • overheating and temperature surges;
  • natural wear of the heads and writing disk;
  • low quality products.

Here you can divide bad sectors into non-recoverable and recoverable sectors. The first are those caused by shock or overheating. They are destroyed once and cannot be restored, and information, as a rule, disappears forever. The second type of bad sectors appears as a result of an interruption in the recording process. They can be revived by simply rewriting the disk.

Over time, write and read speeds may decrease. And after a slight fall of your laptop, the disk may stop working altogether. Everything would be really bad if it weren’t possible to somehow regenerate bad blocks. The fact is that hard drives have a certain reserve area, which means a potentially larger volume than stated on the receipt. Use extra space possible to transfer contents from damaged areas to it. How to recover bad sectors of a hard drive in this way is indicated below.

Danger is near

You can notice the problem not only after a hard drive failure, but also in the initial stages. You should be wary of the following signs:

  • Disk writing/reading speed has dropped;
  • unusual noise is heard when accessing the HDD;
  • began to overheat;
  • subjected to mechanical impact;
  • The system often crashes, and at startup chkdsk runs without permission.

As a rule, these reasons indicate the beginning of the end of your HDD. To avoid losing data, be the first to good decision there will be a backup. Transfer all the necessary files to another computer, flash drive, disk, and, if possible, set up synchronization with the cloud.

Most modern hard drives check for bad sectors themselves, without user intervention. This is both good and bad, since you cannot influence the elimination of bad blocks and know about their appearance on system partitions.

When to scan?

You can scan your hard drive for errors at a certain frequency, which depends on the frequency of use of the computer and is calculated individually. Some people carry out scheduled computer maintenance once a month, others - once every six months.

For this you can use system utilities or programs for restoring broken sectors of hard disk. A scan should be performed immediately after detecting the problems listed above.

Scanning using standard tools

Starting with Windows 8, the system itself is capable of scanning disks on a schedule and thereby extending HDD operation. You can set up a scanning schedule at: “My Computer” / “Management” (a tab will appear in the main menu when the section is active). IN Windows check hard disk for bad sectors can be carried out regular program chkdsk. The utility can be launched in several ways:

The work is not fundamentally different, so let’s consider the first option:

  1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator. Right-click on the Start menu icon or simply in the lower left corner on Windows 8 and select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the list.
  2. If you want to scan a non-system drive, enter the command with the keys chkdsk /f /r to scan and fix the entire disk at once, and chkdsk D: /f /r to fix only partition D or any other existing one. Additionally, you can enter the /x switch to disable the volume being scanned during the scan. If you diagnose a working disk, the program will prompt you to reboot in order to complete the work without logging in.
  3. If chkdsk finds errors in the partitions in use, it will offer to reboot and fix the sectors before the system starts.

To display all options, type help chkdsk. A list will appear showing all available keys with explanations. You can use any combinations at your discretion if you understand the essence of what is happening and possible consequences. At the end of the scan, all data about the operation will be displayed in the log.

Third party programs

In addition to the built-in chkdsk, you can use third party programs. There are many software that can recover damaged partitions.

Among the popular free software, I would like to highlight Victoria. This program for recovering bad sectors of a hard drive is well known and at one time was very popular among repairmen. The Victoria program can work in both windowed and DOS mode, which allows it to be used even on dead systems to restore information.

Victoria interface

The program is perfect for recovering bad sectors of a hard drive. Victoria is intended more for experienced users, since it contains virtually no interface and does not even have a localization tool included. But this does not prevent it from working correctly with hardware and file systems.

There are quite a lot of settings, switches and different numbers, and when you open the program for the first time, it can be difficult to navigate. But by following the steps below, let's learn how to repair bad sectors on your hard drive.

Testing and Analysis

In the Smart tab of this program you can quickly assess the general condition of the disk. The score is given based on analysis different meanings given in the table. There you can also view the status of each parameter individually.

For simple testing, go to the Tests tab. There are quite a lot of settings in each section, so for the initial analysis you can leave everything at default. Click on the Start button and wait until testing is completed. Full check hard drive to bad sectors takes a long time. Therefore, you can safely leave testing overnight and go to bed.

Additionally, the window contains a speed graph or a color display of sectors. You can switch the view using the Grid checkbox next to the timer.

Correcting sectors

If you don’t have time to wait for several checks, then after assessing the condition, you can immediately begin treating bad sectors of the hard drive. Victoria uses the Remap method to rewrite blocks. It reassigns bad blocks to normal ones from the spare disk space. To repair bad sectors, do the following:

During the scan, the log will display all errors found and a report on the measures taken. It also indicates in which part of the disk the problems were detected.

How to trim?

Often, bad partitions predominate at the beginning or end of the disk. The thought immediately comes to mind: “What if we don’t use the space with bad sectors?” Yes, it can be cut off and no longer used. You can find out which partition of disk space is best to cut off like this:


WITH system disk You should only work in DOS mode until the OS is loaded. While the backup or restored one can be marked directly from Windows. This method is good for large HDDs. But it does not help specifically restore broken partitions on the hard drive, as happens during the remap process.

Prevention

To prevent the hard drive from “dying” in your hands, it is advisable to carry out some preventative measures. Depending on the type of equipment.

If you have a laptop:

  • try not to hit him;
  • do not shake too much, especially in work time;
  • Do not expose to vibrations or temperature changes.

If you have desktop computer:

  • don't post system unit in a damp place;
  • do not allow components to overheat;
  • although the HDD itself is sealed, the board can be damaged by a layer of dust, so get rid of it;
  • install additional cooling to the hard drive if the computer is actively used or the hard drive is unable to cool itself.

Defragmentation is a useful preventive measure for all hard drives. There are a lot of programs, both in-house and third-party, to carry it out.

Now you know how to repair bad sectors on your hard drive and maybe even be able to save valuable information on it if problems arise.


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