Utilities for hdd diagnostics. Programs for checking your hard drive


To store information on most personal computers and even servers are used hard disks. They are quite reliable, but over time magnetic storage fall into disrepair. In most cases, the service life of the disk is 5-10 years. Each user must be able to diagnose the HDD in order to determine the need to replace the part and perform a data backup. You will learn everything about verification from this article.

Symptoms of hard drive problems

Malfunctions or early death hard drive may be accompanied by typical symptoms. We recommend paying attention to the following symptoms:

  • The appearance of uncharacteristic sounds during operation. There may be clicks, crackles, or metallic clanging. In such cases, the problem is usually mechanical in nature.
  • “Brakes” in the operation of the system. Windows loads too slowly, some files do not open, and errors occur when installing programs.
  • The appearance of blue “screens of death”. In such cases, an error code is always written, which can be used to determine the source of the problem.
  • Spontaneous shutdown or reboot of the computer. As a rule, in such situations it is damaged boot sector HDD.

Please note that computer freezes can also occur due to insufficient RAM.

Ways to check the hard drive

HDD diagnostics – important task. There are several ways to do this. Facilities operating system allow you to analyze your hard drive, but they are not always effective. Optimal solution- usage specialized utilities, which were created specifically for this task.

Via command line

Windows operating systems have a standard utility that can analyze the status of the hard drive. To do this you will have to run the command line:

In the command parameters, specify the drive letter and two specifiers. The first - F is responsible for automatic error correction, and R performs information recovery. Be prepared that the verification may take several hours. If you are using a laptop, be sure to charge it. At the end you will get statistics on how many sectors are damaged.

Using Windows Explorer

If you like more use familiar windows, you can run the scan through Explorer. To do this, users should follow a number of steps:

During this operation, the system will perform the following checks:

  • basic file system structure;
  • security descriptors;
  • file name associations;
  • USN magazine.

To find out the scan results, you need to go to the "Event Viewer" menu, and then to Windows log find the verification log.

Via Windows PowerShell

The latest Windows operating systems have an additional utility similar to command line, which was created for convenient system administration. You can also use it to test your hard drive. To start, you need to perform several steps:


The system will scan and automatically fix if possible. If there are no errors, the message NoErrorsFound will appear.

Using Windows 10 Tools

The latest operating system from Microsoft has advanced functionality, so it can independently diagnose a wide range of problems. Using the built-in security center, you can check the status of the HDD. Additionally, go to storage diagnostics. How to use these functions will be described below.

Security and Service Center

This is a special section in the “ten”, which is responsible for maintaining the operating system. As a rule, all necessary checks are performed automatically after a certain period of time. You can access this section through the control panel. Next, if necessary, open the “Maintenance” tab and find the “Disk Status” line. Opposite it should be the “OK” option. If it is not there, then we recommend thorough analysis hard drive status.

Storage Diagnostic Utility

Windows 10 developers also created additional utility For hard checks disk – storage diagnostics. It is launched via the command line (how to open it was described in the sections earlier). Next, enter the command and press Enter.

The procedure may take 2-5 hours (depending on the HDD capacity). At some points the process will appear to be stuck, but it is strongly recommended that you do not interrupt the scan. Once the process is complete, navigate to the path to save the report and open it (the file will have evtx permission). It will provide the following information:

  • verification data from using chkdsk and error information;
  • registry files containing data about connected drives;
  • Event Viewer Logs.

To correctly decipher the information presented in the report, it is necessary experienced specialists. The report will be uninformative for ordinary users.

Third party programs

For professionals and ordinary users third party developers have created many useful, functional and easy-to-use utilities for checking hard state disk. With their help, you can get comprehensive information about the status of your HDD. The most popular of them will be described below.

Victoria

This is the most popular free software from qualified specialists. Its wide functionality allows you to get almost any information about the hard drive. The parameters are displayed in a form convenient for the average user, so you don’t have to study anything additional to make a conclusion about the state of the HDD. The utility is distributed on a Freeware basis, i.e. absolutely free.

Download the software to your computer and follow the instructions:


All sectors will be marked in different colors depending on the response speed. Gray sectors are not dangerous. Green sectors are allowed in quantities of several hundred (up to 2-3 thousand). For example, on a completely new 1TV hard drive their number is about 1 thousand. Orange sectors are at their limit. No more than 100 pieces are allowed. Red and blue cannot be restored. They need to be “closed”, limiting reading from them.

When scanning, you can set the operating modes:

  • Ignore is a classic check without further action.
  • Remap – replacing unreadable sectors with reserves if available.
  • Restore – restore damaged sectors programmatically.
  • Erase – overwriting unreadable sectors. Attention, erases information.

As you can see, the utility is informative and easy to use even for beginners.

HDDScan

Another useful software to scan the hard drive. It has less functionality, but a more friendly interface compared to the previous version. The utility is completely free, but allows you to get SMART parameters and detailed information about the state of the sectors.

To start the verification procedure, follow these steps:


The colors for the sectors are identical to those described above. The scanning menu does not provide functions for correcting sectors.

DiskCheckup

The software supports work with almost all types of hard drives (SATA, USB, FireWire). It has small but sufficient functionality. Through the application, you can check the SMART parameters, as well as conduct a full test on the Disk Self-Test tab. The main disadvantage of the program is the complexity of the results for the average user. The status is indicated by the “OK” line and numerical parameters. Considering that they are all in English, it will be difficult to understand.

MHDD

This is highly specialized software for advanced users. It is used if the system does not start and the OS does not load to the desktop. To run MHDD software, you must burn it to a CD or flash drive as an image. You can even run the utility with the entire operating system. To do this, you need to select a flash drive or CD as the boot drive when using a floppy drive.

After the menu appears, you just need to select the desired hard drive and enter the command to check. The software is controlled in the same way through commands as on the console, or using function buttons keyboards. Not recommended for use ordinary users without the appropriate skills.

Crystal Disk Mark

This utility allows you to evaluate the speed of writing and reading information from your hard drive. In its interface, the user can select the write/read type, local disk and the size of the file that will be read and written. After finishing the test you will receive information at speed.

You will not be able to evaluate these results yourself. We recommend finding a similar HDD model online to compare its testing with your test data. If the results with identical settings are almost the same, then there is no need to worry. If there are strong differences, we recommend analyzing the hard drive through Victoria.

HDD Regenerator

Functional utility for HDD scanning and recovery. A special magnetization reversal algorithm allows you to eliminate quite serious problems with hard drive. To launch the software you should:


The advantage of this utility is the ability to quickly correct errors and close bad sectors.

Seagate SeaTools

Specialized software from Seagate product developers. Allows you to obtain basic information about the disk, perform preliminary and full scans. We recommend using this utility in cases where the above for some reason does not work, and you own a hard drive from Seagate.

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

Special software for English language to check company disks Western Digital. More suitable for advanced users, but quick diagnostics Even ordinary users can do this. For example, you can check the status of SMART parameters.

The utility also allows you to conduct simple and advanced tests, but the information content of the results for typical users leaves much to be desired.

Disk Utility on macOS

Operating room users MacOS systems also have standard utility for working with a hard drive. Its functionality includes:

  • creating and transforming images;
  • mounting and unmounting disks and other media.
  • activation and deactivation of logging mode;
  • HDD integrity testing and file recovery;
  • erasing, formatting and partitioning disks;
  • cleaning up debris;
  • adding a partition table;
  • checking the S.M.A.R.T status of the hard drive and much more.

To start you need in the utilities on system disk find the application and then launch it.

Prevention measures

To make it last as long as possible life is tough disk, users can perform various actions, which include:

  • Defragmentation. This procedure arranges all file blocks in order, making access to them as fast as possible, accordingly, the head travels less distance to open the file and wears out more slowly.
  • Install a quality power supply. Power surges have a detrimental effect on any equipment. If important data is stored on the HDD, take care of a high-quality power supply to prevent damage to the hard drive due to power surges.
  • Avoid vibrations and shocks. Winchesters are extremely vulnerable to impacts. When transporting your computer, make sure that the hard drive will not be subject to vibration.
  • Clean the system. Freezes due to unstable software or viruses can cause increased load on the disk; accordingly, it will use its resource faster.
  • Eliminate external magnetic fields. Many install system unit with other powerful equipment that has magnetic field. If you want to ensure maximum data safety, do not place the system unit next to equipment that emits a powerful magnetic field.

Never forget to do backups. Any hard drive will eventually become unusable, and it is not always possible to recover data. Regular checks will allow you to determine in advance the future demise of the HDD and take measures, for example, purchasing a new one.

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    Good afternoon.

    In today’s article I want to touch on the heart of the computer - the hard drive (by the way, many people call the processor the heart, but I personally don’t think so. If the processor burns out, buy a new one and there are no problems; if the hard drive burns out, then the information cannot be recovered in 99% of cases).

    When do you need to check your hard drive for performance and bad sectors? This is done firstly when they buy new hard disk, and secondly, when unstable work computer: you have strange noises (); when accessing a file, the computer freezes; long copying of information from one hard section disk to another; missing files and folders, etc.

    In this article I would like to talk about in simple language, how to check a hard drive for problems, to assess its performance in the future, disassemble it as you go typical questions users.

    So, let's begin…

    Updated 07/12/2015. Not long ago, an article appeared on the blog about restoring bad sectors ( treatment bad blocks) by the HDAT2 program - (I think the link will be relevant for this article). Its main difference from MHDD and Victoria is its support for almost any drive with interfaces: ATA/ATAPI/SATA, SSD, SCSI and USB.

    1. What do we need?

    Before starting the testing operation, in cases where the hard drive is not stable, I recommend copying everything important files from disk to other media: flash drives, external HDDs etc. ().

    1) You need a special program for testing and recovery performance of the hard disk. Similar programs quite a lot, I recommend using one of the most popular - Victoria. Below are the download links

    2) Next, a multi-colored program window will appear in front of us: go to the “Standard” tab. The upper right part shows the hard drives and CD-Roms that are installed in the system. Select your hard drive that you want to test. Then press the “Passport” button. If everything goes well, you will see how your hard drive model is determined. See picture below.

    If the hard disk controller is operating in AHCI mode(Native SATA) SMART attributes may not be received, with the message “Get S.M.A.R.T. command… Error reading S.M.A.R.T!” About the impossibility of receiving SMART data The “Non ATA” message highlighted in red also indicates when initializing a medium whose controller does not allow the use of ATA interface commands, including requesting SMART attributes.

    In this case, you need to go into the BIOS and in the Config tab->>Serial ATA (SATA)->>SATA Controller Mode Option->>change from AHCI to Compatibility. After finishing testing with the Victoria program, change the setting as it was before.

    You can read more about how to change ACHI to IDE (Compatibility) in my other article:

    4) Now go to the “Test” tab and click the “Start” button. In the main window, on the left, rectangles colored in different colors. It's best if they are all gray.

    You need to focus your attention on the red and blue rectangles (the so-called bad sectors, more about them at the very bottom). It’s especially bad if there are a lot of blue rectangles on the disk; in this case, it is recommended to run the disk scan again, only with the “Remap” checkbox turned on. In this case Victoria program will hide found ones bad sectors. This is how they produce restoration of hard disks that have begun to behave unstable.

    By the way, after such a restoration, the hard drive will not always work for a long time. If it has already begun to crumble, then I personally would not rely on the program. Subject to availability large number blue and red rectangles - it's time to think about a new hard drive. By the way, blue blocks on the new hard drive are not allowed at all! Experienced users call them bad sectors (meaning bad, unreadable). Such unreadable sectors can occur both during the manufacture of the hard drive and during its operation. After all, a hard drive is a mechanical device.

    During operation, the magnetic disks in the hard drive case rotate quickly, and the read heads move above them. If the device is pushed, hit, or software error, it may happen that the heads hit or fall onto the surface. Thus, it is almost certain that a bad sector will appear.

    In general, this is not a problem and many disks have such sectors. File system disk is capable of isolating such sectors from file copying/reading operations. Over time, the number of bad sectors may increase. But, as a rule, a hard drive often becomes unusable for other reasons before bad sectors “kill” it. Bad sectors can also be isolated using special programs, one of which we used in this article. After such a procedure, usually the hard drive begins to work more stable and better, however, how long this stability will last is unknown...

    Best…

    A hard drive failure can lead not only to the need to replace it, but also to the loss of all data stored on it. That is why it is so important to regularly check the HDD for errors in it in order to have time to transfer all important information to another medium. There are several programs for checking your hard drive. Windows users can use the built-in utility or download applications from third-party manufacturers.

    Utility to check your hard drive in Windows

    Utility for HDD checks in Windows OS it is located in the system called chkdsk.exe and can be launched from both GUI, and using the command line. To run chkdsk.exe, you must context menu In the My Computer section, select Properties and in the window that appears, go to the Tools tab. To start the program, click the Run scan button.

    In the window that appears, check or uncheck the boxes, depending on what parameters you want to check. The item Checking and repairing bad sectors will cause HDD diagnostics to take a long time and can last up to several hours. Checking the disk without correcting errors will allow you to complete the operation more quickly, but will not fix existing problems, if any.

    Examination system partition will be started only after the computer is rebooted, since while the OS is running, it is used by Windows.

    Run chkdsk.exe from the command line

    To run the disk check program from the command line, run cmd.exe and in the window that appears, enter the command chkdsk c: /f /r. In this case, the system will also warn you that it is impossible to scan the system partition.

    To continue testing, type Y and press Enter.

    Hard drive testing programs from HDD manufacturers

    In addition to the Windows utility, there are many other programs that allow you to identify hard mistakes disk and eliminate them. Usually manufacturers hard drives They include all the necessary utilities on the included disk, where, in addition to them, the drivers are located. You can also find a diagnostic tool from the corresponding manufacturer on its official website. Below we provide a list of the most famous official programs to check HDD:

    • Western Digital: Data Lifeguard Tools,
    • Seagate: SeaTools,
    • Hitachi: Drive Fitness Test,
    • Samsung: Shdiag.

    One of the most famous programs for checking a hard drive is the Victoria utility, which is distributed absolutely free. Victoria works under Windows systems and DOS.

    The main advantage of this utility is that it contains all the tools necessary for diagnostics. In addition, Victoria works with all HDD models from any manufacturer without restrictions.

    Despite the fact that the program is designed for use by professionals service centers, so ordinary users, you need to use the Victoria utility extremely carefully. Without understanding the built-in program options, inexperienced user can easily damage the media or destroy the data on it.

    Another program that allows you to diagnose HDDs of any manufacturer is another free utility MHDD, which also allows you not only to check the hard drive, but also to eliminate errors on it.

    This utility runs exclusively in pure MS-DOS. Especially for users Windows program distributed in the form boot image disk iso and a boot floppy disk.

    The main functions of MHDD are:

    • diagnostics of the mechanical part of the HDD,
    • viewing SMART attributes,
    • low level formatting,
    • correction of bad sectors.

    In addition, the program contains several types of tests.

    The MHDD program includes three files: the executable utility mhdd.exe itself, the help file mhdd.hlp, and the file where the cfg/mhdd.cfg configuration is saved.

    When using this program, it is necessary to take into account the fact that due to working with drives at the lowest level, MHDD, in addition to a unique diagnostic tool, is also a very dangerous application that, if handled incorrectly, can not only damage the drive, but also irreversibly destroy everything stored on it. him data.

    The main difference between MHDD is that it accesses the drive through the IDE/SATA controller, bypassing the BIOS, which avoids its limitations, as well as obstacles associated with the features of the file system.

    Program for checking your hard drive for Windows

    In addition to professional utilities for diagnosing and fixing HDDs, there are more simple programs, the functionality of which can be understood even by an inexperienced user. Such applications include Crystal Disk Info, which has several versions.

    Installation and launch of the program are standard and will not cause any difficulties. After launching Crystal Disk Info, a window will appear in front of you, where all necessary information about the hard drive – temperature and technical condition, presence of errors, duration of work, etc.

    In the figure above, mark 1 means the place to switch between disks, 2 – temperature and technical condition, 3 – information about the model, 4 – decoding of SMART parameters.

    Crystal Disk Info, although it does not allow you to fix it bad sectors, however, it makes it possible to quickly identify the presence of a problem, after which the user can move on to more detailed diagnostics.

    A hard drive with important information may break during operation due to an accidental impact or shock. If you are prudent, some of the files can be saved. To avoid unnecessary risks, always make backups and preventive checks for errors and bad sectors once every six months, after deleting junk files.

    If during operation you notice that files and folders suddenly begin to disappear, when accessing a file, the computer slows down, information takes a long time to copy from one disk partition to another, then you should also check.

    HDD diagnostics

    A hard drive is made up of a large number of individual cells called sectors. Each sector stores information. Special programs are used to check sectors. During testing, programs access each cell and measure the response time. The norm is considered to be 1 response every 3 milliseconds. If the program produces a result of 600 milliseconds or more, the result is considered critical and the cell is disabled.

    All modern HDDs for disk self-diagnosis. The idea of ​​the technology is that during loading, during initialization HDD motherboard board, a self-control test occurs. The computer owner can view the data from SMART and, if there are problems, has the opportunity in advance before they are lost.

    U faulty disk The read/write speed of the heads may decrease, and therefore the data transfer speed will decrease. This will significantly reduce its performance. The computer will be slower at loading, copying data from/to the disk, and launching programs.

    To diagnose hard drives for errors, bad sectors, to obtain S.M.A.R.T. data. , speed testing uses special programs.

    Programs for checking HDD

    SeaTools is a set of proprietary utilities, distributed free of charge. Can be downloaded from the official website. The proposed utilities check the disk for errors different brands, can be used to patch sectors.

    SeaTools for Windows carries out checks in Windows interface. The utility for DOS is an iso image from which you can make boot disk for check. This version is preferable if the user wants to avoid problems associated with the OS accessing the disk during scanning.

    Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

    Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is a utility that is developed especially popular among Russian users. Just like the previous one, it is free and has a version for Windows and ISO. Provides S.M.A.R.T. information.

    CrystalDiskInfo and CrystalDiskMark

    CrystalDiskMark is capable of measuring average read and write speeds on various sections of the disk. This free, multilingual program is designed specifically for measuring speed. She works with the most popular Windows versions. In addition to HDD, it can be used for SSDs and flash drives. Presented in two versions: for installation and portable.

    CrystalDiskInfo is intended for diagnosing hard disk and SSD. You can see the health status and temperature of the disk. You can view S.M.A.R.T. readings. such as and much more.

    Built-in Windows utilities

    Built-in check using Windows. Go to “My Computer” (“This PC” for Windows 8.1). Click right click on the drive to open Properties. Select “Service” from the menu and click the “Check” button. Wait until the verification process is completed and the computer displays the result.

    HDDScan

    HDD Scan – good free program. Supports hard drives with IDE/SATA/SCSI interfaces, RAID arrays, external USB/FireWire drives, SSDs and flash cards. Allows you to check hard drives, bad sectors, obtain SMART data, and perform various types of disk testing.

    Victoria HDD

    Victoria HDD is a popular software for diagnosing hard drives: performs a test of the disk surface in order to detect possible malfunctions, checks bad sectors, marks bad blocks.

    Victoria HDD is quite simple and powerful program is a hard drive test that was created to evaluate performance, test, troubleshoot minor problems, and format the drive.

    The hard drive is a very durable component of the computer, but it needs to be looked after, like other components. To check the status of the device, you can operate it as follows: system tools OS and third-party utilities. Let's take a closer look at how to check HDD.

    Users choose third-party programs for diagnostics

    Very often, diagnostic utilities are sold along with the hard drive itself. If the disk with the program was not in the box with the device, you have the opportunity to download them from the developer’s website. There are several popular verification tools:

    • SeaTools from Seagate;
    • Data Lifeguard Tools (WD);
    • Drive Fitness Test (Hitachi):
    • Shdiag (Samsung).

    In addition, MHDD and Victoria products are very popular.

    SeaTools

    Checking the hard drive for errors using the specified complex makes it possible to correct broken sectors and find dangerous vulnerabilities in the operation of the device. The developer provides the utility for free, you can get it on the website. The DOS build is an image that can be used to create a boot disk. In addition, Seagate offers the program in a convenient Windows interface. Experts recommend option No. 1, with which you can achieve a more effective result.

    After launch, a list of installed hard drives appears in the utility window. Having selected the required device, you can restore sectors, obtain SMART data, and also perform a number of tests. All this can be found in the “Basic tests” section. User-friendly interface and the Russian-language menu will allow even a novice user to understand the settings.

    Victoria

    The application is designed for in-depth testing of drives. Bad sectors, error checking, bad block marking and a lot of other options in the kit, which is easy to get by downloading for free from world wide web. Diagnosing a hard drive with with the help of Victoria is a very famous verification method today.

    The main component of the program is the Tests tab. Here great amount settings, and the average user will need to spend time studying the features and capabilities. Initially, you should select a section and click on testing. To ensure that defective sectors are marked as non-functional during the verification process, you can set the flag next to the Remap field.

    Data Lifeguard

    WD presents effective tool to check disks of your own production. Interestingly, for other drives Data program Lifeguard will be completely ineffective, so before using any program we strongly recommend that you first find out the model name of your hard drive. The utility is available as ISO image or OS version. Using the product, you can clean the disk 100%, check sectors, view data and see how the hard disk diagnostics went.

    MHDD

    The product helps with different sides evaluate the operation of the drive and correct errors on it. You can download MHDD to your PC from global network. The main features include the following:

    • access to USB devices;
    • assessment of the mechanical component;
    • low-level formatting;
    • work with SCSI, SATA, IDE;
    • different types of tests;
    • repair sectors and much more.

    HDD Scan

    An excellent tool for checking the operation of the drive. If you are interested in how to check a hard drive, download the program from the global linker resource and install it on your PC. The product has several simple buttons; convenient, friendly interface; Working with him will definitely not be difficult. Tests, receiving SMART data, checking sectors – standard list possibilities for tools of this kind. HDD Scan supports SATA, IDE, SCSI, as well as SSD, RAID and flash drives.

    Windows Features

    Sometimes it is enough to check the functionality of the drive using the utilities built into the OS. We are talking about the chkdsk program, which can be launched both from cmd and from a more familiar interface for the user.

    Press Win+R and type “chkdsk c: /f /r” in a new window. If the OS does not boot due to errors on the hard drive, take a disk with installation files. After that, go to the recovery environment and enable the utility. This function works in Windows XP, 10, 8.1, 7.

    If we talk about the interface, it is launched in the “Service” tab in the properties of a specific disk partition. After selecting this tab, find the “Run check” button and activate it.

    Next, the system will ask you to select scan options. If necessary, check the boxes next to the “Correct” items. system errors automatically" and "Repair bad sectors". Immediately after clicking “Start”, the computer will begin checking the non-system partition. If you want to check drive C, select a schedule, then reboot the “machine”. Immediately after the reboot, the scan will begin, wait until it finishes and try to study the results. Experienced experts say that the method is not highly effective, but sometimes it helps solve non-critical issues.

    Results

    Now you know how to check your hard drive using the internal methods that Windows offers, as well as using proprietary utilities from drive developers. If no critical errors are found and the device continues to operate ineffectively, the problem may be hidden in the drivers or RAM memory. If bad blocks and defective sectors have been identified on the hard drive, then it is better to securely save important information from the device and then replace it old disk to a more reliable version.
    

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