Programs for diagnosing a hard drive. Checking the hard drive for bad sectors and errors

The hard disk drive (HDD) is the most important element of the computer, which stores all the necessary information, programs and user files. Like any other component, over time, the hard drive wears out, its normal operation is disrupted, and failures begin to occur. Along with physical wear and tear, leading to the appearance of so-called bad sectors (bad blocks), there are often logical errors associated with the file system, indexes, and the main file table.

For the time being, you may not observe problems in the operation of the hard drive, but this does not guarantee that one day the hard drive will not die. Therefore, it is important to periodically (once or twice a year) check the hard drive for errors and bad sectors that need to be fixed. Regular monitoring will allow you to track the state of the carrier and respond in time to changes in its state. Of course, you should not neglect such a proven method of protecting information as backup. The most valuable data must necessarily be duplicated on a spare custodian.

Symptoms of a failing hard drive

In most cases, HDDs operate smoothly for several years without requiring special attention. However, in case of improper operation (physical impact, lack of proper cooling), the resource of the information carrier is significantly reduced. In rare situations, there is a factory defect or a sudden failure.

Hard disk failures can be indicated by an operating system that takes too long to load, files and folders disappear for no reason, or applications launch slowly. Obvious symptoms of a loss of performance by a hard drive are program slowdowns and long file copying. If the computer constantly “hangs”, and nothing but restarting helps, then in the process of identifying the causes, checking the hard drive should be the first item.

Using standard Windows 7/10 tools

You can test the media using standard Windows tools. The easiest way is to select the desired hard drive in Explorer, right-click on it and go to the "Service" tab.

Next, click the "Perform verification" button and set the verification parameters in the window that opens. If both checkboxes are checked, then Windows will automatically fix all system errors and restore bad sectors during diagnostics.

The results of the audit can be found in the report.

Command line

You can also audit the hard drive using the utility chkdsk called from the command line. In fact, such a check will not differ much from the above option.

So, we launch the command line by selecting the necessary item on the Start menu. Then in the window enter the command: chkdsk G: /f /r

• G - the name of the tested hard disk (select the disk that you want to check);
• f - checking and correcting errors;
• r - detection and recovery of bad sectors.

All information about found errors and bad sectors will be displayed as diagnostics are carried out.

Third Party Hard Drive Checker

There are many programs and utilities for finding bad sectors and fixing HDD errors. We present only the most famous.

Victoria

Perhaps the most popular tool for checking hard drives. The program can be run both in the Windows environment and in DOS mode from a bootable flash drive.

The interface provides five tabs: Standard, SMART, Tests, Advanced, and Setup. First of all, go to the section standard, where in the list of devices we select the hard drive we are interested in. The Drive passport area will display basic information about the HDD.

Next, select the tab SMART and press the "Get SMART" button. SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analisys and Reporting Technology) is a hard drive self-monitoring technology. Those. the hard drive in the process of operation monitors its work, recording information on a set of parameters that make it possible to assess the state of the media. It is this service information that we are trying to obtain.

After pressing “Get SMART”, either the inscription GOOD on a green background or the inscription BAD! will appear to the right of the button. on red. The second option will indicate that the media is in poor condition and will most likely have to be changed. For a more detailed study of SMART statistics, let's pay attention to the list of parameters on the left. Here we are primarily interested in the attribute 5 Reallocated sector count A indicating the number of remapped sectors. If there are too many of them, then the disk began to “crumble”, that is, its surface quickly degrades and it is urgent to make a copy of all data. In this case, there is no point in restoring the hard drive.

Chapter Tests makes it possible to check the hard drive for bad sectors, as well as try to "cure" or reassign unreadable blocks. For simple testing of the hard drive, set the switch to Ignore and start the test with the Start button. The assessment of the state of the sectors is made by measuring the response time. The smaller it is, the better. Each range of response time values ​​has its own color designation. The "slowest" blocks are marked with green, orange and red colors. Sectors that could not be read at all are marked blue. If there are a large number of "slow" and unreadable blocks, the hard drive should be replaced.

The Victoria program allows you to restore bad sectors, but we will not consider all the nuances of the procedure. Moreover, "treatment" often contributes only to a slight extension of the service life of the information carrier. To reassign bad blocks, check with the mode enabled Remap. If the recovery was successful, do not rush to rejoice. Re-diagnose the disk after a certain period of operation. The appearance of new bad blocks will indicate that the degradation of the hard drive is irreversible, and it is time for him to find a replacement.

HDDScan

This is another handy program for identifying problems with hard drives. After launching the application, select the drive that needs to be checked in the Select Drive list.

At the bottom, click on the button "S.M.A.R.T." and get acquainted with the submitted report.

Now we will diagnose the surface of the disk. Click on the round button to the right of the drop-down list of media and select Surface Tests from the menu that opens.

Click on the Add Test button, thereby adding a test to the list and starting its execution.

You can get information about the progress of testing in the graph (Graph), map (Map) and report (Report) mode. All blocks are also, depending on the access time, divided into groups with the corresponding color marking.

At the end, a final report is generated.

Perhaps this is all that we wanted to talk about methods for checking the hard drive of a computer for operability. We hope that the information provided will be useful to you and help you save important data.

Sooner or later (better, of course, if early) any user asks himself the question of how long the hard drive installed on his computer will last and whether it is time to look for a replacement for it. There is nothing surprising in this, since hard drives, due to their design features, are the least reliable among computer components. At the same time, it is on the HDD that most users store the lion's share of the most diverse information: documents, pictures, various software, etc., as a result of which an unexpected disk failure is always a tragedy. Of course, it is often possible to recover information on externally “dead” hard drives, but it is possible that this operation will cost you a pretty penny, and it will cost you a lot of nerves. Therefore, it is much more effective to try to prevent data loss.
How? It's very simple... First of all, don't forget about regular data backups, and secondly, monitor the status of disks using specialized utilities. We will consider several programs of such a plan in terms of the tasks to be solved in this article.

Control of SMART parameters and temperature

All modern HDDs and even solid state drives (SSDs) support S.M.A.R.T. ( from English. Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology - technology of self-monitoring, analysis and reporting), which was developed by major manufacturers of hard drives to increase the reliability of their products. This technology is based on continuous monitoring and assessment of the state of the hard drive by the built-in self-diagnostic equipment (special sensors), and its main purpose is the timely detection of a possible drive failure.

HDD status monitoring in real time

A number of information and diagnostic solutions for hardware diagnostics and testing, as well as special monitoring utilities, use S.M.A.R.T. to monitor the current status of various vital parameters that describe the reliability and performance of hard drives. They read the relevant parameters directly from the sensors and thermal sensors that all modern hard drives are equipped with, analyze the received data and display them in the form of a brief tabular report with a list of attributes. At the same time, some of the utilities (Hard Drive Inspector, HDDlife, Crystal Disk Info, etc.) are not limited to displaying a table of attributes (the values ​​of which are incomprehensible to unprepared users) and additionally display brief information about the state of the disk in a more understandable form.

Diagnosing the condition of a hard drive using this kind of utilities is as easy as shelling pears - just get acquainted with brief basic information about installed HDDs: with basic data about disks in Hard Drive Inspector, a certain conditional percentage of hard disk health in HDDlife, the "Technical condition" indicator in Crystal Disk Info ( Fig. 1), etc. Any of these programs provides the minimum necessary information about each of the HDDs installed on the computer: data on the hard drive model, its volume, operating temperature, hours worked, as well as the level of reliability and performance. This information makes it possible to draw certain conclusions about the performance of the carrier.

Rice. 1. Brief information about the "health" of the working HDD

You should configure the launch of the monitoring utility at the same time as the operating system starts, adjust the time interval between checks of S.M.A.R.T. attributes, and enable display of the temperature and “health level” of hard drives in the system tray. After that, in order to monitor the status of disks, the user will only need to glance at the indicator in the system tray from time to time, which will display brief information about the status of the drives available in the system: their “health” level and temperature (Fig. 2). By the way, the operating temperature is no less important indicator than the conditional indicator of HDD health, because hard drives can suddenly fail due to banal overheating. Therefore, if the hard drive heats up above 50 ° C, then it would be wiser to provide it with additional cooling.

Rice. 2. HDD status display
in the system tray with the HDDlife program

It is worth noting that a number of such utilities provide integration with Windows Explorer, due to which a green icon is displayed on the icons of local disks if they are in good condition, and if problems occur, the icon turns red. So you are unlikely to be able to forget about the health of your hard drives. With such constant monitoring, you will not be able to miss the moment when some problems begin to arise with the disk, because if the utility detects critical changes in the S.M.A.R.T. and / or temperature, it will carefully notify the user about this (by a message on the screen, a sound message, etc. - Fig. 3). Thanks to this, it will be possible to have time to copy the data from the medium that inspires fear in advance.

Rice. 3. An example of a message about the need to immediately replace the disk

It is absolutely not burdensome to use S.M.A.R.T.

Control of S.M.A.R.T. attributes

Advanced users, of course, are unlikely to limit themselves to assessing the state of hard drives by viewing a brief verdict of one of the utilities presented above. It is understandable, because by decoding the attributes of S.M.A.R.T. it is possible to identify the cause of failures and, if necessary, prudently take some additional measures. True, to independently control S.M.A.R.T. attributes, you will need to at least briefly familiarize yourself with the S.M.A.R.T. technology.

HDDs that support this technology include intelligent self-diagnosis routines so they can "report" their current status. This diagnostic information is provided as a collection of attributes, i.e. specific hard drive characteristics used to analyze its performance and reliability.

B O Most of the important attributes have the same meaning for drives from all manufacturers. The values ​​of these attributes during normal disk operation may vary within certain intervals. For any parameter, the manufacturer has defined a certain minimum safe value that cannot be exceeded under normal operating conditions. Unambiguously determine critical and non-critical S.M.A.R.T parameters for diagnostics. problematic. Each of the attributes has its own informational value and indicates one or another aspect in the work of the carrier. However, first of all, you should pay attention to the following attributes:

• Raw Read Error Rate - frequency of errors in reading data from the disk due to the fault of the equipment;
• Spin Up Time - average spin up time of the disk spindle;
• Reallocated Sector Count - number of sector remapping operations;
• Seek Error Rate - frequency of occurrence of positioning errors;
• Spin Retry Count - the number of retries to spin up disks to operating speed if the first attempt fails;
• Current Pending Sector Count - the number of unstable sectors (that is, sectors waiting for the remapping procedure);
• Offline Scan Uncorrectable Count - total number of uncorrected errors during sector read/write operations.

Typically, S.M.A.R.T. are displayed in a tabular form with the attribute name (Attribute), its identifier (ID) and three values: current (Value), minimum threshold (Threshold), and the lowest value of the attribute for the entire time of the drive (Worst), as well as the absolute value of the attribute (raw). Each attribute has a current value, which can be any number between 1 and 100, 200, or 253 (there is no general standard for upper bounds on attribute values). The Value and Worst values ​​for a completely new hard drive are the same (Fig. 4).

Rice. 4. Attributes of S.M.A.R.T. on the new HDD

Shown in fig. 4 information allows us to conclude that for a theoretically sound hard drive, the current (Value) and worst (Worst) values ​​should be as close as possible to each other, and the Raw value for most parameters (with the exception of the parameters: Power-On Time, HDA Temperature and some others ) should be close to zero. The current value may change over time, which in most cases reflects the deterioration of the hard drive parameters described by the attribute. This can be seen in fig. 5, which shows fragments of the S.M.A.R.T attribute table. for the same disk - the data are received with an interval of half a year. As you can see, in a more recent version of S.M.A.R.T. increased error rate when reading data from the disk (Raw Read Error Rate), the origin of which is due to the hardware of the disk, and the error rate when positioning the block of magnetic heads (Seek Error Rate), which may indicate overheating of the hard drive and its unstable position in the basket . If the current value of any attribute approaches or becomes less than the threshold, then the hard drive is considered unreliable, and it should be urgently replaced. For example, a drop in the value of the Spin-Up Time attribute (the average spin-up time of the disk spindle) below a critical value, as a rule, indicates complete wear of the mechanics, as a result of which the disk is no longer able to maintain the rotation speed specified by the manufacturer. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the state of the HDD and periodically (for example, once every 2-3 months) carry out S.M.A.R.T. and save the received information in a text file. In the future, these data can be compared with the current ones and certain conclusions can be drawn about the development of the situation.

Rice. 5. S.M.A.R.T. Attribute Tables Obtained at Semi-Annual Intervals
(more recent version of S.M.A.R.T. below)

When viewing S.M.A.R.T. attributes, first of all, you should pay attention to critical parameters, as well as to parameters highlighted with indicators other than the base color (usually blue or green). Depending on the current state of the attribute in the S.M.A.R.T. in the table, it is usually marked in one color or another, which makes it easier to understand the situation. In particular, in the Hard Drive Inspector program, the color indicator can be green, yellow-green, yellow, orange or red - green and yellow-green colors indicate that everything is fine (the attribute value did not change or changed insignificantly), and yellow, orange and red colors signal danger (worst of all is red, which indicates that the value of the attribute has reached its critical value). If any of the critical parameters is marked with a red icon, then you need to urgently replace the hard drive.

Let's look at the table of S.M.A.R.T. attributes of the same disk in the Hard Drive Inspector program, a brief assessment of which by monitoring utilities was given earlier. From fig. 6 shows that the values ​​of all attributes are normal and all parameters are marked in green. The HDDlife and Crystal Disk Info utilities will show a similar picture. True, more professional solutions for HDD analysis and diagnostics are not so loyal and often label S.M.A.R.T. attributes more meticulously. For example, such well-known utilities as HD Tune Pro and HDD Scan, in our case, were suspicious of the UltraDMA CRC Errors attribute, which displays the number of errors that occur when information is transmitted via the external interface (Fig. 7). The cause of such errors is usually associated with a twisted and poor-quality SATA cable, which may need to be replaced.

Rice. 6. Table of S.M.A.R.T. attributes obtained in the Hard Drive Inspector program

Rice. 7. Results of assessing the state of S.M.A.R.T. attributes
HD Tune Pro and HDD Scan utilities

For comparison, let's get acquainted with the S.M.A.R.T. attributes of a very ancient, but still working HDD with intermittent problems. He did not inspire confidence in the Crystal Disk Info program - in the “Technical Condition” indicator, the state of the disk was rated as alarming, and the Reallocated Sector Count attribute (Reassigned sectors) turned out to be highlighted in yellow (Fig. 8). This is a very important attribute from the point of view of the "health" of the disk, indicating the number of sectors remapped when the disk detects a read / write error, during this operation, data from the bad sector is transferred to the spare area. The yellow color of the indicator next to the parameter indicates that there are not enough remaining spare sectors with which to replace the bad ones, and soon there will be nothing to reassign the newly emerging bad sectors. Let's also check how more serious solutions evaluate the state of a disk, for example, the HDDScan utility widely used by professionals - but here we see exactly the same result (Fig. 9).

Rice. 8. Evaluate a problematic hard drive in CrystalDiskInfo

Rice. 9. Results of HDD S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics in HDDScan

This means that it is obviously not worth pulling with the replacement of such a hard drive, although it can still serve for some time, although, of course, you cannot install an operating system on this hard drive. It should be noted that in the presence of a large number of reassigned sectors, the read / write speed drops (due to unnecessary movements that the magnetic head has to make), and the disk starts to noticeably slow down.

Surface scanning for bad sectors

Unfortunately, in practice, one control of SMART parameters and temperature is not enough. When there is the slightest evidence that something is wrong with the disk (in the case of periodic program freezes, for example, when saving results, reading error messages, etc.), you need to scan the disk surface for unreadable sectors. To carry out such a check of the media, you can use, for example, the HD Tune Pro and HDDScan utilities or diagnostic utilities from hard drive manufacturers, however, these utilities only work with their hard drive models, and therefore we will not consider them.

When using such solutions, there is a risk of data corruption on the scanned disk. On the one hand, with the information on the disk, if the drive really turns out to be faulty, anything can happen during the scan. On the other hand, it is impossible to exclude incorrect actions on the part of the user, who mistakenly starts scanning in write mode, during which sector-by-sector overwriting of data from the hard drive with a certain signature occurs, and based on the speed of this process, a conclusion is made about the state of the hard disk. Therefore, compliance with certain precautionary rules is absolutely necessary: ​​before starting the utility, you need to create a backup copy of the information and, during the check, act strictly according to the instructions of the developer of the corresponding software. To get more accurate results before scanning, it is better to close all active applications and unload possible background processes. In addition, it should be borne in mind that if you need to test the system HDD, you need to boot from a flash drive and start the scanning process from it, or completely remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer from which to start testing the disk.

As an example, using HD Tune Pro, we will check the surface of the HDD for bad sectors, which above did not inspire confidence in the Crystal Disk Info utility. In this program, to start the scanning process, just select the desired disk, activate the tab error scan and click on the button start. After that, the utility will start sequentially scanning the disk, reading sector by sector and marking sectors on the disk map with multi-colored squares. The color of the squares, depending on the situation, can be green (normal sectors) or red (bad blocks), or it will have some shade intermediate between these colors. As we see from fig. 10, in our case, the utility did not find full-fledged bad blocks, but nevertheless, there is a solid number of sectors with one or another read delay (judging by their color). In addition to this, in the middle part of the disk there is a small block of sectors, the color of which is close to red - these sectors have not yet been recognized as bad by the utility, but they are already close to it and will go into the category of bad ones in the very near future.

Rice. 10. Scanning the surface for bad sectors in HD Tune Pro

Testing the media for bad sectors in the HDDScan program is more difficult, and even more dangerous, because in the case of an incorrectly selected mode, the information on the disk will be irretrievably lost. First of all, to start scanning, create a new task by clicking on the button New Task and selecting the command from the list Suface Tests. Then you need to make sure that the mode is selected read- this mode is set by default and when it is used, the hard disk surface is tested by reading (that is, without deleting data). After that press the button Add test(Fig. 11) and double click on the created task RD Read. Now in the window that opens, you can observe the process of scanning the disk on the graph (Graph) or on the map (Map) - fig. 12. Upon completion of the process, we will get approximately the same results that were demonstrated above by the HD Tune Pro utility, but with a clearer interpretation: there are no bad sectors (they are marked in blue), but there are three sectors with a response time of more than 500 ms (marked in red color), which represent a real danger. As for the six orange sectors (response time from 150 to 500 ms), this can be considered within the normal range, since such a response delay is often caused by temporary interference in the form of, for example, running background programs.

Rice. 11. Run a disk test in HDDScan

Rice. 12. Results of scanning a disk in Read mode using HDDScan

In addition, it should be noted that if there are a small number of bad blocks, you can try to improve the condition of the hard disk by removing bad sectors by scanning the disk surface in linear recording mode (Erase) using the HDDScan program. After such an operation, the disk can still be used for some time, but, of course, not as a system disk. However, one should not hope for a miracle, since the HDD has already begun to crumble, and there are no guarantees that in the near future the number of defects will not increase and the drive will not completely fail.

Programs for S.M.A.R.T.-monitoring and HDD testing

HD Tune Pro 5.00 and HD Tune 2.55

Developer: EFD Software

Distribution size: HD Tune Pro - 1.5 MB; HD Tune - 628 KB

Work under control: Windows XP/Server 2003/Vista/7

Distribution method: HD Tune Pro - shareware (15 day demo); HD Tune - freeware (http://www.hdtune.com/download.html)

Price: HD Tune Pro - $34.95; HD Tune - free (for non-commercial use only)

HD Tune is a handy utility for diagnosing and testing HDD/SSD (see table), as well as memory cards, USB drives and a number of other storage devices. The program displays detailed information about the drive (firmware version, serial number, disk size, buffer size and data transfer mode) and allows you to set the device status using S.M.A.R.T data. and temperature monitoring. In addition, it can be used to test the disk surface for errors and evaluate the performance of the device by running a series of tests (sequential and random read / write speed tests, file performance test, cache test and a number of Extra tests). Also, the utility can be used to set up AAM and securely delete data. The program is presented in two editions: commercial HD Tune Pro and free lightweight HD Tune. In the HD Tune edition, only viewing detailed information about the disk and the S.M.A.R.T. attribute table is available, as well as scanning the disk for errors and testing for speed in read mode (Low level benchmark - read).

The Health tab is responsible for monitoring S.M.A.R.T. attributes in the program - data is read from the sensors after a set period of time, the results are displayed in the table. For any attribute, you can view the history of its changes in numerical form and on a graph. Monitoring data is automatically logged, but no user notifications are provided for critical parameter changes.

As for scanning the disk surface for bad sectors, the tab is responsible for this operation. error Scan. Scanning can be quick (Quick scan) and deep - during a quick scan, not the entire disk is scanned, but only some part of it (the scan area is determined through the Start and End fields). Bad sectors are displayed on the disk map as red blocks.

HDDScan 3.3

Developer: Artem Rubtsov

Distribution size: 3.64 MB

Work under control: Windows 2000(SP4)/XP(SP2/SP3)/Server 2003/Vista/7

Distribution method: freeware (http://hddscan.com/download/HDDScan-3.3.zip)

Price: for free

HDDScan is a utility for low-level diagnostics of hard drives, solid state drives and USB flash drives. The main purpose of this program is to test disks for bad blocks and bad sectors. Also, the utility can be used to view the contents of S.M.A.R.T., monitor temperature and change some hard drive settings: noise management (AAM), power management (APM), forced start / stop of the drive spindle, etc. The program works without installation and can be launched from portable media, like flash drives.

Display of S.M.A.R.T. attributes and temperature monitoring in HDDScan is done on demand. S.M.A.R.T. report contains information about the performance and "health" of the drive in the form of a standard attribute table, the temperature of the drive is displayed in the system tray and in a special information window. Reports can be printed or saved as an MHT file. S.M.A.R.T. tests are possible.

Checking the disk surface is performed in one of four modes: Verify (linear verification mode), Read (linear reading), Erase (linear writing) and Butterfly Read (Butterfly reading mode). To check the disk for the presence of bad blocks, a test in Read mode is usually used, with the help of which the surface is tested without deleting data (a conclusion about the state of the drive is made based on the speed of sector-by-sector data reading). When testing in the linear recording mode (Erase), the information on the disk is overwritten, but this test can somewhat heal the disk, ridding it of bad sectors. In any of the modes, you can test the entire disk or a certain fragment of it (the scanning area is determined by specifying the initial and final logical sectors - Start LBA and End LBA, respectively). The test results are presented in the form of a report (Report tab) and displayed on a graph (Graph) and a disk map (Map) indicating, among other things, the number of bad sectors (Bads) and sectors, the response time of which during testing took more than 500 ms (marked in red ).

Hard Drive Inspector 4.13

Developer: AltrixSoft

Distribution size: 2.64 MB

Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/7

Distribution method: shareware (14-day demo - http://www.altrixsoft.com/ru/download/)

Price: Hard Drive Inspector Professional - 600 rubles; Hard Drive Inspector for Notebooks - 800 rubles.

Hard Drive Inspector is a handy solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of external and internal HDDs. At the moment, the program is offered on the market in two editions: the basic Hard Drive Inspector Professional and the portable Hard Drive Inspector for Notebooks; the latter includes all the functionality of the Professional version, and at the same time takes into account the specifics of monitoring laptop hard drives. Theoretically, there is another version of the SSD, but it is distributed only in OEM deliveries.

The program provides automatic verification of S.M.A.R.T. attributes at specified intervals and, upon completion, issues its verdict regarding the state of the drive, displaying the values ​​of some conditional indicators: "reliability", "performance" and "no errors" along with a numerical temperature value and a temperature diagram. It also provides technical data about the drive model, its capacity, total free space and operating time in hours (days). In advanced mode, you can view information about disk parameters (buffer size, firmware name, etc.) and the S.M.A.R.T attribute table. There are various options for informing the user in case of critical changes on the disk. Additionally, the utility can be used to reduce the noise level produced by hard drives and reduce the power consumption of the HDD.

HD Life 4.0

Developer: BinarySense Ltd.

Distribution size: 8.45 MB

Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8

Distribution method: shareware (15-day demo - http://hddlife.ru/rus/downloads.html)

Price: HDDlife - free; HDDLife Pro - 300 rubles; HDDlife for Notebooks - 500 rubles.

HDDLife is a simple utility designed to monitor the status of hard drives and SSDs (since version 4.0). The program is presented in three editions: free HDDLife and two commercial editions - basic HDDLife Pro and portable HDDlife for Notebooks.

The utility monitors S.M.A.R.T. attributes and temperature at specified intervals and, based on the results of the analysis, issues a compact report on the state of the disk, indicating technical data on the disk model and its capacity, hours worked, temperature, and also displays the conditional percentage of its health and performance, which allows to navigate the situation even for beginners. More experienced users can additionally look at the table of S.M.A.R.T. attributes. In case of problems with the hard drive, it is possible to configure notifications; you can configure the program so that when the disk is in a normal state, the results of the check are not displayed. HDD noise level and power consumption can be controlled.

CrystalDiskInfo 5.4.2

Developer: Hiyohiyo

Distribution size: 1.79 MB

Work under control: Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/2012

Distribution method: freeware (http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html)

Price: for free

CrystalDiskInfo is a simple utility for S.M.A.R.T. health monitoring of hard drives (including many external HDDs) and SSDs. Despite the freeware, the program has all the necessary functionality to organize disk health monitoring.

Disks are monitored automatically after a specified number of minutes or on demand. At the end of the test, the system tray displays the temperature of monitored devices; Detailed information about the HDD with S.M.A.R.T. values, temperature, and the program's verdict on the state of the devices is available in the main window of the utility. There is functionality to set threshold values ​​for some parameters and automatically notify the user if they are exceeded. Noise level management (AAM) and power management (APM) are possible.

Unfortunately, a large part of modern HDDs work normally for a little over a year, then all sorts of problems begin, which over time can lead to data loss. Such a prospect can be completely avoided if you carefully monitor the condition of the hard drive, for example, using the utilities discussed in the article. However, you should not forget about regular backup of valuable data either, since monitoring utilities, as a rule, successfully predict the failure of a drive due to the fault of "mechanics" (according to Seagate's statistics, about 60% of HDDs fail due to mechanical components), but they are not able to predict the death of the drive due to problems with the electronic components of the drive.

A hard disk with important information may break during operation, due to accidental shock, or concussion. If you are prudent, then some of the files can be saved. In order not to take unnecessary risks, always make a backup and a preventive check for errors and bad sectors once every six months, after deleting junk files.

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

HDD Diagnostics

A hard drive is made up of a large number of individual cells called sectors. Information is stored on each sector. Special programs are used to check sectors. During the test, the programs access each cell and measure the response time. The norm is considered to be 1 response in 3 milliseconds. If the program produces a result of 600 milliseconds or more, this result is considered critical, and the cell is incapacitated.

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

A failed disk may have a slower read/write head speed, and therefore a slower data transfer rate. This will significantly reduce its performance. The computer will be slower to load, copy data from / to disk, run programs.

To diagnose hard drives for errors, bad sectors, to obtain S.M.A.R.T. , 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 site. The proposed utilities check the disk for errors of different brands, can be used to fix sectors.

SeaTools for Windows performs validation in the Windows interface. The utility for DOS is an iso image from which you can make a boot disk for checking. This version is preferred if the user wants to avoid problems with disk access by the OS during the scan.

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is a utility developed especially popular among Russian users. Just like the previous one, it is free, it 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 across different sections of a disk. This free, multilingual program is designed specifically for measuring speed. It works with the most popular versions of Windows. In addition to HDD, it can be used for SSD and flash drives. It is presented in two versions: for installation and portable.

CrystalDiskInfo is designed to diagnose hard drives and SSDs. You can view the health status and temperature of the drive. You can view S.M.A.R.T. like so much more.

Built-in Windows Utilities

Checking with built-in Windows tools. Go to “My Computer” (“This PC” for Windows 8.1). Right click on the drive to open "Properties". Select "Tools" from the menu and press the "Check" button. Wait until the verification process is completed and the computer displays the result.

HDDScan

HDD Scan is a good free program. Supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard drives, RAID arrays, external USB/FireWire drives, SSDs, and flash cards. Allows you to check hard drives, bad sectors, get SMART data, perform various kinds of disk tests.

Victoria HDD

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

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

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

Check for errors by standard means

This method is equally effective for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10. You must:

If a notification appears "Windows cannot check the drive that is currently in use", You should click "Check Schedule".

So, now we are doing a reboot, and when the system boots, the health test through the BIOS and the media error corrections will start. Its duration can be from 2-3 minutes to an hour, depending on the characteristics of the hard drive and its capacity.

Check hard drive for errors via command line

To start the scan, you must perform the following steps: go to "Start / All Programs / Accessories / Command Prompt". Right-click and click "Run as administrator". There are also .

In the window that appears, execute the command "chkdsk disk_partition: check_parameters". Please note that this method only works with drives that have been formatted in FAT32, NTFS or RAW (this format).

An example command would be "chkdsk C: /F /R". Its essence is as follows:

• Section C will be checked for errors;
• Found problems will be automatically fixed (parameter F is responsible for this);
• Bad sectors will be checked and information restored (parameter R);

If you want to diagnose the drive currently used by the system, 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, information about the verified data, the number of bad sectors and the errors found will become available to you.

For a complete list of options, run chkdsk with a question mark as an option. But if you need a simple check for errors and sectors, then the above information will be enough for you.

It happens that the errors found during the scan 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 is 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” at the command line (C: is the disk partition). If it is not possible to disable it, then the check will be performed at the next reboot.

If necessary, after the check, you have the opportunity to examine the check log. For this you need:

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

Program check

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

Victoria

A utility for diagnosing and testing a hard drive. It will help you not only to detect problems in its operation, but also to 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;
• Estimates media performance.

Victoria is one of the best to date. It is able to solve problems with bad sectors and quickly bring any type of hard drive into working condition. However, it was dedicated to her, with which I certainly recommend that you familiarize yourself.

HDD Regenerator

One of the most effective programs for assessing the status and troubleshooting drives. It makes it possible to obtain information about the current SMART status of the selected device and full control over it.
Among the main possibilities are:

• Simple and clear interface;
• Complete security;
• Support for NTFS and FAT;
• Pre-scan mode;

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

Test Disk

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

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

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

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

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

• A quick but thorough check;
• Support for all components;
• Monitoring;
• data statistics;

This utility is suitable for all devices and can be used even 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 is able to fix:
• Hardware incompatibility;
• Violations of the HDD file system;
• Errors in installed drivers;
• , which infect the file system;

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

There are other very effective utilities, for example, . The main advantage of which is the work from under DDOS, which completely eliminates the possible inaccuracy of the data during testing.

So, now you have complete information on how to determine if the hard drive is working properly, and how to solve problems related to it yourself. Choose the most suitable or the option you like and act!

Video: we make a complete diagnosis of the HDD

When you begin to suspect that the hard drive (or SDD) has started to make bad sounds, you will be interested in its condition. It is possible to check this with the help of various programs that are specially designed for this purpose.

Let's take a look at the best free hard drive scanning programs, their features with additional information and comparisons with each other. The article also contains a description of programs built into the operating system for analyzing a hard drive without downloading a third-party application.

Name	S.M.A.R.T. analysis	Notification system	Error correction	DOS version
Western Digital Diagnostics
Victoria HDD
USB Disk Storage
Seagate SeaTools
MHDD
HDDScan
HDD Regenerator
HD Tune
DiskCheckup
CrystalDiskInfo
Crystal Disk Mark
HDD Health

Program Victoria HDD

The most popular program that fixes bad sectors. The hardware functions of the program are designed to quickly analyze and correct errors, faulty contacts in the cable, evaluate the performance of drives using the old version that has not been updated, and also work with new HDD / SSD drives with successful results.

Pros and cons of the program:

Checking and correcting errors on the HDD with Victoria

During testing, the program analyzes and displays a graph with information. Orange sectors (600) are problematic, red (0) or blue sectors are considered damaged, green (200) do not need to be fixed.

Advice! The process itself will take a lot of time, so it is better to leave the testing system overnight.

Video - How to cure a hard drive from bad sectors

A small program designed for USB sticks. A peculiar deletion algorithm when formatting data helps to recover flash drives if they had incorrect partition entries.

It has an individual function that creates FAT32 partitions on disks with a capacity of more than 32 GB.

Pros and cons of the program:

A proprietary program from a popular manufacturer of HDD drives. The utility can determine the behavior of the hard drive by "SMART" modeling. There are nuances - the possibility of obtaining detailed information about any indicator does not exist.

Produces 3 types of analysis:

1. Selftest - short scan.
2. Express test - quick, sequential scan.
3. Full diagnostics - produces a volumetric, gradual reading of the disk.

The program also has the function of tracking software updates for hard drives, but the ability to work with other devices is limited.

Pros and cons of the program:

The program has proven itself for many years. This multifunctional utility has worked with single-core processors and now it can check the disk for faults and reallocate sectors, and it also has control over the noise level of the hard drive.

There is no support for Windows 7, so the portable application image is used as a means of diagnosing a hard drive without starting the OS.

Pros and cons of the program:

HDDScan software

A utility for viewing and collecting information about storage devices and testing them with various algorithms. Shows the temperature of the hard drive and creates a report that contains information about unfavorable sectors. The application can analyze HDD, SSD drives.

Checking the hard drive with the HDDScan utility

Click on the "Map" tab and uncheck the "disable map ..."

• the top 4 squares with numbers indicate the excellent position of the sectors on the disk;
• the numbers opposite the green square are still tolerable for the hard drive;
• if a large number of numbers opposite the blue block is high, then you should think about purchasing a new HDD drive.

Pros and cons of the program:

The advantages of this application over other programs are almost everything. The modern approach of the developers gave her an excellent algorithm of actions. High and low signal levels restore damaged sectors of the hard drive. Plus is the support for all types of drives.

All this is available only when registering the program and this pleasure costs $ 90, but without this only one function will be available - disk analysis.

Pros and cons of the program:

HD Tune program

The simplest free program that uses personal methods to identify the problem, two options:

1. Express diagnostics - testing by a special method.
2. Low-level analysis - scanning is performed in read mode.

The app works with HDD/SSD drives.

There is also an additional modification of HD Tune Pro containing tools for more in-depth scanning.

Pros and cons of the program:

A good option for diagnosing hard drives. The utility can store a history of earlier scans with it and compare test results.

Support for a certain number of controllers limits the self-diagnosis of the hard drive, but there is a plus in this program - the error-free construction of "SMART" images.

Pros and cons of the program:

Western Digital Program

The capabilities of this application will suit an advanced user more, since there are functions of a very deep irrevocable formatting of the disk, called Write Zeros, and deleted files cannot be recovered.

Also, this program has the feature of remapping bad sectors on the disk. To exclude another entry to "broken" areas, the program marks and prohibits access to bad sectors.

The Western Digital Diagnostic utility is one of the categories of programs that not only diagnose, but also correct possible errors.

Pros and cons of the program:

Testing HDD with Western Digital

The program must be run as administrator

The drive will only need to be replaced if one of the tests fails.

CrystalDiskInfo program

The advantage over DiskCheckup is the greater variety of options in the utility menu. The functions of storing history and comparing indicators after testing are the same as in the previous described program. What is important when identifying the status of HDD / SSD drives.

Options in Russian, which will allow you to monitor notifications and temperature if critical values ​​\u200b\u200bappear.

Pros and cons of the program:

The program uses 4 testing methods, so you can find out the exact write speed of the hard drive. The user is given the opportunity to compare, using the Seq algorithm, the real result obtained with the numbers offered by the HDD-drive developer.

The positive speed of testing depends on the size of the block being written, so reduce it to 100 MB. Do this before diagnosing at the time of disk analysis. After that, you will get the relevant result.

Pros and cons of the program:

HDD Health Program

This is the fastest utility that scans HDD and SSD drives for damage. A simple interface does not contain unnecessary informative part and it will not be difficult for a new user to work in it. It also has a nice test with a monitoring window in the background window.

Testing the hard drive with HDD Health

Note! After installing the program on a PC, it can start the first test on its own and it will be carried out in the tray. Click on the icon to launch the main menu.

Checking the performance of the HDD without third-party programs

Check for disk corruption in Windows 10 through File Explorer.

1. Launch the "Explorer" folder.

   

2. Open "This PC" and on the drive to be checked, right-click, calling up an additional menu, select "Properties".

   

3. In "Properties" select the "Service" tab and click on "Check".

   

4. If a warning window pops up that verification is not required, you can ignore it and click "Check disk".

   

   

   

Advice! Practice shows that such a scan is carried out only superficially; for a more effective one, use a third-party utility.

Video - Recovery of bad sectors