Where can I check my hard drive? Programs for checking your hard drive. Symptoms of hard drive problems

The hard drive contains the operating system and all sorts of necessary files. And if he starts to work poorly, then in the future he may even go to another world. You need to check the HDD for errors, find bad sectors and fix them. There are certain programs for this. And among them there are their leaders.

No. 1. HDD Regenerator

This product is popular because it is capable of not only searching for bad sectors, but also quickly fixing problems. Not all similar programs are capable of this. However, HDD Regenerator cannot always cope with the problem. Even despite the rich functionality.

Possibilities:

1. Support for various file systems. The program can work with FAT and NTFS file systems. In new versions it is planned to add Ext, exFAT and other formats.
2. Creating bootable media. The program allows you to create a bootable disk or flash drive with the HDD Regenerator distribution kit for testing under MS-DOS.
3. Monitoring. The program constantly checks the hard drive for errors in real time. This helps to quickly identify errors and correct them.
4. Statistics. The application is capable of providing complete statistics on hard drive usage. The report can be saved as a separate file.

Advantages:

• simple installation process;
• Russian language included;
• adequate work with Windows 10;
• several operating modes;
• checking the status of the hard drive in real time;
• work from MS-DOS;
• well-placed controls.

The program has only one drawback: it is paid. Otherwise, this is a great product for finding errors on the HDD and then eliminating them.

No. 2. Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

Hitachi produces hard drives and special software for testing them. But proprietary utilities can work not only with HDDs from this manufacturer. They work great with any type of hard drive.

Possibilities:

1. Carrying out tests. The program can test the hard drive in automatic and manual modes. Based on the results, the user can decide to replace or repair the HDD.
2. S.M.A.R.T support The program can read and check S.M.A.R.T attributes. After checking, the utility will display a message about the errors found.
3. Creating a boot image. The program allows you to create a boot disk with your own distribution for checking the HDD in Live mode.
4. Testing without rewriting. Other similar utilities move and rewrite data on the HDD during the scanning process. But not the program from Hitachi.

Advantages:

• intuitive interface;
• Russian language included;
• the program is completely free;
• works adequately with Windows 10;
• can conduct stress tests from under MS-DOS;
• supports almost all versions of Windows OS;
• simple removal process.

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test is an excellent free program for checking your HDD for errors. However, she does not know how to correct the errors found. And this is its main drawback. But for checking and making an informed decision, it will do just fine.

No. 3. HDD Health

This program checks the general health of the hard drive, looks for bad sectors and checks S.M.A.R.T attributes. There is a main window with the main HDD indicators (temperature, spindle speed and other necessary information).

Possibilities:

1. Forecast. The program checks the hard drive for wear and makes an approximate forecast of its performance in the future. The utility can determine with amazing accuracy how much time the HDD has left until the end.
2. General condition of the disk structure. HDD Health calculates the degree of hard drive wear with scrupulous accuracy and provides the user with comprehensive information.
3. Comprehensive information about the manufacturer and brand of drive. To obtain this information, the program actively uses the Internet.
4. SSD check. The program can correctly check solid-state drives without the risk of reducing their resource or somehow damaging the memory modules.

Advantages:

• simple and straightforward installation process;
• works with all versions of Windows (including XP);
• minimal load on the processor and RAM;
• intuitive interface;
• fast work even on old machines;
• well-placed controls;
• simple removal process.

HDD Health is great for checking your hard drive for S.M.A.R.T attributes. The program is completely free and has no advertising. But the Russian language is not included in the kit. But even without him everything is clear.

No. 4. Victoria HDD

Victoria HDD is the most popular utility used for full hard drive diagnostics. In addition to analyzing SSDs and HDDs for errors, using this software you can restore bad sectors and fix minor failures of the storage device.

The program provides users with the following features:

1. Obtaining detailed information about the hard drive. In the “Standard” section of the application, you can get detailed information about your device: model, serial number, disk space, cache, etc.
2. SMART. The main test for any disk. This tool checks the storage device for serious errors in the operation of the device. Upon completion of the analysis, users have access to a report that displays various elements marked in different colors: green – no faults were detected in the sector; yellow – there are minor problems; red – presence of serious errors.
3. Tests. Allows you to perform various tests for the presence of bad sectors. In the work report, the results are marked in different colors.

No. 5. Crystal Disk Mark

Crystal Disk Mark is a useful utility for checking the writing and reading speed of a disk. The program allows you to measure indicators by performing sequential and random recording.

Main features of the application:

1. Testing parameters. Before starting the SSD analysis process, you must set the parameters for the upcoming testing and select the number of tests. There are 9 checks available in total. The default value is “5”. If you want to perform a more detailed analysis of the drive, then increase this indicator to perform more tests.
2. Selecting the file size. For SSDs, the optimal file size for recording is 2GiB. If you work with large amounts of information, then increase this indicator. The testing time depends on the choice of this indicator. The maximum allowed value is 32GiB.
3. Testing. There are 4 options available for testing the hard drive: Seq – sequential read and write test; 4k – diagnostics in random mode using 4Kb blocks. The Q32T add-on allows you to work in 1 thread with a queue depth of 32. If necessary, you can run all 4 options by clicking the “All” button in the Crystal Disk Mark interface.

No. 6. HDDScan

HDDScan is a program for checking storage media for malfunctions and breakdowns. The main advantage of this software over its competitors is its simple and user-friendly interface, which is a big plus for novice users.

Features of the HDDScan disk diagnostic application:

1. View detailed information about the device: model, serial number, LBA, etc.
2. SMART. To fully analyze an SSD drive, it is necessary to conduct a special S.M.A.R.T test. This tool checks all the most important components of the device. Upon completion of the diagnostics, you can see the faulty components, which are marked with an icon with an exclamation mark.
3. Surfacetest. Detailed surface analysis for faults.

Advanced System Optimizer 3.9

Advanced System Optimizer 3.9 is a software package for maintaining the operation of a personal computer. Allows...

HDDScan 4.3 rus in Russian

HDDScan 4.3 rus is software with which you can perform a thorough…

Drive Fitness Test 4.14

Drive Fitness Test 4.14 is a utility that diagnoses your computer for problems…

Sooner or later (it’s 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’s time to look for a replacement. 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 a wide variety of information: documents, pictures, various software, etc., as a result of which an unexpected failure of the disk is always a tragedy. Of course, it is often possible to restore information on apparently “dead” hard drives, but it is possible that this operation will cost you a pretty penny, and will cost you a lot of nerves. Therefore, it is much more effective to try to prevent data loss.
How? It’s very simple... Firstly, do not forget about regular data backups, and secondly, monitor the condition of the disks using specialized utilities. We will consider several programs of this kind from the perspective of the tasks being 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 technology. ( from English Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology), which was developed by major hard drive manufacturers to increase the reliability of their products. This technology is based on continuous monitoring and assessment of the condition of the hard drive using built-in self-diagnosis equipment (special sensors), and its main purpose is the timely detection of possible drive failure.

Real-time HDD status monitoring

A number of information and diagnostic solutions for diagnosing and testing hardware, as well as special monitoring utilities, use S.M.A.R.T technology. 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 short tabular report with a list of attributes. At the same time, some utilities (Hard Drive Inspector, HDDlife, Crystal Disk Info, etc.) are not limited to displaying a table of attributes (the meanings of which are incomprehensible to untrained 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 utility is as easy as shelling pears - just read the brief basic information about installed HDDs: basic data about drives in Hard Drive Inspector, a certain conditional percentage of hard drive health in HDDlife, and 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 about the hard drive model, its volume, operating temperature, operating time, as well as the level of reliability and performance. This information makes it possible to draw certain conclusions about the performance of the media.

Rice. 1. Brief information about the “health” of the working HDD

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

Rice. 2.Display HDD Status
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 drives if they are working properly, and if problems arise, the icon turns red. So you are unlikely 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 S.M.A.R.T. attributes. and/or temperature, it will carefully notify the user about this (with a message on the screen, a sound message, etc. - Fig. 3). Thanks to this, it will be possible to copy data from a dangerous medium in advance.

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

Using S.M.A.R.T. monitoring solutions in practice to monitor the status of hard drives is completely easy, because all such utilities work in the background and require a minimum of hardware resources, so their functioning will in no way interfere with the main workflow.

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

Advanced users, of course, are unlikely to limit themselves to assessing the condition of hard drives by viewing a brief verdict from one of the utilities presented above. This is understandable, because according to the decoding of the S.M.A.R.T. attributes. You can identify the cause of failures and, if necessary, take precautionary measures. True, to independently control S.M.A.R.T. attributes, you will need to at least briefly become familiar with S.M.A.R.T technology.

Hard drives that support this technology include intelligent self-diagnostic procedures so they can “report” their current status. This diagnostic information is provided as a collection of attributes, that is, specific characteristics of the hard drive 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 determined a certain minimum safe value that cannot be exceeded under normal operating conditions. Unambiguously determine critically important and critically unimportant S.M.A.R.T parameters for diagnostics. problematic. Each of the attributes has its own information value and indicates one or another aspect of the work of the medium. 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 caused by the fault of the equipment;
• Spin Up Time - average spin-up time of the disk spindle;
• Reallocated Sector Count - number of sector reassignment operations;
• Seek Error Rate - positioning error rate;
• Spin Retry Count - the number of repeated attempts to spin up disks to operating speed if the first attempt fails;
• Current Pending Sector Count - the number of unstable sectors (that is, sectors awaiting the reassignment procedure);
• Offline Scan Uncorrectable Count - the total number of uncorrected errors during sector read/write operations.

Typically S.M.A.R.T. attributes are displayed in tabular form indicating the attribute name (Attribute), its identifier (ID) and three values: current (Value), minimum threshold (Threshold) and the lowest attribute value for the entire operating 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 from 1 to 100, 200, or 253 (there are no general standards 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. with a new HDD

Shown in Fig. 4 information allows us to conclude that for a theoretically serviceable 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 approach zero. The current value may change over time, which in most cases reflects deterioration of the hard drive parameters described by the attribute. This can be seen in Fig. 5, which presents fragments of the S.M.A.R.T attribute table. for the same disk - data were obtained with an interval of six months. As you can see, in the more recent version of S.M.A.R.T. the frequency of errors when reading data from the disk (Raw Read Error Rate), the origin of which is determined by the hardware of the disk, and the frequency of errors when positioning the magnetic head unit (Seek Error Rate) have increased, 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 value, then the hard drive is considered unreliable and should be replaced urgently. For example, a drop in the value of the Spin-Up Time attribute (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 condition of the HDD and periodically (for example, once every 2-3 months) carry out S.M.A.R.T diagnostics. and save the received information in a text file. In the future, these data can be compared with 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 six-month intervals
(more recent version of S.M.A.R.T. below)

When viewing S.M.A.R.T. attributes, you should first of all pay attention to critical parameters, as well as parameters highlighted by 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. utility output. 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 normal (the attribute value has not changed or changed insignificantly), and yellow, orange and red colors signal danger (the worst color is red, which indicates that the attribute value has reached its critical value). If any of the critical parameters are marked with a red icon, then you urgently need to replace the hard drive.

In the Hard Drive Inspector program, let's look at the table of S.M.A.R.T. attributes of the same drive, which we briefly assessed using monitoring utilities earlier. From Fig. 6 it can be seen 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 analyzing and diagnosing HDDs are not so loyal and often mark 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 transmitting information over 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 take a look at the S.M.A.R.T. attributes of a very ancient, but still working HDD with periodically arising problems. It did not inspire confidence in the Crystal Disk Info program - in the “Technical Condition” indicator, the disk condition was rated as alarming, and the Reallocated Sector Count attribute was 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 reassigned when the disk detects a read/write error; during this operation, data from the damaged sector is transferred to the reserve area. The yellow color of the indicator for the parameter indicates that there are few remaining spare sectors with which to replace the bad ones, and soon there will be nothing to reassign the newly appearing bad sectors. Let's also check how more serious solutions assess the condition of the disk, for example, the HDDScan utility widely used by professionals - but here we see exactly the same result (Fig. 9).

Rice. 8. Assessing a problematic hard drive in CrystalDiskInfo

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

This means that it is clearly not worth delaying the replacement of such a hard drive, although it may still serve for some time, although, of course, you cannot install an operating system on this hard drive. It is worth noting that if there are a large number of reassigned sectors, the read/write speed drops (due to the unnecessary movements that the magnetic head has to make), and the disk begins to noticeably slow down.

Scanning the surface for bad sectors

Unfortunately, in practice, monitoring SMART parameters and temperature alone is not enough. If the slightest evidence appears that something is wrong with the disk (in the case of periodic program freezes, for example, when saving results, reading error messages appear, etc.), it is necessary to scan the disk surface for the presence of unreadable sectors. To carry out such a media check, 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 own hard drive models, and therefore we will not consider them.

When using such solutions, there is a risk of damaging data on the scanned disk. On the one hand, if the drive really turns out to be faulty, anything can happen to the information on the disk during scanning. On the other hand, we cannot exclude incorrect actions on the part of the user who mistakenly starts scanning in write mode, during which data from the hard drive is erased sector by sector with a certain signature, and based on the speed of this process, a conclusion is drawn about the state of the hard drive. Therefore, compliance with certain precautionary rules is absolutely necessary: ​​before launching the utility, you need to create a backup copy of the information and during the test, act strictly according to the instructions of the developer of the relevant software. To get more accurate results, before scanning, it is better to close all active applications and unload possible background processes. In addition, you should keep 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 you can start testing the disk.

As an example, using HD Tune Pro, we will check the surface of the HDD for bad sectors, which did not inspire confidence in the Crystal Disk Info utility above. 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 this, the utility will begin sequential scanning of 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 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 significant 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 this and will move into the bad category in the very near future.

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

Testing a media for bad sectors in the HDDScan program is more difficult and even more dangerous, since if the mode is incorrectly selected, the information on the disk will be irretrievably lost. The first step to start scanning is to 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 installed by default and when used, the hard disk surface is tested by reading (that is, without deleting data). After this 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 disk scanning process on a graph (Graph) or on a map (Map) - fig. 12. Upon completion of the process, we will get approximately the same results as those 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 pose a real danger. As for the six orange sectors (response time from 150 to 500 ms), this can be considered within normal limits, since such a response delay is often caused by temporary interference in the form, for example, of running background programs.

Rice. 11. Running disk testing in HDDScan program

Rice. 12. Results of disk scanning 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 drive 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, you 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 version); 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 convenient utility for diagnosing and testing HDD/SSD (see table), as well as memory cards, USB drives and a number of other data storage devices. The program displays detailed information about the drive (firmware version, serial number, disk capacity, 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 data read/write speed tests, file performance test, cache test and a number of Extra tests). The utility can also be used to configure 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, you can only view detailed information about the disk and the S.M.A.R.T. attribute table, as well as scan the disk for errors and test 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 from sensors is read after a set period of time, the results are displayed in a table. For any attribute, you can view the history of its changes in numerical form and on a graph. Monitoring data is automatically recorded in the log, but no user notifications are provided for critical changes in parameters.

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 - with a quick scan, not the entire disk is scanned, but only some part of it (the scanning area is determined through the Start and End fields). Damaged 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 Flash drives with a USB interface. The main purpose of this program is to test disks for the presence of bad blocks and bad sectors. The utility can also 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, for example flash drives.

HDDScan displays S.M.A.R.T. attributes and temperature monitoring 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.

The disk surface is checked in one of four modes: Verify (linear verification mode), Read (linear reading), Erase (linear writing) and Butterfly Read (Butterfly reading mode). To check a disk for the presence of bad blocks, a test in Read mode is usually used, which tests the surface without deleting data (the conclusion about the condition of the drive is made based on the speed of sector-by-sector data reading). When testing in 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 specific fragment of it (the scanning area is determined by indicating the initial and final logical sectors - Start LBA and End LBA, respectively). Test results are presented in the form of a report (Report tab) and displayed on a Graph and a disk map (Map), indicating, among other things, the number of bad sectors (Bads) and sectors whose response time 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 version - http://www.altrixsoft.com/ru/download/)

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

Hard Drive Inspector is a convenient solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of external and internal HDDs. Currently, 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 also an SSD version, but it is distributed only in OEM supplies.

The program provides automatic checking of S.M.A.R.T. attributes at specified intervals and, upon completion, issues its verdict on the condition of the drive, displaying the values ​​of certain conditional indicators: “reliability”, “performance” and “no errors” along with a numerical temperature value and a temperature diagram. Technical data about the disk model, its capacity, total free space and operating time in hours (days) is also provided. 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 the event of critical changes on the disk. Additionally, the utility can be used to reduce the noise level produced by hard drives and reduce HDD power consumption.

HDDlife 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 version - http://hddlife.ru/rus/downloads.html)

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

HDDLife is a simple utility designed to monitor the status of hard drives and SSDs (from version 4.0). The program is presented in three editions: free HDDLife and two commercial ones - 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 analysis results, issues a compact report on the condition of the disk indicating technical data about the disk model and its capacity, operating time, temperature, and also displays the conditional percentage of its health and performance, which allows Even beginners can navigate the situation. 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 if the disk is in normal condition, the scan results are not displayed. It is possible to control the HDD noise level and power consumption.

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. monitoring the status of hard drives (including many external HDDs) and SSDs. Despite being free, the program has all the necessary functionality to monitor the status of disks.

Disk monitoring is performed automatically after a specified number of minutes or on demand. At the end of the test, the temperature of the monitored devices is displayed in the system tray; detailed information about the HDD indicating the values ​​of S.M.A.R.T. parameters, temperature and the program’s verdict on the state of the devices is available in the main window of the utility. There is functionality for setting threshold values ​​for some parameters and automatically notifying the user if they are exceeded. Noise level management (AAM) and power management (APM) are possible.

Unfortunately, a considerable part of modern HDDs work normally for a little more than a year, then various kinds of problems begin, which over time can lead to data loss. This 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 also not forget about regular backup of valuable data, since monitoring utilities, as a rule, successfully predict disk failure due to mechanical faults (according to Seagate statistics, about 60% of HDDs fail due to mechanical components), but they are not able to predict the death of a drive due to problems with the electronic components of the disk.

Most old hard drives contain erroneous records, etc. . Some of them lead to sad consequences: loss of important files, damage to photos and videos; It's only a matter of time before this happens to your hard drive.

Windows OS offers basic tools for finding errors on the HDD (scandisk, chkdsk), but they are not suitable for diagnostics and testing, checking the suitability of the storage device. We suggest you check out much more effective tools (some of them are free).

The following programs will help you check your hard drive for errors:

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test (WinDFT) – a program for testing and checking the condition of the hard drive

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test is a program for diagnosing a hard drive and finding read errors. The utility allows you to quickly check the status of internal and external hard drives that support G-Technology.

Program features:

• When diagnosing, you can choose a quick or advanced test.
• Next to each test in TestLog, the marks “Pass” or “Fail” are displayed.
• Reading.
• Ability to create a bootable CD image. If booting the OS from the hard drive is not possible, WinDFT can be launched in LiveCD mode.
• Hitachi Drive Fitness Test performs testing without overwriting data on the drive.

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test utility interface

Seagate Seatools for Windows: Testing Drive Performance

Seatools from Seagate is a free HDD diagnostic tool for Windows and DOS. The utility will allow you to identify some problems on the HDD before contacting the warranty service to repair the disk (In our realities, instead of repairs, you will be offered a replacement device, as a result of which you will lose all saved data).

Note. The program is not compatible with all HDD models; it is only relevant for hard drives from Seagate.

Problems that the program can detect:

• Violation of the HDD file system structure;
• Bad sectors and reading errors;
• Driver errors and Windows system problems;
• Equipment incompatibility;
• Damage to the Windows bootloader (MBR) on the disk;
• Presence of viruses, keyloggers or other malicious applications.

Seatools works as follows: the user selects tests for diagnostics, runs them, and as a result receives a detailed report. If the test is passed, the PASS mark will be displayed, otherwise FAIL. Please note that HDD testing can take up to 4 hours. To save time, you can choose one of three testing modes.

Seagate Seatools can also be used to “treat” your hard drive. That is, the program is able to detect bad blocks and try to restore or overwrite them with zeros (this method allows you to subsequently ignore problem blocks when reading/writing the disk structure).

Victoria

The Victoria program has long been considered reliable, proven, but at the same time outdated. However, in September 2019, an update was released (the latest version is 4.76b), which introduced several interesting features. Let's note some of them.

• HDD surface testing – Victoria allows you to configure the timeout for the scanner, as well as the block size. The program sequentially reads the data and displays the current state of the disk surface in the form of a color scheme and graph.
• Full support for USB-SATA drives - on laptops and PCs. You can check performance using SMART tests, manage the cache and noise level. Victoria also displays the HDD drive passport in great detail.
• S.M.A.R.T media monitoring. Allows you to evaluate the hard drive for serviceability, degree of wear and HDD reserve - how much longer its resources will last.
• Quick deletion of any information on a disk without the possibility of recovery through repeated “overwriting” and overwriting with “zeros”.

Victoria runs on Windows, including OS version 10, you can download it.

HDD Health program: checking the disk and reading SMART attributes

HDD Health is another free program for testing your hard drive and monitoring its performance. The utility checks the hard drive for errors (SSD / HDD) and makes a forecast (Health indicator as a percentage).

Preliminary check of the disk for errors using basic SMART indicators. HDD Health program interface

The main program window displays the following information:

• manufacturer, model, firmware version
• current HDD (SSD) temperature (available through the notification area)
• general condition of the disk structure
• other attributes (via the Extended info menu)

Similar to other diagnostic tools, HDD Health reads S.M.A.R.T indicators, which allows you to clarify the current hardware performance. The program does not have any other tools for calculating errors or checking for bad blocks.

HDD Health 4.2: checking the status of the SSD disk

Thus, the tools of the HDD Health program will be useful to those for whom S.M.A.R.T. indicators are sufficient to check the condition of the hard drive (and if the condition of the device is not critical). Fortunately, the latest HDD/SSD drives have S.M.A.R.T technology. implemented.

HDDScan - a program to check your hard drive for bad sectors

HDDScan is a free program for hard drive diagnostics, reading S.M.A.R.T. and other parameters. After testing, you will receive a detailed log file detailing the disk status.

HDDScan allows you to check HDD and other storage devices:

• RAID arrays,
• HDD drives with IDE/SATA interface,
• SATA/ATA SSD,
• USB flash drives.

Let's note the most useful functions of HDDScan:

• Checking the hard drive for errors that are not detected by standard Windows utilities: bad blocks and bad sectors
• Testing the hard drive (Read/Wipe)
• Checking the temperature for all hard drives connected to the PC
• Export any information as a custom report

CHKDSK - fixing hard drive errors

You can check your hard drive for errors without installing third-party programs. The Windows operating system (XP, 7, 8, 10) allows you to do this through the Check Disk utility.

The CHKDSK utility appeared in DOS. It not only searches for, but also corrects basic file system errors. It should be clarified that it is not intended to search for all types of errors and is not a HDD diagnostic tool.

However, using CHKDSK you can fix errors on various storage devices: not only on your hard drive, but also on a flash drive and an SD card. Since Windows NT, it fixes bad blocks (physically bad sectors) by marking them accordingly. Subsequently, these areas are bypassed by other programs when reading/writing.

HDDLife - a program for monitoring the status of your hard drive

Usually the heart of a computer is called the processor or motherboard. But they serve faithfully for several years, and then the hard drive suddenly fails. In terms of loss, no component can compare with it.

The hard drive is computer memory, which, of course, needs to be protected. In order to prevent sudden data loss, you need to regularly back up your data to another HDD or storage media. However, if you want to prevent hard drive failure in advance, you need to determine its current state. The HDDLife program will help with this.

HDDLife has several very useful features. First of all, monitoring the status of the hard drive. The “health” of the HDD is shown as a color scale. If everything is in order, the scale is green, if the disk has worked for a decent period of time, the color is yellow. The red scale is already a signal of a pre-emergency condition: the hard drive has worked and is ready to retire. In this case, it is better not to take risks and promptly replace the component. In the pro version of HDDLife, you can set up an email notification about the pre-failure state of hard drives. If there are a lot of computers on the network, then the diagnostic option will come in handy. The status graph also informs you how long the disk has been working. This is worth paying attention to, especially if you are buying a used drive or just want to make sure it is new.

The second important section is displaying the disk temperature. Any electronics works, or rather wears out faster, at elevated temperatures. And too high a temperature, as a rule, leads to disastrous consequences. If the indicator text is green, then everything is in order and the disk is in good thermal conditions. Otherwise, you need to buy special cooling or check the ventilation of the slot in which the disk is located. On some HDDs, the program allows you to adjust the noise level and performance. This is done using a slider that determines the relationship between the characteristics. Either this is the possibility of a special version for a laptop, or a limitation of the trial version - however, the option was not available for us. Some HDDLife functions cannot be called unique: for example, an indicator of available space. If there is not enough space on the partitions, the now familiar warning is displayed. Free space monitoring is available in Windows, as in almost any OS, so the message is more annoying than informative.

The program is distributed in three versions: free, HDDLife Professional and HDDLife for Notebooks. The differences can be found on the page http://www.hddlife.ru/rus/compare.html.

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic - a program for checking a disk for “professional suitability”

If you are using a Western Digital HDD or SSD, this program will be useful for diagnostics.

This product can be used as a desktop application for Windows, or as an ISO image that will help you explore your hard drive without loading the OS,

Available options:

• viewing self-diagnosis indicators - SMART attributes,
• checking bad sectors on Western Digital hard drives,
• complete deletion of information on the HDD - erasing with “zeros”.

The program is available on the official website of Western Digital at the link.

HDD Regenerator – a program for testing your hard drive and treating bad sectors

Attention!!! HDD Regenerator cannot restore bad sectors and files. The program is best suited for these purposes. Judging by the reviews from visitors to the IXBT forum, the functions of HDD Regenerator do not correspond to those stated.

HDD Regenerator is a utility for checking a hard drive, a professional tool for diagnostics and error detection. The word "Regenerator" is deceptive: the program is able to detect possible faults, but it will not be able to correct structural and bad sector errors.

HDD Regenerator program interface

First of all, HDD Regenerator is a program for checking a hard drive for errors in the sequential block reading mode. If the information is not readable, “regeneration” will allow you to bypass bad blocks and read problematic files.

In order to determine the condition of the HDD, you must pass a special test. Additional information can be retrieved. HDD Regenerator has the corresponding tools.

Other features of the program:

• FAT and NTFS file systems are supported; however, when testing, the file system format does not matter;
• Displaying detailed statistics about the current state of the hard drive and its performance;
• Creating a bootable regenerating USB flash drive or CD/DVD based on HDD Regenerator;
• Prescan mode: quick diagnostics of the hard drive (surface scanning);
• Monitoring HDD operation in real time;
• Data security: the program works in read mode (with the exception of overwriting bad sectors).

The cost of the PRO version of HDD Regenerator is $79.99/year. There is a free trial version available that allows you to “regenerate” 1 bad sector for free. However, what is meant by the word “regeneration” is unclear. You can use this mode at your own peril and risk, only if you are not afraid of losing your data completely.

Answers to readers' questions

I often resort to system recovery due to a crash. It often freezes, the processor is constantly overloaded, I have already deleted unnecessary programs. As best I could, I closed all background programs. Experts say that you need to change the hard drive, they say, there are many damaged (broken) sectors. I want to try this program to check sectors. How to check your hard drive for errors?

Answer. Indeed, if you experience the problems described in your question, checking your hard drive for bad sectors will not hurt. At a minimum, we recommend scanning the disk using applications such as HDD Regenerator and Victoria. You can find out how to check your hard drive for bad sectors directly in the documentation. Whether it’s worth it or not, the wording is not very correct. You should check your HDD for errors regularly if the data is of even minimal value to you.

First! All your programs are not Russified, which creates inconvenience in use, long inaccurate translations and work on a whim. My hard drive problem is an I/O error on the device during initialization. I don't need the data. Sector 0 is normal, the rest need to be restored. There is no physical or other damage, it displays technical parameters well, no overheating. I assume that with the help of HDD Regenerator everything can be corrected or by editing the sector record manually using programs that provide this opportunity, it is a long procedure, so something faster is preferable. Seagate Barracuda 1T drive! All the best to you and good luck!

Today we’ll talk about such an important computer component as the hard drive.

Sometimes users complain about the slow operation of the system, its frequent freezes, the appearance of blue screens of death BSOD, system errors, missing or damaged files and/or directories, etc., not suspecting that the problem is not at all in buggy Windows, clumsy drivers or viruses.

The problem is the hard drive, which is slowly starting to crumble. This is where a program for checking your hard drive comes in handy.

To understand the further content of the article, first consider the principle of operation of a hard drive.

In addition to error detection, there is also a function to automatically correct them and restore the ability to read and write to the hard drive.

In addition to diagnosing hard drives, the tool can also be used to diagnose removable media (USB, SD cards, etc.).

Before checking the disk, close all programs and applications.

Click Start, write “My Computer” in the program search field, and select the item found by the system. In the central window we see a list of hard drives.

Right-click on the hard drive you want to check and select “Properties”.

Go to the “Service” tab and click the “Run check” button, in the window that opens, check the “Automatically correct system errors” box and click the “Run” button.

For initial diagnostics, these settings are quite sufficient.

For more detailed diagnostics, you need to check another box in the “Scan and repair bad sectors” field.

In this mode, verification may take longer than in the previous one.

If the disk you select is a system one, i.e. an operating system is installed on it, it is impossible to perform a check at this point in time, because When checking, the disk must be disconnected.

In this case, the system will display a warning window and prompt you to perform a scan before the next Windows startup (“Disk Check Schedule”).

If the disk you select is not the system one, there is no need to restart the computer; before checking, the system will prompt you to disconnect it.

You must click “Disable” in the appropriate window, after which the scan will begin.

After the check is completed, we will see a window with its results.

The presence of bad sectors is the first sign that after some time the hard drive will fail.

Therefore, to avoid losing valuable information, we recommend that you do not waste time and immediately copy all valuable data to another physical hard drive.

Useful information:

Review of third-party programs for checking drives

To diagnose a hard drive, there are quite a large number of different utilities of varying functionality and convenience with free or paid types of licensing.

It was developed by Belarusian programmer Sergei Kazansky, is absolutely free, has a small size (up to 1 MB) and works with hard drives at the port level, i.e. at the lowest level, which allows achieving high performance qualities.

Due to these characteristics, service center specialists prefer to use the program.

In addition to more complex tasks, the program allows you to perform a number of tasks for the average PC user:

• perform low-level testing,
• determine the average access time,
• control the noise level,
• erase information without the possibility of subsequent recovery and much more.

Among other things, the program can work in Windows and DOS environments.

DOS mode is relevant when the operating system cannot be loaded and it is necessary to check the hard drive.

Advantages:

Free;

Compact;

Has a wide range of functions;

Works in MS DOS and MS Windows;

Has a simple interface.

Flaws:

The project is not being developed and some of the widely used versions of the utility have an English interface and do not support work in 64-bit operating systems.

The problem is solved by downloading alternative versions of the program created by the community.

Hard drive testing program: Victoria

Let's briefly look at the basic steps for checking a hard drive using the Windows version of the program.

We select a disk for the test and make sure that the choice is correct.

Go to the SMART tab and perform SMART testing of the disk by pressing the “GET SMART” button. After testing, we pay attention to the following indicators:

Status - in our case GOOD - everything is fine with the hard drive.

Reallocated sector count - number of bad sectors. If this value is greater than zero, then the hard disk has bad clusters that have been replaced with backup ones.

HDA Temperature - hard drive temperature. Temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius can cause hard drives to fail quickly.

We go to the “Tests” tab, in which we will test the surface of the hard drive.

In the appropriate fields you can specify the starting and ending sectors of the test; this option will allow you to perform selective testing of the hard drive.

Pay attention! If you select the write mode, all data on the hard drive will be lost.

We indicate what the program should do if bad sectors are detected - ignore (ignore, leave unchanged), erase (delete), remap (replace a bad sector with a good one) and restore (perform restoration).

To start, press the “Start” button. During the test, we have access to information about the number of sectors tested in quantitative and percentage terms.

The presence of red sectors or sectors marked Err X indicates the presence of sectors in which the system can write something, but not read it - hence the problem with accessing some files and directories.

Sectors marked in orange may become bad sectors after some time, so if the number of orange and/or Err X sectors is high, you should think about replacing the hard drive.

Victoria - checking and fixing bad sectors of the HDD (hard drive)

Hard drive testing program: how to diagnose an error?

Hello.

Forewarned is forearmed! This rule comes in handy when working with hard drives. If you know in advance that such and such a hard drive will most likely fail, then the risk of data loss will be minimal.

Of course, no one will give a 100% guarantee, but with a high degree of probability, some programs can analyze S.M.A.R.T. readings. (a set of software and hardware that monitors the condition of the hard drive) and draw conclusions on how long it will last.

In general, there are dozens of programs to perform such a hard drive check, but in this article I wanted to focus on some of the most visual and easy to use. So…

How to find out the status of your hard drive

HDDlife

(By the way, in addition to HDD, it also supports SSD drives)

One of the best programs for constantly monitoring the condition of your hard drive. It will help you recognize the threat in time and replace the hard drive. Most of all, it captivates with its clarity: after launching and analysis, HDDlife presents the report in a very convenient form: you are shown the percentage of the “health” of the disk and its performance (the best indicator, of course, is 100%).

If your performance is above 70%, this indicates the good condition of your disks. For example, after a couple of years of work (quite active by the way), the program analyzed and concluded: that this hard drive is about 92% healthy (which means that it should last, unless force majeure occurs, at least the same amount) .

After launch, the program minimizes to the tray next to the clock and you can always monitor the status of your hard drive. If any problem is detected (for example, the disk temperature is high, or there is too little space left on the hard drive), the program will notify you with a pop-up window. Example below.

HDDLIFE alerts you when your hard drive is running out of space. Windows 8.1.

If the program analyzes and gives you a window like the one in the screenshot below, I advise you not to delay making a backup copy (and replacing the HDD).

HDDLIFE - the data on your hard drive is in danger, the faster you copy it to other media, the better!

Hard Disk Sentinel

This utility can compete with HDDlife - it monitors the disk status just as well. What captivates us most about this program is how informative it is and how easy it is to work with. Those. it will be useful for both a novice user and an already experienced one.

After launching Hard Disk Sentinel and analyzing the system, you will see the main program window: hard drives (including external HDDs) will be presented on the left, and their status will be displayed in the right window.

By the way, there is a rather interesting function for predicting the performance of the disk, according to how long it will serve you: for example, in the screenshot below the forecast is more than 1000 days (that’s about 3 years!).

The condition of the hard drive is EXCELLENT. No problematic or weak sectors were found. No speed or data transmission errors were detected.
No action needs to be taken.

By the way, the program has a rather useful function: you can set the threshold for the critical temperature of the hard drive, upon reaching which Hard Disk Sentinel will notify you that it has been exceeded!

Hard Disk Sentinel: disk temperature (including the maximum for the entire time the disk was used).

Ashampoo HDD Control

An excellent utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. The monitor built into the program allows you to find out in advance about the first problems with the disk (by the way, the program can even notify you about this by e-mail).

Also, in addition to the main functions, a number of auxiliary ones are built into the program:

Disk defragmentation;

Testing;

Cleaning the disk from garbage and temporary files (always relevant);

Deleting the history of visiting sites on the Internet (useful if you are not alone at the computer and do not want anyone to know what you are doing);

There are also built-in utilities for reducing disk noise, adjusting power, etc.

Screenshot of the Ashampoo HDD Control 2 window: everything is fine with the hard drive, condition 99%, performance 100%, temperature 41 degrees. (it is desirable that the temperature be less than 40 degrees, but the program believes that for this disk model everything is in order).

By the way, the program is completely in Russian, intuitively thought out - even a novice PC user can figure it out. Pay special attention to the temperature and status indicators in the main program window. If the program produces errors or the condition is assessed as extremely low (+ in addition there is a grinding or noise coming from the HDD), I recommend that you first copy all the data to other media, and then start dealing with the disk.

Hard Drive Inspector

A distinctive feature of this program is:

1. Minimalism and simplicity: there is nothing superfluous in the program. It gives three indicators in percentage terms: reliability, performance and absence of errors;

Hard Drive Inspector - monitoring the condition of the hard drive.

СrystalDiskInfo

A simple but reliable utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. Moreover, it works even in cases where many other utilities refuse, crashing with errors.

The program supports several languages, does not have many settings, and is designed in a minimalist style. At the same time, it has quite rare functions, for example, reducing the disk noise level, temperature control, etc.

What is also very convenient is a graphical display of the situation:

Blue color (as in the screenshot below): everything is ok;

Yellow color: alarm, measures need to be taken;

Red: you need to take immediate action (if you still have time);

Gray: the program was unable to determine the readings.

CrystalDiskInfo 2.7.0 - screenshot of the main program window.

HD Tune

This program will be useful to more experienced users: who, in addition to a graphical display of the “health” of the disk, also need high-quality disk tests, in which they can familiarize themselves in detail with all the characteristics and parameters. It should also be noted that the program, in addition to HDD, also supports new-fangled SSD drives.

HD Tune offers a rather interesting feature to quickly check a disk for errors: a 500 GB disk is checked in about 2-3 minutes!

HD TUNE: quickly find errors on the disk. Red squares are not allowed on a new disk.

Also very necessary information is checking the disk read and write speed.

HD Tune - checking disk speed.

Well, we can’t help but note the tab with detailed information about the HDD. This is useful when you need to know, for example, supported functions, buffer/cluster size or disk rotation speed, etc.

HD Tune - detailed information about the hard drive.

In general, there are at least as many similar utilities that can be cited. I think that these will be more than enough for most...

And lastly: do not forget to make backup copies, even if the disk condition is rated as 100% excellent (at least the most important and valuable data)!

Good luck...