• Hard drive analysis. Video: checking the hard drive using standard tools. Checking the performance of the hard drive under load

    • 1. How to check hard drive?
    • 2. Checking utilities systemic hard disk
    • 3. Other ways to check the hard drive for damage
    • 4. Disk analysis using the command line

    A computer's hard drive is the main block of its memory, the part responsible for storing, distributing and moving information. Like anyone physical media, the hard drive tends to fail and become damaged, which is critically unacceptable in cases where vital information is stored on it. Examination hard drive on performance - the first thing you need to know how to do when buying a computer. We will help you understand the intricacies of this process.

    How to check your hard drive?

    The first thing we need to do is copy the existing important files to another physical medium, be it a Flash card or a third-party HDD. If your SDD or HDD issues strange sounds, clicks, or simply raises doubts about its functionality - you can resort to various methods check it before you take it in specialized service. There is a great variety various applications to check the disk for bad sectors, compatibility of software, hardware, etc. Where to start checking?

    Utilities for checking the system hard drive

    Microsoft is famous for its large toolkit for working with various system components, and one of them is the standard built-in CHKDSK program for checking and fixing bad sectors. In this case, we can check the disk without installing third party applications. If the disk file system has errors, chkdsk is our assistant in finding and eliminating them.

    Main functions of the built-in utility:

    1. Finding and fixing errors in NTFS/FAT file systems
    2. Identification of physically damaged bad sectors
    3. Checking third party media ( USB flash drives, SD cards, etc.) for malfunctions

    Starting a system scan is very simple: open the standard “Run” window in the “Start” menu on “Windows”, or, if you do not have basic skills in interacting with the command line, find the menu we need through “Explorer”. To do this:

    • Find the “My Computer” section in Explorer;
    • Right-click on the media that requires verification
    • Open the section “Properties->Service”;
    • Click the top button “Run check”. This command works only with administrator rights;

    • Reboot the computer during the scan Windows disk automatically searches for problems and fixes problems found;
    • If there are no problems, the disk will be checked without fixing, but if there are problems, be prepared for the fact that checking the disk will take quite a long time;
    • The system checks third-party physical media immediately, without rebooting.

    Note that the built-in Windows tool performs only a superficial check, and is far from completely accurate in detecting problems with media. To conduct a more thorough and in-depth analysis, you will need to download and install third-party utilities, the most popular of which we will consider below.

    Other ways to check the hard drive for damage

    Useful utility utilities for checking disk health and troubleshooting:

    Seagate Seatools is an equally useful utility, which, however, does not have the versatility of the previous one, and is only compatible with Seagate hard drives; for other models, the analysis will be fragmentary or completely erroneous. Using Stools is quite simple - you select items for diagnostics, and the program performs automatic testing. If the analysis is completed successfully, PASS will be displayed, in other cases you will see the message FAIL. Issues such as:

    • File errors HDD systems;
    • Bootloader problems Windows MBR disk;
    • Hardware conflict and Windows driver incompatibility;
    • Availability of Bad Sectors;
    • The presence of Trojans, viruses and other applications that disrupt the operation of the disk.

    In many cases, Seagate Tools automatically fixes problems found; in rare cases, it requires user intervention. It is worth noting that you will need to be patient before checking and correcting errors. A painstaking analysis of a hard drive is not a momentary task, and the duration of the process increases in proportion to the volume of recorded memory.

    Disk analysis using the command line

    This is how you can verify that your hard drive is working using simple combinations. The disc should be checked when you first purchased it. new computer, as well as after errors in installing programs or moving a large number of files. If you rarely use your computer, it is worth turning it on sometimes to overclock the physical media - each hard drive has a certain write-overwrite resource, and the method of writing data to a large media does not provide for static conditions.

    Even if the hard drive is fully operational and the manufacturer is reliable, it is recommended to always save copies of the most important files on third party media. Although it is possible to recover lost or damaged files using some programs, this method is not absolute, and even a computer service center will not always help you recover erased data from physically damaged media.

    Most old hard drives contain erroneous records, etc. . Some of them lead to sad consequences; when will this happen to you hard drive– a matter of time.

    Windows OS offers tools for finding errors on the HDD, but they are not intended for diagnostics and testing. We invite you to familiarize yourself with much more effective tools.

    So, how can you check your hard drive for errors? Here is a list of recommended programs:

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

    HDD Regenerator- a utility for checking your hard drive, a professional tool for diagnosing, finding and fixing errors. The word "Regenerator" clarifies: the program is not only capable of detecting possible malfunctions, structure errors and bad sectors, but also suitable for correcting them.

    HDD Regenerator program interface

    HDD Regenerator is a program for checking your hard drive and fixing errors. Can also be used as a full-fledged tool for . 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 allow you to extract . HDD Regenerator has the corresponding tools.

    Other features of the program:

    • File files are supported FAT systems and NTFS, however, when testing the system type does not matter
    • Displaying detailed statistics about the operation and status of the hard drive
    • Creating a bootable regenerating flash drive or CD/DVD based on HDD Regenerator
    • Prescan mode: quick diagnostics hard drive (surface scanning)
    • HDD monitoring 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 restore 1 bad sector for free.

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

    Hitachi Drive Fitness Test – program for diagnosing hard disk and search for read errors. The utility allows you to quickly check the status of internal and external hard drives supporting G-Technology.

    Seagate Seatools for Windows: Testing Drive Performance

    Seatools from Seagate – free tool For HDD diagnostics in 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 repairing 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 read errors
    • Driver and system errors Windows problems
    • Equipment incompatibility
    • Damage Windows boot loader(MBR) on 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).

    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: check SSD status 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 supports various types 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 standard utilities Windows: 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 is a Windows OS utility for checking errors and fixing bad blocks

    You can check your hard drive for errors without installation third party programs. The Windows operating system allows you to do this by utility program Check Disk.

    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, with using CHKDSK You can correct errors on various storage devices: not only on the hard drive, but also on a flash drive and an SD card. Starting with 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. To prevent sudden data loss, you should regularly perform backups 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. This will help HDD program Life.

    HDDLife has several very useful functions. 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. Too much high temperature, as a rule, even 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. Control free space exists 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.

    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.

    Hello friends. Checking the hard drive or how to check a hard drive for errors and bad sectors, we will talk about this in detail today.

    In the previous article I showed. Today you will learn about programs for testing hard drives and other storage media. At the end of the review I posted a short video tutorial.

    Checking our disk

    It is useful for anyone who has a computer to know about the status of the hard drive or drives, if there are several of them. After all, the hard drive stores information that is important for some, and not so important for others. So, in order not to lose it, I recommend making backup copies at least once a month.

    You can purchase portable disk or flash drive for storage important information, you can also use regular CDs and DVDs. If you don’t know how to save information on optical plastic discs, then I recommend reading.

    You can test your computer disks in different ways and special programs. In this article we will look at:

    • Checking the disk using Windows 7
    • Useful Victoria v4.3
    • HDDScan program
    • Ashampoo HDD Control 2

    There are, of course, many other useful and worthy programs and utilities, but in this publication we will only talk about these 4 methods.

    How to check your hard drive using Windows 7

    Any hard drive or flash drive can be checked for functionality using Windows tools. I wrote more about this here. Here is a simple algorithm for the necessary actions.

    Go to My Computer, select the desired hard drive or flash drive, right-click on it and go to Properties.

    Check the boxes you need or all and click Start.

    This procedure may take long time, everything will depend on the volume of storage media that you want to check for errors and bad sectors.

    Checking the disk with Victoria

    Victoria one of the main programs that I personally use to check the hard drive through Windows or if the operating system does not start at all, then through boot disk with this utility.

    After downloading Victoria version 4.3, you need to go into the archive, unpack it or run the file with a green cross called Victoria43.

    Let's launch the program, it's in English, if you don't know this language, don't be alarmed, I'll help you figure it out.

    The Standard window describes the main characteristics of the storage medium: its model, serial number, disk size, how many cylinders, sectors it has, and so on.

    In the Smart tab you can see state of hard disk. Click on the Get Smart button and look at the indicators that appear. Since my hard drive is new, my readings are normal, SMART status= Good. You may have different meaning and information.

    Smart is a technology of analysis, self-control and reporting. Using it, you can view and evaluate the condition of the hard drive, its built-in self-diagnostic equipment, and also predict possible time its failure.

    To test the storage media, go to the Test tab and click on the Start button. If you have a lot of green, orange, red and blue rectangles (sectors) - this is not good. Ideally, all sectors should be light gray and grey.

    If you have damaged sectors marked “Err X”, then after completing the test, check the box next to the word Remap and run the test again. The Victoria program will try to restore these sectors and fix errors on the hard drive.

    Checking the hard drive may take a long time, so be patient, it all depends on the amount of information on the media. In the meantime, testing is underway, I recommend reading the article on how to set up your computer yourself or.

    Checking the hard drive using HDDScan

    HDDScan is a program for diagnosing and testing hard drives in English.

    After downloading, you need to run the file named HDDScan.

    Choose required device Select Drive, on the right there will be basic information about it.

    Click on the blue round button and select the desired action. Go to Surfase Test - select and run the test.

    Check the boxes next to Verify or Read and click the Add Test button. I do not recommend choosing Erase - it erases data.

    Once you click add a test, it will start automatically and will appear in the lower Test Manager window.

    Double-click on RD-Read, go to the test that has started and look at its process, you can see it on the Graph.

    View on Map. At the top there are navigation buttons for controlling the Pause, Stop and Report test process, cluster and testing speed in KB/s, and on the right is the sector scanning time in numbers from< 5 до >500 milliseconds.

    In the third column of Report you can see the scanned clusters and sectors of the storage medium, and at the very bottom the progress of the test process is shown as a percentage.

    Upon completion of the test, a corresponding message will appear in the task manager window.

    If for some reason you did not like the first three methods, then I offer you a powerful and useful utility for diagnosing hard drives and storage media from Ashampoo.

    Cool program Ashampoo HDD Control 2

    I have already worked with this utility for diagnosing and monitoring hard drives from Ashampoo. I really liked this program, so I decided to mention it in this article.

    After you download and install Ashampoo HDD Control 2. Depending on language pack, the program can be in both Russian and English.

    It has a simple and accessible interface that anyone can understand.

    Here you can see probably almost all the information about a hard drive or flash drive that you want: model, partitions, size, condition, performance, temperature and much other useful information.

    This program has extensive capabilities and many settings; at the top there are seven navigation tabs:

    1. Control
    2. Defragmentation
    3. Testing
    4. Disk Cleanup
    5. Removing Internet Traces
    6. Deleted files
    7. Content Analysis

    You can browse through all seven tabs and explore useful information.

    We are interested in checking the hard drive, go to the Testing tab, click Scan hard drives, select the one you need and click on the magnifying glass that says Start. This test can measure the speed of your hard drive.

    In order to check the surface of the disk, you need to return to the Control tab and click Surface Test.

    After this, the Hard Disk Surface Testing window will appear, in which there are symbols: blue square - not yet tested, green - excellent, red (already bad) - at least one bad sector.

    The scanning time will again depend on the capacity and speed of the hard drive or flash drive.

    In conclusion

    Today we discussed in detail the topic of checking a hard drive or how to check a hard drive for errors and bad sectors. To do this, we used four methods: standard means Windows, useful Victoria, the HDDScan utility and the cool Ashampoo HDD Control 2 program.

    Now let's watch a short video tutorial on how to check your hard drive.

    Checking the hard drive | website

    Perhaps you have questions related to checking hard disk. You can ask them below in the comments to this article, and also use the form with me.

    Thank you for reading me on

    Good day.

    The hard drive is one of the most valuable pieces of hardware in a PC! Knowing in advance that something is wrong with it, you can have time to transfer all the data to other media without loss. More often hard testing disk repair is carried out when purchasing a new disk, or when various kinds of problems arise: files take a long time to copy, the PC freezes when opening (accessing) the disk, some files become unreadable, etc.

    By the way, on my blog there are quite a few articles devoted to problems with hard drives(hereinafter referred to as HDD). In this same article I would like to collect in a “heap” best programs(which I have dealt with) and recommendations for working with HDDs.

    1.Victoria

    Official website: http://hdd-911.com/

    Rice. 1. Victoria43 - main program window

    Victoria is one of the most famous programs for testing and diagnosing hard drives. Its advantages over other programs of this class are obvious:

    1. has an ultra-small distribution size;
    2. Very fast speed work;
    3. many tests (information about the status of the HDD);
    4. works directly with the hard drive;
    5. free

    By the way, I have an article on my blog about how to check the HDD for problems in this utility:

    2.HDAT2

    Rice. 2. hdat2 - main window

    A service utility for working with hard drives (testing, diagnostics, treatment of bad sectors, etc.). The main and main difference from the famous Victoria is the support for almost any drive with interfaces: ATA/ATAPI/SATA, SSD, SCSI and USB.

    3.CrystalDiskInfo

    Rice. 3. CrystalDiskInfo 5.6.2 - S.M.A.R.T. readings disk

    Free utility for diagnosing your hard drive. During operation, the program not only displays S.M.A.R.T. disk (by the way, it does this perfectly; on many forums, when solving certain problems with the HDD, they ask for readings from this utility!), but it also keeps track of its temperature, showing general information about HDD.

    Main advantages:

    Support external USB disks;
    - Monitoring the health status and temperature of the HDD;
    - S.M.A.R.T. schedule data;
    - Manage AAM/APM settings (useful if your hard drive, for example, is noisy:).

    4. HDDlife

    Rice. 4. Main window of the HDDlife V.4.0.183 program

    This utility is one of the best of its kind! It allows you to constantly monitor the status of ALL your hard drives and notify you of problems in a timely manner. For example:

    1. there is little disk space left, which may affect performance;
    2. temperature exceeding normal range;
    3. bad SMART disk readings;
    4. the hard drive doesn't have long to live... etc.

    By the way, thanks to this utility, you can (approximately) estimate how long your HDD will last. Well, unless, of course, force majeure occurs...

    5. Scanner

    Rice. 5. Analysis of occupied space on HDD (scanner)

    A small utility for working with hard drives that allows you to get pie chart occupied place. Such a diagram allows you to quickly assess where to spend space on your hard drive and delete unnecessary files.

    By the way, such a utility allows you to save a lot of time if you have several hard drives and are full of all sorts of files (many of which you no longer need, and searching and evaluating “manually” is tedious and time-consuming).

    That's all. Have a great weekend everyone. Thank you, as always, for your additions and feedback to the article!

    The hard drive is an extremely important hardware component of a PC. Therefore, the user may need to solve problems related to testing the hard drive for errors, as well as correcting them. What tools can be used for this? What are the most common errors in hard drive operation?

    What problems can arise with the hard drive?

    Before looking at how to test a hard drive, let's look at what might be a reason to carry out an appropriate check. What problems might arise in his work?

    To use the utility in question, you need to go to the “Computer” section, then right-click on the hard drive icon. There may be several of them, in which case it makes sense to check each one in turn. After right-clicking on the hard drive icon in the menu that opens, select the “Properties” option. In the window that appears, go to the “Service” tab. Then click on the “Run check” button and follow the instructions.

    In some Windows versions the utility in question is not configured for testing logical drives, on which are placed system files OS. But in this case, the Disk Check program provides an option: initiating testing of the hard drive upon subsequent boot operating system. You can select it and immediately restart Windows: during the startup process, the system itself should ask the user for permission to scan the disk on which the system files are located.

    So now we know how to test a hard drive using the popular built-in Windows tool- Chkdsk programs. This decision allows you to quite effectively correct file system errors. But what if the supposed malfunction of the hard drive is associated with the appearance of bad sectors on it? How to test the hard drive of a laptop or desktop for relevant damage?

    A wide range of solutions can be used for these purposes. The most popular of them include programs such as:

    • Data Lifeguard Diagnostic.
    • HDD Scan.
    • Ashampoo HDD Control.
    • Victoria HDD.
    • AIDA64 (formerly Everest).
    • MHDD.

    Let's study their features.

    Hard drive testing: Data Lifequard Diagnostic

    This program was developed by the brand Western Digital, which is one of the world's most famous hard drive manufacturers. How to test a hard drive for errors using this software?

    The corresponding program operates in several modes. The most informative mode from the point of view of reflecting information about errors on the disk is the extended testing mode - Extended Test. In particular, it can be used to find damaged sectors on the surface of the hard drive platters. If they are detected, the program will prompt the user to use an algorithm through which bad sectors will be excluded from those used by the hard drive to write and read files.

    Hard drive testing: HDD Scan

    Another popular solution for checking disks is the HDD Scan program. How to test a laptop hard drive or desktop computer with her help?

    The application in question also contains several tests. Among those that may be useful for us is the Surface Tests test. It, like the previous solution, allows you to analyze the surface of the disk platters for damaged sectors. It is noteworthy that the program in question allows you to detect not only bad sectors, but also those that have problems with reading and writing. Thus, HDD Scan can identify areas on the surface of the hard drive platters where the reading speed can be tens of times lower than normal values. In practice, this may mean, as in the case of bad sectors, it is desirable to exclude the corresponding sections from those used by the hard drive for writing files.

    Disc testing: Ashampoo

    Another popular program is Ashampoo HDD Control. How can I test my hard drive for errors with it?

    It is worth noting that the application in question contains a fairly large number of tools for checking the hard drive, as well as working with detected disk problems. Of these, you can use, for example, the option for testing the surface of the device plates - Test Surface.

    Based on the results of the corresponding test, it shows sectors that have high reading rates, as well as bad sectors.

    Victoria HDD

    The next popular solution for checking hard drives is Victoria HDD. It may be noted that this program allows you to both test the hard drive on Windows 7 (8 or any other) and check the hard drive via the DOS command line.

    This feature increases the versatility of the solution under consideration. In addition, the corresponding software has very good functionality.

    Thus, the program allows you to test your hard drive for bad sectors, reassign their use, and classify areas of the hard drive surface into different categories depending on the speed of reading files from them.

    If English is used graphic version the program in question, you need to run it, then go to the Tests tab. It contains tests of the surface of the hard drive platters. If necessary, you can configure the program's actions when bad sectors are detected:

    • ignoring the problem (with its subsequent reflection in the test results);
    • reassignment of sectors;
    • deleting sectors;
    • restoration of damaged disk areas.

    If necessary, you can use each of the specified program operating modes in turn.

    Hard drive testing: AIDA64 program

    Many users are interested in the question of how to test a hard drive. Now old versions of the corresponding software are available on various portals on the Internet. The point is that in the latest modifications the program has a different name, its name sounds like AIDA64.

    It is worth noting that this type The software is one of the most functional solutions for testing hardware performance. So, for example, using the program in question you can test speed hard disk, and more. You can also use it to measure performance RAM, processor, flash drives.

    The functionality of the program includes various stress tests, which involve checking in maximum load The corresponding type of tests can also be carried out for the computer's hard drive.

    Checking the disk for errors: MHDD program

    According to IT experts, the MHDD program is one of the most functional solutions for checking hard drives for errors. When considering which program to test a hard drive, specialists can choose the MHDD solution because:

    • it includes qualitative test surfaces of hard drive platters;
    • it can be launched in a bootable format - for example, from a flash drive, which allows you to test the hard drive before installing any operating system on it;
    • the program includes a large number of useful tests, as well as disk repair tools;
    • the corresponding software is free.

    Of course, the solution in question can also work from the operating system. The specific way to use it depends on the nature of the problem with the disks, on the hardware configuration on a particular PC, and on the specifics of the operating system used, if it is pre-installed on the computer.

    MHDD program: testing the disk

    Let us consider a number of practical nuances of using the appropriate popular program. Let's agree that the user has a need to use bootable version of this software. To do this, you need to make a device with which the program will be launched, for example a flash drive or CD.

    After the device is ready, you need to configure booting from it in the BIOS. By the way, many users also ask the question of how to test a hard drive through BIOS. Computer manufacturers may well sell in appropriate software interfaces necessary options to check the performance of hard drives.

    When working with the MHDD program, you should take into account a nuance: the solution in question does not work with hard drives that are connected to the computer in Slave mode. If this is the case, the drives need to be reconnected, and only then should they be tested.

    After launching the program installed on a bootable USB flash drive or CD, you must select the specific drive that will be tested. Then enter in command line SCAN command, which initiates a media scan. If you do not need to set any additional scanning parameters, you need to press F4 to launch the corresponding test.

    But indicate additional options may still be required. For example, if we talk about the Start LBA option, it is used to indicate specific blocks on the hard drive from which the program should check the disk. In turn, the End LBA option is intended to indicate those blocks that are checked at the end of disk testing. However, by default the program checks the entire surface of the hard drive platters.

    How to test a hard drive for errors and then reassign bad sectors using the MHDD program interfaces? It’s very simple: the Remap option is used for this. If you select the Erase Delays option, the program will ignore bad sectors, which will speed up scanning the disk if there are a lot of bad sectors on its surface.

    The MHDD disk scanning program works quite informatively: the scanned sectors are displayed on the user's screen in real time. In a separate section of the interface of the corresponding software, the number of different blocks is counted.

    Resume

    You can check the status of your hard drive either using built-in Windows tools or when you use special programs. At the same time, tools of the first type are designed mainly to correct errors in the file system, while the second are designed to identify and correct bad sectors using accessible methods.

    Specialized ones can be supplied in both graphical and console versions. Some of the corresponding solutions can be used in a boot modification: its use is possible even if the operating system is not installed on the computer.

    It can be noted that how to test an external hard drive is practically no different from the procedure for testing a built-in hard drive. For this, the same solutions can be applied, the main thing is to connect them to the PC correctly. But this is only possible if the computer supports the communication interfaces through which the connection is supposed to be made. external hard disk.

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