How to check a hard drive for serviceability and performance: instructions, recommendations and reviews. Checking the hard drive for functionality

If you doubt the performance of your hard drive ( HDD) means there is no need to wait and it’s worth checking it, the same with . It would also be a good idea to perform a preventative check.

Good reasons to perform performance testing:

The appearance of incomprehensible and unusual sounds.
Significant slowdown in computer speed.
Before purchasing a used computer or HDD.

In this instruction, I will show you the most effective and understandable ways to check both programs and built-in capabilities in the operating system. They are quite enough to find out whether there are problems with the HDD or not.

Damaged sectors and HDD errors can only be corrected if the problem is at the software level. That is, it is not associated with physical impact on the disk.

I'll start with the standard method.

Checking using Windows

Windows has a built-in Check Disk utility. It only has 2 options, but it is suitable for basic testing. The scan can be performed on all new operating systems starting with Windows XP.

To use it, go to “My Computer” and select the disk to scan.

Then go to its properties. Here select “Service” and click on the check button.

In the settings that appear, check 2 boxes and press the start button.

If the disk is in at the moment is used, a window will appear as in the image below. Click on “Schedule disk scan” and the scan will start automatically the next time you turn on the computer.

Checking the disk with Ashampoo HDD Control 3

This program is shareware and provides trial period. It's very large number functions and explanations for each problem ( if any). It is ideal for beginners. I'll demonstrate how to use it.

Download the program from the official website and install. Activate trial account for 40 days. Detailed activation steps ( via Email) during installation.

Launch it. Devices will be shown at the top ( disks, flash drives). In my example, the disk requires more cooling. This is just one of the tips you can get when using the program.

There will be a test button on the right. If you open additional parameters, you can run an advanced test. Run Smart Advanced Testing for a more detailed check.

If everything went well, a corresponding window will appear.

Now perform the disk surface verification test. It's still in the same place context menu where and extended. Wait for the results. If everything went well, the following message will appear.

If there are problems during the tests, you will receive information about what needs to be done to fix the problem. In my case everything is fine.

In addition, it contains many useful additional features, which you can familiarize yourself with as everything is written in Russian.

HDD Health Program

This free program with a simple interface allows you to find out how much “health” your HDD has left and its temperature. There is no need to delve into the speed of reading sectors, the number of faulty errors and other subtleties. Here the program itself estimates the viability of the disk, which is certainly very convenient.

Download, install and run. If the window does not open ( like me), then try opening it through the disk icon in the notification area ( on the right, below, where time is).

As you can see, my HDD can still work for quite a long time. If the “health” indicator is less than 20%, then it is necessary to urgently change the device.

There are a very large number of similar programs. I decided to show these ones because of their simplicity and effectiveness. For these purposes they should be quite sufficient. If some points were unclear to you, please ask for help in the comments.

How did you check your HDD?

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The hard drive is an important, but far from perfect, component personal computer. For some users it does not work reliably, it crashes, data from it is lost or is significantly damaged. One of the most common problems hard drive is the appearance of so-called “broken” (bad) sectors on it, which become a “headache” for many users. In this article, I will talk about the reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on a hard drive, list a number of programs that allow you to recognize them, and also explain how to check a hard drive for bad sectors on your PC.

What are “bad sectors”?

As you know, a traditional hard drive consists of several rotating magnetic disks, over which magnetic heads move, magnetizing any part of the disk and thus writing information onto it (in the form of zeros and ones).

The disk itself is divided into tracks, and the latter, in turn, are divided into sectors on which recording needed by the user information.

Due to certain reasons (I will list them below), information from a number of sectors cannot be read by the hard drive. Such sectors receive the status of “bad sectors” (bad sector), and the system tries to either restore the functionality of such a sector (restore), or reassign the address of such a bad sector to the backup sector (remap), or completely clean up the bad sector (erase). In the case of remapping, spare workable sectors are usually located at the end of the hard drive, and the hard drive spends additional time accessing them, which inevitably affects the speed of the hard drive, loading various applications and programs. Next I will tell you how you can check hard drive computer for bad sectors.

Reasons for bad sectors

What are the reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on an HDD drive? Usually they are as follows:

Gradual “shedding” of the surface of the hard drive due to its wear, due to which there are more and more bad sectors on the disk;
Physical impact on the hard drive due to various types of external shocks;
Power surges in the network, which directly affect the violation of data integrity on the hard drive and lead to the appearance of bad sectors;
Incorrect shutdown of the computer (improper operation), as a result of which bad sectors appear on the hard drive.

Symptoms of bad sectors

Due to the reasons described, there are more and more bad sectors on the hard drive, which begins to directly affect the work operating system. In particular, you may notice the following:

The system boots slowly;
The system slows down (freezes) when reading and writing data from the hard drive;
The system refuses to boot at all (quite often in the middle of the process);
The computer sometimes restarts for no reason;
Various errors regularly occur while the OS is running.

After we have described the symptoms and reasons for the appearance of bad sectors, let’s move on to a description of how to check a hard drive for bad sectors.

The best ways to check your hard drive for bad sectors

So how to check bad sectors (and fix them)? Below I will describe a number of methods that have proven their effectiveness in working with various hard drives.

Method 1. Use the CHKDSK system utility

The simplest and convenient way to find and fix bad sectors on an HHD hard drive - this is to use the functionality system utility CHKDSK.

To take advantage of its capabilities, launch Explorer, right-click on the inactive volume (on which there is no operating system installed), and select “Properties” from the menu that appears.
In the window that opens, go to the “Service” tab, there click on the “Run check” button.
Check the boxes next to the two verification options, click on “Run”, and wait for the process to complete.

The same can be done for the system volume (on which the OS is installed). The only thing is that this may require a system reboot, but after the system reboots, it will begin checking the disk for bad sectors.

You can also run CHKDSK through the console. To do this, run the command line as an administrator and enter:

chkdsk c: /f /r - (instead of: if necessary, specify a different letter of the problem drive) press enter and wait for the process to complete.

Method 2. Use the Victoria HDD program to analyze and treat the disk

Victoria HDD is probably the most popular program for checking a hard drive for bad sectors (and even for restoring the latter). It effectively checks and repairs bad sectors, has good reviews from specialists, and can be used in both classic graphic mode and DOS mode.

One of the Wiki bonuses is the ability to read the SMART indicator of your hard drive, which allows you to monitor in sufficient detail the degree of its performance (the “SMART” tab of the program). In addition, the Victoria program carries out “remapping” (reassignment of damaged sectors), resets bad sectors, conducts detailed test surface of the hard drive, ranking sectors into different groups depending on the speed of reading information from them.

To use this program, download and run it.
Then go to the “Test” tab, select “Ignore” there and check the surface for bad sectors.
If such are found, you should select the “Remap” mode in the same tab, this will allow you to reassign addresses from bad sectors to backup ones.
If, after remapping, bad sectors remain, you can try to restore them using the “Restore” function, while the “Erase” function completely erases data in bad sectors, writing zeros there.

In general, the functionality of “Victoria” is quite extensive, and to get a full description of it, you need to go to the material specifically about using the program.

Method 3. Use the HDD Scan program to check the hard drive for bad sectors

Another program that can check a hard drive for bad sectors is HDD Scan. This is a fairly popular utility that offers several different tests (Surface Test, Smart Offline Tests, etc.). Select Surface Test, check the “Read” box on the right and run a disk surface test.

The program will analyze the response time of the available sectors and give us the result in graphical mode.

Method 4. Check your hard drive with HDD Regenerator

Program HDD Regenerator allows you to check and restore data on your hard drive, the same applies to bad sectors. I note that the program is paid, but those interested can search for free options online.

To take advantage of the program’s capabilities, you need to launch it, select the disk to work with, decide on the scanning mode (I recommend Normal Scan), and then select the “Scan and repair” option.
Then it will be necessary to specify the scanning boundaries (starting from sector 0) and monitor the scanning process itself.
Depending on the response speed, sectors will be marked in different letters and color.

Method 5. Scan the disk with HDD Health for damaged sectors

Another program for checking the disk surface for damaged sectors. HDD Health analyzes general condition disk, provides detailed statistics by existing partitions (using SMART technology, including the general state of the structure, the disk rotation temperature, the presence of bad sectors, and so on).

Icon running program is located in the system tray, and the program itself notifies the user as necessary about any problems in the operation of the hard drive.

Recovering a hard drive, removing BAD (bad) sectors [video]

Typically, checking a hard drive for bad sectors is carried out using special software tools, the Victoria HDD level or HDD Regenerator. The most effective of all the programs listed in the article, Victoria HDD, allows you not only to check the surface of the hard drive for bad sectors, but also to restore them, remap them and clean them. If bad sectors begin to appear on your hard drive, then I recommend using the functionality of the above programs; they have proven their effectiveness in working with the hard drives of many users.

Perhaps the most important integral part A PC is a hard disk drive (HDD) because it contains all the information created by the user. Of course, any HDD needs timely maintenance, namely checking for errors and bad sectors, in order to avoid the loss of important information.

A “bad sector” is an unreadable sector on a hard drive. It can be natural: the factory state of some sectors of any hard drive, an inevitable manufacturing defect, or acquired - a successful power failure, a shock, a leak. Few people are interested in the appearance of bad sectors one by one; this is a routine that SMART successfully grinds up.
The emergence of interest in bad sectors is usually associated with the fact that the hands are partially or completely readable disk. From this point of view, the classification is simple:

Broken sectors are permanent, for example, those associated with surface damage - something that cannot be restored.
Broken sectors are temporary, associated with non-fatal errors in logic, which is what you can try to pull out; strictly speaking, the question of the operability of the restored sectors remains open.

The number of bad sectors on the disk can be:

Constant within normal limits (live hdd). No action required.
Constantly above normal (usually the consequences of a blow). Sometimes it can be done with manual intervention.
Growing (crumbled due to age or design). Requires urgent replacement of the hard drive.

Reasons for the appearance of a bad HDD sector

To put it simply, the modern hard drive is a product of the evolution of the gramophone. The record spins, the head reads the record sector by sector, the control unit glues files from the read pieces. The head hovers above the surface of the plate, and when it stops, it falls. There are readable and unreadable sectors on the tracks; a sector itself is the minimum part of the track, Wikipedia will confirm.

This model is sufficient to demonstrate the main problems:

Damage to the surface of the disk—mechanical contact of the plate with the head—may cause the disk to shed, or may remain a fixed area.
A partial change in the surface properties (magnetization) of a sector (a typical reanimated sector) can be extended by referring to neighboring sectors.
Various logic errors, SMART arbitrariness, fs errors (everything corrects itself during operation and based on the results of self-diagnosis).
Shedding of the magnetic layer from the surface is known as a sign of old age, but may be a consequence of loss of tightness.

Contrary to popular belief, a blow to the case of a working HDD is not as bad as vibration. The head is held above the surface by such cunning magic that touching the surface requires a significant force, which is unlikely to occur upon impact, but is easily achieved by resonance.

How to check a disk for bad sectors and errors

It is worth remembering that the disk is checked for reading, checking sectors for writing will erase everything that was on the disk! Well, it’s also worth keeping in mind that for a proper test, the disk must be free from other tasks at the time of testing. Checking a hard drive for bad sectors is not a common task; Windows does everything that is necessary automatically.

Windows has long had a utility that checks and fixes hard mistakes disk chkdsk. You can find the utility in the disk properties, the button is called “check disk”.
Any self-respecting manufacturer, when releasing a disk, puts on the website a diagnostic utility that not only monitors the condition of the HDD, but can also carry out service actions designed to alleviate its suffering, sometimes even up to calibration. Examination sectors of hard disk must have for this class of programs.

In addition, there is a zoo of diagnostic, repair, “professional” tools, in which the devil himself would break his leg for a long time. And quite a large number indeed professional programs for analysis and repair. It is worth noting that most of them are destructive, that is, with their help you can kill a working hard drive in a way that not every master can restore.

Programs for checking your hard drive for bad sectors

For those who don't believe in chkdsk, graphics programs to check the hard drive, or rather, more or less gentle means that do not punish for the wrong key are HDD Regenerator, HDD Health. Graphical utilities show a health graph, tell you what parameters are being tested and, importantly, have adequately labeled buttons that make it easy to understand the program. Linux users Less fortunate, most utilities are console-based and require an understanding of the parameters.
Among the utilities from the manufacturer, it is worth remembering Seagate SeaTools - convenient powerful program, all the power is manifested only on native hard drives, but checking hard drive sectors is also available for “outsiders”

Checking HDD using Windows 7 and 10

Checking the hard drive for errors using Windows- it's always run chkdsk in recovery mode. This launch can be done using the button in the disk properties.
“My computer” -> “Properties” -> “Tools” → “disk check” “Run check”.

Or, if the button is missing, this happens on some editions of Windows tenth, this check easy to start from command line from the administrator by command
chkdsk c: /f where c: is the letter of the drive being checked. HDD check on bad sectors in case system partition will start after a reboot, since the check requires exclusive access to the disk.

You should not run this command often, but the check window that appears at every boot is the reason for the question: “how to check a hard drive for errors” and the answer to this question, since it is usually associated with disk problems.

What to do if you detect bad sectors on your hard drive

Not so long ago, hard drives were released on which it was possible to manually reassign sectors, and this is why many people are convinced that formatting from Bios cures all illnesses. But alas, now calibration is so complicated that it is carried out once at the manufacturer. It should also be understood that most changes in surface condition are irreversible and nothing can be restored. It can often be reassigned without losing capacity, although it all depends on the condition of the “patient”.

Options for hard drive states and subsequent actions:

The disk is working, works well, is stable, the percentage of bad ones is not growing - make a backup, forget that there are bad sectors on it and enjoy life.
The disk is basically working, the number of bad sectors is not growing, but when accessing a certain area there are problems - try to divide it into partitions without affecting the problem area, save for a new one.
The disk is not working, strong brakes, smart and BIOS warnings - change the hard drive.

Programs for recovering HDD drives

Victoria and Mhdd any of these programs allows you to conduct full diagnostics and save the drive from many problems. They are launched from DOS and require careful study of the manual before starting, as they can irreversibly destroy the data or logic of the hard drive! In general, do not start without knowing what you are doing, especially since such hard drive maintenance has long been entrusted to the controller and in most cases he copes with it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, this one old advice most relevant in the issue of the broken sector.

3 more useful articles:

Many users of computers, smartphones, cameras, etc. electronic devices at one time we encountered...

Majority hard drives with experience contain erroneous entries, etc. . Some of them lead to sad consequences; It's only a matter of time before this happens to your hard drive.

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 is 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 HDD status, you must pass a special test. Additional information allow you to extract . HDD Regenerator has the corresponding tools.

Other features of the program:

FAT and NTFS file systems are supported, but the system type does not matter when testing
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 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 file structure HDD systems
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.

Also Seagate Seatools can be used to “treat” a 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 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 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, you can use CHKDSK to fix errors on various devices storage: not only on the hard drive, but also on a flash drive and SD card. Since Windows NT, it fixes bad blocks (physically bad sectors), 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. The HDDLife program will help with this.

HDDLife has several very useful functions. First of all, tracking state of hard disk. 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. Frequently freezes, constant CPU overload, already deleted unnecessary programs. I closed everything as much as I could 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.

– the most unreliable component modern computer. As a rule, modern models They last up to 3 years, after which they have to be replaced. The worst thing about this situation is that it is very difficult to predict exactly when the hard drive will fail. Because of this, inexperienced users Important data is often lost. In this material we will talk about how to check a hard drive for serviceability and correctly assess its condition.

Serviceability check based on data from “S.M.A.R.T.”

If you want to check your hard drive for serviceability, then the first thing you need to do is install the program. This free program collects all available information about the drive and, based on it, provides an assessment of its technical condition. If the drive is fully operational, then its “technical condition” will be indicated as “Good”. If there are any problems with it, then you will receive an “Alarm” rating, but in cases where the HDD is on the verge of death, the program gives a “Bad” rating.

Also in the CrystalDiskInfo program you can view the source data of the “S.M.A.R.T.” system. (the program uses them to assess those conditions). To figure out what a particular parameter means, you can use . There is a table with a detailed description of all the parameters of the S.M.A.R.T. system. In addition, in the CrystalDiskInfo program you can see the number of starts, the number of hours worked, the exact name of the model and even serial number drive.

Checking the health of the hard drive under load

If the S.M.A.R.T. system does not show any problems, then the hard drive can be checked for serviceability by creating a large load. To do this, simply try to write a large number of small files (a couple of megabytes in size) to the drive. For example, you might try to copy a large folder of photos onto it.

If the disk is good, then the copying process should proceed without any incidents. In this case, the copying speed should be more or less stable throughout the entire copying process (with the exception of a slight drop in speed immediately after the start of copying).
If the hard drive is faulty, the copying speed will fluctuate greatly (from normal to very slow). In some cases, the copying process may freeze or be interrupted. Some files may not be copied, and the system will report errors. In particularly advanced cases, a cracking or grinding sound may be heard, and the drive may turn off ().

If the file writing test went well, then try testing how data reading works. To do this, try copying data from the disk you are testing.

Checking for errors in HD Tune

The next step is to check the health of the hard drive using specialized programs. Such programs allow you to check your hard drive for errors and identify existing problems, even if they do not appear during normal use. Let's start checking with free program(or her paid version HD Tune Pro).

To check your hard drive for errors, run the HD Tune program, go to the tab and click on the “Start” button.

After this, the HD Tune program will begin checking the hard drive for serviceability. During the verification, you will be able to observe this process. Normal areas of the hard drive will be marked green, and damaged ones are red.

On a fully functional hard drive, there should be no damaged (red) blocks at all; the entire surface should be marked green.

Checking for errors using Victoria 3.5

To get the most accurate check, you need to use the program, you can download it as an iso file, for example, (here is version 3.5, which is best suited for checking outside the operating system). The downloaded iso file must be written to a CD (or flash drive) and the computer booted from it. After booting your computer from this CD, you will need to select one of the versions of the Victoria program. For desktop computers you need to select the version “Victoria for Desktop”, and for laptops, respectively, “Victoria for Notebook”. Other options in this menu launch the operating system DOS system and Volkov Commander.

To start checking the entire surface of the hard drive, press the F4 key. After this, a menu with settings should appear. Here you need to select “Ignore Bad Blocks” and « Linear reading» . It should be noted that you need to use the Victoria program very carefully, since using some of its functions can delete data on the drive. For example, this can happen when you enable the “Write (erase)”, “Write from file”, and “BB = Erase 256 sect” options.

To start scanning, you need to press the F4 key again. After this, all you have to do is wait until the verification is completed. At the end, if the hard drive is fully functional, you should see a screen like this.

If the hard drive has any problem areas, orange and red blocks will appear on the scanning screen. The more such blocks, the worse the condition of the HDD surface. If the number of red blocks is large, this means that the hard drive is faulty and it is time to replace it. Detailed information You can see the problems found on the right side of the screen, in the “Defects” window.

Error checking in Victoria 4.46

If you do not want to burn an iso image and boot from a disk from a computer, you can use the Victoria 4.46 program, which runs from the Windows operating system. You can download this version of the program, for example, .

After downloading, you will receive an archive that will need to be unpacked into any folder. To run the Victoria 4.46 program, open the folder with the contents of the archive and run the program vcr446f.exe. After launch, you will see the main Victoria window, it will look something like the picture below.

You should start studying the program from the “Standard” tab. Here on the right side of the screen there is a list of hard drives that Victoria was able to identify, information about the currently selected drive is displayed at the top left (if you wish, you can select another), and at the bottom there is a log of events, errors and other information.

To check your hard drive for errors, you need to open the “Tests” tab. Here you need to first click on the “ Passp” button (to get information about the drive), and then on the “ Start” button (to start the check).

After this, you just need to wait until the program finishes checking your hard drive.

During the scanning process, the Victoria program will find faulty and problematic drive blocks, the number of which will be displayed in the column on the right, as well as at the bottom of the screen.

Results of checking the health of the hard drive

A fully functional hard drive should pass all the tests described above without any problems. CrystalDiskInfo should be rated Good, manual read and write tests should pass without difficulty, and HD Tune and Victoria should not detect any problems. If everything is exactly like this for you, then most likely your hard drive is fully functional and will work for a long time.

But, naturally, there are no guarantees here and cannot be. Therefore, the only way to reliably protect your data is backup. The most important data (personal photos, videos, documents) should always be stored on multiple drives.