Checking the operation of the hard drive. Diagnosing and eliminating errors on the hard drive

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 options, 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 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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Now you will learn about a small, but very useful program HDD Scan. As the name suggests, this program is designed to scan the hard drive on a computer.

But, besides this, the program is capable of carrying out a COMPLETE diagnosis of the hard drive, assessing the condition of any data drive (it supports hard IDE drives/SATA/SCSI, RAID arrays, external drives USB/Firewire and even flash cards)!

HDDScan will allow you to find out the number and even the firmware version of the hard drive installed on your computer and find damaged sectors of any scanned hard drive.

The program will show how exhausted hard resource disk, what problems does the hard drive being tested have and more! This utility will allow you to fix hard drive surface errors.

She has a very nice modern design interface

Here: you can download the verification program hard drives(gcontent)download HDDScan (/gcontent)

And below on the page you will see a video tutorial on working with this scanning program and hdd recovery(hard drives).

Checking hard drive sectors

This is no longer a problem even for beginners. In general, HDDScan is practically indispensable program! In terms of quality of work and functionality, at the moment there are almost no analogues to it.

Since the good old and time-tested programs for checking hard drives, such as MHDD and Victoria (read more in the article: How to fix bad sectors on a disk in Windows) are no longer able to recognize modern hard drives, and even more so - to perform their comprehensive diagnostics...

After you download this program to your computer, unzip it.... enter the folder with the program and run the executable file, which is mentioned at the beginning of the video lesson.

You don't have to install the program (that's another plus!), and it takes up negligible space on your hard drive. But despite this, it is so functional that one can only wonder how we managed without it before :-)))

How to check your computer's hard drive for functionality

The interface of the HDD Scan program is made on English. However, the program is so easy to use and will be understandable even for novice users.

Well, after watching this video tutorial on working with this utility to check hard drives that are currently connected to the computer, there will be no questions left :-)))

Turn on the speakers and press "Play"....

Checking hard disk sectors for errors

Quite often, many computer users experience deterioration in performance characteristics of hard disks during use.

Even in the best scenario, this leads to a decrease in performance and the appearance of faulty areas on the surface of hard drives, but this can also cause the loss of all information located on the hard drive!

We are called upon to help in such cases specialized programs and utilities for diagnostics and data recovery on hard drives like the one shown here free program HDDScan.

Checking the external hard drive

Using the HDD Scan program, you can easily scan not only internal, but also external hard drives that are connected to your computer.

It is designed to check hard drives under Windows. The utility works from the Windows operating system - this means that you do not need to bother creating any boot floppy disks.

Very convenient! It is simply advisable to disable the antivirus and programs running in the program while starting and running the program. background and resource occupiers, such as download managers.

HDD hard drive recovery

As you probably noticed when watching the video, starting from the 14th minute it is shown how you can try to fix it, that is, simply remove the bad sector of the hard drive if you do not want to replace hard drive completely (buy a new one).

We start testing the surface with the “full erase” parameter. This usually helps to get rid of these types of bad blocks on the surface of the hard drive.

Attention! Before doing this, copy all important data from the HDD you want to test. In general, if you want to try to recover bad sectors on the disk, then watch the video tutorial again from the 14th minute.

Conclusion: in the best possible way conduct a full diagnosis of hard disk for today, the HDDScan program, which works from Windows environment and at the same time allows you to perform a comprehensive assessment of the reliability and condition of the surface of any hard drive, including even external USB drives.

It would seem that what could be more reliable in terms of storing valuable information than electronic device in the form of a traditional storage device (HDD)? Perhaps you, dear user, will think about the “newly made receiver” - solid state hard drive. However, despite the high technology of the latter, the risk of data loss still remains high. However, when the user knows how to check the functionality of a hard drive, and at the same time periodically monitors its working condition, the degree of reliability and comfortable use of any hard drive increases significantly. If you want to understand how to put all this into practice, find out what you should be wary of and how to avoid unforeseen operational situations, then we invite you to read the material in this article. Believe me, a few minutes of reading will ultimately turn into some kind of life experience that will help you avoid many mistakes in the future, including data loss.

What makes a hard drive work: a structural introduction

The mechanical type of drive, and this article will focus specifically on such hard drives, is a storage device that consists of several main parts:

The hermetic block is the enclosure frame of the HDD.
The printed circuit board is (usually green, located at the bottom of the device).
Head block - mechanical module, through which the process of reading and writing data to the hard drive occurs.
A magnetically coated disk (damn) is the area of the HDD on which information is stored.
An electric spindle drive is a device that causes the plates to rotate at a given speed.

It is worth noting that, depending on the modification of the hard drive, the number of read heads and magnetic disks may be different. Of course, the more storage components in the device, the higher the capacitive values of the HDD.

How good is your hard drive?

Follow the instructions below and you will receive a practical answer to your question: “How to check the functionality of a hard drive?” So:

Download and install the Victoria utility on your computer.
Run the specified software with administrator rights.
After opening the program's working window, activate the Smart tab.
Next, click on the Get Smart button.
If the value GOOD is displayed in the adjacent checkbox, then you can breathe easy - your hard drive is in perfect order!

However, in order to fulfill full check your media, you must use the TEST tab. After using the Start button you launch this utility, you will need to wait for the test process to finish. It is worth noting that the presence of red and blue sectors is not at all good sign, this kind of graphical indicators indicate that the storage area has damaged or bad sectors. However, the program we are considering for checking performance of the hard The disk also has some recovery tools.

Digital hard drive repair - what is it like?

Upon completion of the test analysis process (using the Victoria utility), check the Remap item and restart the test with the same Start key. The program will “try” to correct all detected errors and restore bad sectors.

By the way, depending on the physical capacity of your drive, the duration also varies. running process. It may well turn out that it will take a lot of time. Therefore, be patient and wait - miracles do happen, and you will have time to see this more than once!

Simple and effective to use “Windows restorer”: a standard method of “treating” HDD

There is no access to the Internet, and you are not able to install the above-mentioned software, but the difficult question “how to check the functionality of the hard drive” is waiting to be resolved? No problem! Follow these simple guidelines:

Go to the Start menu.
Then left-click on “This PC”.
Point the marker at the desired hard section disk and press the right button of the manipulator.
Select "Properties" from the drop-down list.
Go to the "Service" tab.
Activate the "Check" button.
Before starting the “Restoring your hard drive” process, check the two boxes in the next window.

In some cases, for example when you want to analyze the state system partition(C:), you will need to reboot the OS. Subsequent recovery steps will be displayed on the monitor screen in the form of command lines and changing digital values - be sure to wait until the running verification process completes!

Summing up

Well, now you know how to check the functionality of your hard drive. However, we should not forget that timely maintenance of the hard drive has a positive effect on the long-term operational life of this product. Do it once every two weeks HDD defragmentation, clean your hard drive of digital junk and don’t forget about the general process of optimizing your OS. That's all. Correct work to your drive and many years of service!

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 to test the logical drives on which 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 bad 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

Other popular program— Ashampoo HDD Control. How to test a hard drive for errors using 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 command line DOS.

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 fact is that in the newest modifications the program is called differently, 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 a qualitative test of the surface 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's consider a number of practical nuances of using the corresponding 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 starting the program installed on bootable USB flash drive or CD, you must select the specific drive that will be tested. Then enter the SCAN command on the command line, 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.

However, you may still need to specify additional parameters. 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 scan 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 using the built-in Windows tools, and when using special programs. At the same time, tools of the first type are designed mainly for correcting errors in file system, the second - to identify and correct bad sectors in accessible ways.

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: how to test external hard disk is practically no different from the procedure for testing the 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.

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 with a 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 some 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 onto which the information the user needs is recorded.

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 your computer’s hard drive for bad sectors.

Reasons for bad sectors

What are the reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on HDD disk? 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 operation of the 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 an 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 with different letters and colors.

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

Another program for checking the disk surface for damaged sectors. HDD Health analyzes the general condition of the disk, provides detailed statistics according to available sections (using SMART technologies, including the general condition of the structure, the disk rotation temperature indicator, 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.