Hard drive testing. Checking the hard drive for bad sectors and errors
Hard disk drive (HDD) – essential element computer on which everything is stored necessary information, programs and user files. Like any other component, over time the hard drive wears out and its normal operation, failures begin to occur. Along with physical wear and tear, leading to the appearance of so-called bad sectors (bad blocks), often there are logical errors associated with the file system, indexes and the main file table.
For the time being, you may not observe problems in work hard disk, but this does not guarantee that one fine day the hard drive will not die for long. Therefore, it is important to check periodically (once or twice a year) hard drive for errors and bad sectors that require correction. Regular monitoring will allow you to track the condition of the media and respond in a timely manner to changes in its condition. Of course, you should not neglect such a proven method of protecting information as backup. The most valuable data must be duplicated on a backup storage device.
Symptoms of a failing hard drive
In most cases, HDDs operate smoothly for several years without requiring special attention. However, in case of improper operation (physical impact, lack of proper cooling), the resource of the storage medium is significantly reduced. In rare situations, there may be a manufacturing defect or sudden failure.
For malfunctions hard drive may indicate too much long loading operating system, unreasonable disappearance of files and folders, slow application launch. Obvious symptoms of a hard drive losing its functionality are slowdowns in programs and long periods of copying files. If the computer constantly hangs, and nothing but restarting helps, then in the process of identifying the causes, checking the hard drive should be the first point.
Using standard Windows 7/10 tools
You can test the media using standard Windows tools. The easiest way is to select the desired hard drive in Explorer, right-click on it and go to the “Service” tab.
Next, click the “Run scan” button and set the scan parameters in the window that opens. If both checkboxes are checked, Windows will automatically fix everything during diagnostics. system errors and restore bad sectors.
The results of the audit can be found in the report.
Command line
You can also audit your hard drive using the utility chkdsk called from the command line. In fact, such a check will not differ much from the above option.
So, launch the command line by selecting the required Start menu item. Then enter the command in the window: chkdsk G: /f /r
- G – name of the hard drive being tested (select the drive you will check);
- f – error checking and correction;
- r – detection and recovery of bad sectors.
All information about errors and bad sectors found will be displayed as the diagnostics are carried out.
Third-party programs for checking your hard drive
There are many programs and utilities for finding bad sectors and fixing HDD errors. We will list only the most famous ones.
Victoria
Perhaps the most popular hard drive checking tool. The program can be launched as in Windows environment, and in DOS mode from a bootable flash drive.
The interface provides five tabs: Standard, SMART, Tests, Advanced and Setup. First of all, go to the section Standard, where in the list of devices we select the hard drive we are interested in. The Drive passport area will display basic information about the HDD.
Next, select the tab SMART and press the “Get SMART” button. SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analisys and Reporting Technology) is a hard drive self-monitoring technology. Those. The hard drive monitors its operation during operation, recording information on a set of parameters that allows one to assess the condition of the media. It is this service information that we are trying to obtain.
After clicking “Get SMART”, either the inscription GOOD on a green background or the inscription BAD! will appear to the right of the button. on red. The second option will indicate that the media is in unsatisfactory condition and will most likely have to be replaced. For a more detailed study of SMART statistics, let's pay attention to the list of parameters on the left. Here we are primarily interested in the attribute 5 Reallocated sector count, indicating the number of sectors remapped. If there are too many of them, then the disk has begun to “crumble,” that is, its surface is rapidly degrading and it is urgent to make a copy of all data. In this case, there is no point in restoring the hard drive.
Chapter Tests makes it possible to check the hard drive for bad sectors, and also try to “cure” or reassign unreadable blocks. For simple testing hard drive, set the switch to Ignore and start the test with the Start button. Sector health is assessed by measuring response time. The smaller it is, the better. Each response time range has its own color code. The slowest blocks are marked in green, orange and red. Sectors that could not be read at all are marked in blue. Subject to availability large quantity“slow” and unreadable blocks, the hard drive should be replaced.
Victoria program allows you to restore bad sectors, but we will not consider all the nuances of the procedure. Moreover, “treatment” often contributes only to a slight extension of the service life of the storage medium. To reassign bad blocks, perform a check with the mode enabled Remap. If the restoration was successful, do not rush to rejoice. Re-diagnostics of the disk after a certain period of operation. The appearance of new bad blocks will indicate that the degradation of the hard drive is irreversible, and it’s time to find a replacement.
HDDScan
This is another handy program for identifying hard drive problems. After launching the application, select the drive that needs to be checked in the Select Drive list.
Below we click on the “S.M.A.R.T.” button and get acquainted with the provided report.
Now let's diagnose the disk surface. Click on the round button to the right of the drop-down list of media and select Surface Tests in the menu that opens.
Click on the Add Test button, thereby adding a test to the list and starting its execution.
You can receive information about the progress of testing in Graph, Map, and Report modes. All blocks are also distributed into groups with corresponding color markings depending on access time.
At the end, a final report is generated.
Perhaps this is all we wanted to tell you about the methods hard checks computer disk for performance. We hope the information provided will be useful to you and help you save important data.
There is no need to say that a computer hard drive is an ordinary piece of hardware with a limited service life. Everyone knows this. The only question is when exactly it will fail. To prevent this from happening, it is required constant check disk for performance. Now we will look at what this process is like in different versions, and will also touch on topics such as data recovery, bad sectors and the hard drive itself in the presence of physical damage.
Why is hard drive diagnostics necessary?
As a rule, not every user of modern computer systems thinks about the state of the hard drive, which stores a huge amount of information. Unfortunately, many users begin to solve this problem only after the hard drive “crumbles” or is, so to speak, on the verge of a foul.
Here, every user should understand that at least a weekly check of the hard drive for performance will not only increase its service life, but will also prevent the emergence of extremely unpleasant situations related to disruptions in the operation of the operating systems themselves.
System errors are perhaps one of the most common phenomena. Their occurrence may be associated, say, with incorrect shutdown of programs, a power outage at the most inopportune moment, or cleaning the inside of the computer when a connection failure occurs HDD loops To motherboard etc. What can I say, even an inflated number of spindle revolutions when trying to speed up access to data stored on a hard drive can play a cruel joke. However, this is not about that now. Let's look at the most common and most effective means by which hard drive diagnostics are performed.
Standard verification tools
Let's start with the fact that users of absolutely all versions of Windows operating systems have available tools. Although they are quite primitive, they nevertheless allow you to get rid of many problems, most often associated with system errors.
The simplest tool is the built-in utility diagnosing hard disk, called from the hard drive properties or logical partition in the context menu from the standard Explorer.
There is a special cleaning button for removing junk or unused files, there is a button to check the hard drive for errors (on the “General” tab), as well as two buttons in service menu, allowing you to run check processes for system errors and optimization.
In addition, in any version of Windows, you can use the command line or the Run menu, where you enter the chkdisk command with different variations. When standard checking for system errors, it is advisable to use additional parameter automatic correction. If absolutely necessary, you can also enable checking the surface of the hard drive (the so-called Surface Test).
Now let's take a different look at the question of what hard drive diagnostics are. Windows 7, for example, like any other “operating system” of this “family”, can use not only the standard command for checking system errors on the hard drive. Today, not all users know that the chkdisc line can easily be supplemented with letters and symbols, the use of which as a main command will help perform various actions.
So, for example, input chkdsk lines c: /f provides automatic error correction. For file NTFS systems The command chkntfs c: /x is applicable with the same result. In this case, not only system errors are searched, but the hard drive is also checked for bad sectors. However, in most cases, the same automatic startup starts even when the system itself boots after unexpected failures. Unfortunately, such a hard drive diagnostic program cannot always boast of a positive result. This is why many specialists and experts in this field recommend using more powerful third-party utilities. But more on that a little later.
Defragmenting your hard drive
Separately, it is worth noting that diagnosing and restoring a hard drive cannot be done without using the defragmentation process. The fact is that at this time the most frequently used files or program components are moved to the fastest areas of the hard drive. If there are bad sectors, this is the first means of restoring application launches.
Basically, nothing special happens - the logical address with the file checksum remains the same. Only its physical location changes. And who knows, maybe there is, say, physical damage in the place where the file was originally stored? No one is immune from this.
Formatting your hard drive
As a last resort, the system provides for partial or complete formatting (well, if nothing helps at all). The essence this process in the first case, comes down to clearing the table of contents (MBR file allocation tables), after which, using special utilities It is possible to recover data. In the second option, the situation is much worse. At full formatting the data is deleted without any possibility of recovery.
This can be explained with an example. During normal deletion, the file is not erased in terms of its physical presence on the hard drive. It’s just that the capital letter in its name is changed to the “$” symbol. After this, neither the user nor the system itself sees such a file. But it is precisely from this symbol that it is possible to restore it. It is clear that any recovery utility (such as Recuva) first determines state of hard disk, and then identifies it by the first character deleted files and finds out the extent of their damage and the possibility of restoration. But this only applies to those cases where certain sectors of the hard drive were not overwritten. If other information was saved in this place on top of the old one, no program for checking the hard drive for errors in order to further restore the information will help.
Removing computer junk
Residual or unused files can also cause system errors to appear on the disk. We are not talking about physical damage now. But in terms of the fact that the system constantly accesses the system registry, which contains keys and entries about absolutely all folders and files located on the hard drive, this is quite a big problem.
Such constant access only leads to the fact that even the loading of the Windows OS itself slows down, not to mention the launch of user programs and applications.
To get rid of all this, you can use utilities complete removal installed programs or special automatic cleaners, optimizers like iObit Uninstaller, CCleaner.
Checking for bad sectors
Almost every third party utility Hard drive diagnostics is capable of performing a special test for the presence of bad sectors. As is already clear, errors of this kind are corrected by rewriting checksums files to another location. In essence, the functions of defragmentation and standard check. Among other things, there are quite a lot of software packages that even allow you to avoid repairing or replacing a hard drive if it falls apart.
What to do if the HDD is physically damaged?
Software package HDD Regenerator is a unique program for diagnosing a hard drive that may have been subjected to physical impact or damage.
It works using a completely non-standard technology. Not only does it check the hard drive for bad sectors, it is also capable of resuscitating the hard drive even if the surface is damaged. The essence of the impact method itself comes down to the use of hard drive magnetization reversal technology.
It was created relatively recently, however, as practice shows, it has managed to prove itself high level. By the way, using it does not even require formatting the hard drive with subsequent deletion of important information and identification of undamaged sectors. And this is one of the most important advantages of the package. What do you think the FBI uses to recover hard drive data? computer hackers and pirates? That's it. In addition, the hard drive is checked for functionality in such a way that the user does not need to interfere with the process itself. Agree, it’s very convenient.
Actually, this is the most powerful program, which is used to diagnose the hard drive. Windows 7, of course, is no exception as a platform for running the resuscitator. The application works great in almost all systems, starting with “expert”.
The most powerful utilities for checking hard drives
As for some standard utilities of this type, you can find quite a lot of them on the Internet.
Among the most interesting are applications and software packages such as Norton Disc Doctor, ScanHDD, Victoria.
A good program that can be used to diagnose a hard drive is Victoria. She deserves special attention. Although it was created by a Belarusian programmer-enthusiast, it occupies one of the first places in the world of modern computer systems and technologies.
It is worth noting that this application is capable of working in both normal mode(when running in a Windows environment), and in the already unsupported DOS emulation mode by many operating systems. What is most interesting is that it is in DOS that the program demonstrates the highest performance.
As for the interface and control system, they are terribly simple. To start the analysis, just click the appropriate button. For most users, checking the hard drive in Russian is provided by default. It is also advisable not to change the basic parameters, especially if you are not a qualified user in this area.
On the other hand, the advanced settings for hard drive checking and error correction parameters provide a fairly flexible configuration. True, in order for an uninitiated user to understand all this, it is necessary to at least carefully study the accompanying technical documentation.
Recovering data from an image
Now let's deal with the issue of data recovery in case of its loss or unexpected deletion. If you look at it, diagnosing a hard drive using standard or third-party tools cannot be done without creating a system restore checkpoint.
Few people think about this, but in vain. Thus, even if the result of any utility is incorrect, you can always make a so-called rollback to the initial state without losing data. True, in the case of using Windows operating systems, as stated, the changes do not affect user files. However, the truth is that even a system restore from a checkpoint restores all deleted data.
In this case, it is better, naturally, to use a system image. Here it will certainly be clear that only the data that was registered in the image itself will be restored.
External media
As is already clear, diagnostics external hard disk USB type HDD or regular flash drive is produced according to the same principle that applies to standard disk drives. The only thing worth paying attention to is the inclusion of the required component in the list of devices being tested.
This applies equally to standard Windows operating system tools and specialized utilities for checking HDDs or recovering data.
BIOS
It is also worth noting BIOS settings, without which some programs created to check and diagnose the condition of hard drives simply will not work.
In particular, this applies to the SATA controller mode, which sometimes needs to be switched from AHCI mode to IDE mode. Only in this case is guaranteed uninterrupted access to the hard drive with all the ensuing consequences.
As a rule, after installing this mode, absolutely all programs can access the hard drive, naturally, using user-controlled parameters. It goes without saying that accessing the BIOS on different devices is carried out differently. In the standard version, this is pressing the Del key before starting the system; sometimes you can use the function keys F2 and F12. It all depends on BIOS version and developer. However, when loading, the system itself signals in the status bar what exactly needs to be clicked to enter the main settings.
Instead of an afterword
Now let's try to sum up all of the above. It remains to add that diagnosing the hard drive is the key normal functioning computer system and data storage. And this applies not only Windows performance, but also optimization of access to files and folders.
Which exact tool with which hard drive diagnostics is carried out to use for your needs is up to everyone to choose for themselves, but with a high degree of probability we can say that better utilities than Victoria and HDD Regenerator, has not yet been created. This statement is based not only on calculating the performance of the software packages themselves, but also on the results of the tests that they demonstrate. And, I must say, these indicators exceed all other programs combined, not to mention standard means Windows operating systems, which, alas, are not particularly flexible and efficient. Even in the top ten, the results are far from encouraging.
Separately, we need to dwell on the issue of simultaneous use of several tools for checking the hard drive in one system. It happens that permanently installed software packages may conflict with each other. This is due to the fact that some of them try to work in the background, like optimization programs that constantly “hang” in the system tray.
If it so happens that there are several applications of this kind on one computer terminal, you should remove one of them and instead use, say, a portable version that does not install own files and libraries into the system. This allows you to start the scanning process of a hard drive or removable media even from a regular flash drive. Even if executable file programs and additional folders are present on the same flash drive, this does not interfere with the launch of the utility.
Here it is worth paying attention to one more fact. As sad as it sounds, with the transition to Windows 10 free update from the official Microsoft website, some utilities of this type flatly refuse to work. The situation is such that the “ten” blocks not only the installation of applications of this kind, considering them as such that they can harm the system, but also does not launch even some portable versions programs. So here you will have to scour the Internet thoroughly to find something that works more or less normally.
Hello.
Forewarned is forearmed! This rule comes in handy when working with hard drives. If you know in advance that such and such a hard drive will most likely fail, then the risk of data loss will be minimal.
Of course, no one will give a 100% guarantee, but with a high degree of probability, some programs can analyze S.M.A.R.T. readings. (a set of software and hardware that monitors the condition of the hard drive) and draw conclusions on how long it will last.
In general, there are dozens of programs to perform such a hard drive check, but in this article I wanted to focus on some of the most visual and easy to use. So…
How to find out the status of your hard drive
HDDlife
(By the way, in addition to HDD, it also supports SSD drives)
One of the best programs for constantly monitoring the condition of your hard drive. It will help you recognize the threat in time and replace the hard drive. Most of all, it captivates with its clarity: after launch and analysis, HDDlife presents the report in a very convenient form: you are shown the percentage of the “health” of the disk and its performance (the best indicator, of course, is 100%).
If your performance is above 70%, this indicates the good condition of your disks. For example, after a couple of years of work (quite active by the way), the program analyzed and concluded: that this hard drive is about 92% healthy (which means that it should last, unless force majeure occurs, at least the same amount) .
After launch, the program minimizes to the tray next to the clock and you can always monitor the status of your hard drive. If any problem is detected (for example, high temperature disk, or there is too little space left on the hard drive), the program will notify you with a pop-up window. Example below.
HDDLIFE alerts you when your hard drive is running out of space. Windows 8.1.
If the program analyzes and gives you a window like the one in the screenshot below, I advise you not to delay making a backup copy (and replacing the HDD).
HDDLIFE - the data on your hard drive is in danger, the faster you copy it to other media, the better!
Hard Disk Sentinel
This utility can compete with HDDlife - it monitors the disk status just as well. What captivates us most about this program is how informative it is and how easy it is to work with. Those. it will be useful for both a novice user and an already experienced one.
After launching Hard Disk Sentinel and analyzing the system, you will see the main window of the program: on the left you will see hard drives(including external HDDs), and their status will be displayed in the right window.
By the way, quite interesting feature, by predicting the performance of the disk, by how long it will serve you: for example, in the screenshot below, the forecast is more than 1000 days (that’s about 3 years!).
The condition of the hard drive is EXCELLENT. No problematic or weak sectors were found. No speed or data transmission errors were detected.
No action needs to be taken.
By the way, the program implements enough useful feature: you can set the critical threshold yourself hard temperature disk, upon reaching which, Hard Disk Sentinel will notify you of exceeding!
Hard Disk Sentinel: disk temperature (including the maximum for the entire time the disk was used).
Ashampoo HDD Control
An excellent utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. The monitor built into the program allows you to find out in advance about the first problems with the disk (by the way, the program can even notify you about this by e-mail).
Also, in addition to the main functions, a number of auxiliary ones are built into the program:
Disk defragmentation;
Testing;
Cleaning the disk from garbage and temporary files (always relevant);
Deleting the history of visiting sites on the Internet (useful if you are not alone at the computer and do not want anyone to know what you are doing);
There are also built-in utilities for reducing disk noise, adjusting power, etc.
Screenshot of the Ashampoo HDD Control 2 window: from hard drive everything is in order, condition 99%, performance 100%, temperature 41 degrees. (it is desirable that the temperature be less than 40 degrees, but the program believes that for this disk model everything is in order).
By the way, the program is completely in Russian, intuitively thought out - even a novice PC user can figure it out. Pay special attention to the temperature and status indicators in the main program window. If the program produces errors or the condition is assessed as extremely low (+ in addition there is a grinding or noise coming from the HDD), I recommend that you first copy all the data to other media, and then start dealing with the disk.
Hard Drive Inspector
A distinctive feature of this program is:
1. Minimalism and simplicity: there is nothing superfluous in the program. It gives three indicators in percentage terms: reliability, performance and absence of errors;
Hard Drive Inspector - monitoring the condition of the hard drive.
СrystalDiskInfo
A simple but reliable utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. Moreover, it works even in cases where many other utilities refuse, crashing with errors.
The program supports several languages, is not full of settings, and is designed in a minimalist style. At the same time, it has quite rare functions, for example, reducing the disk noise level, temperature control, etc.
What is also very convenient is a graphical display of the situation:
Blue color (as in the screenshot below): everything is ok;
Yellow color: alarm, measures need to be taken;
Red: you need to take immediate action (if you still have time);
Gray: the program was unable to determine the readings.
CrystalDiskInfo 2.7.0 - screenshot of the main program window.
HD Tune
This program will be useful to more experienced users: who, in addition to graphically displaying the “health” of the disk, also need qualitative tests disk, in which you can familiarize yourself in detail with all the characteristics and parameters. It should also be noted that the program, in addition to HDD, also supports new-fangled SSD drives.
HD Tune offers a rather interesting feature to quickly check a disk for errors: a 500 GB disk is checked in about 2-3 minutes!
HD TUNE: quickly find errors on the disk. Red squares are not allowed on a new disk.
Also very necessary information is checking the disk read and write speed.
HD Tune - checking disk speed.
Well, we can’t help but note the tab with detailed information about the HDD. This is useful when you need to know, for example, supported functions, buffer/cluster size or disk rotation speed, etc.
HD Tune - detailed information about the hard drive.
In general, there are at least as many similar utilities that can be cited. I think that these will be more than enough for most...
And lastly: do not forget to make backup copies, even if the disk condition is rated as 100% excellent (at least the most important and valuable data)!
Good luck...
Many PC users hardly think about checking the status of their HDD. Checking the hard drive is, first of all, necessary for early detection of errors in it.
If you manage to identify problems with your hard drive in advance, you will be able to save all the important information stored on it until it finally fails.
In this material we will describe specific examples the procedure for checking the status of the HDD, and we will also tell you what to do in a situation if your hard drive is faulty.
How to check the status of your hard drive
You can check the status of your hard drive using various utilities that read the status of your hard drive from its self-diagnosis system SMART. SMART technology is now installed on every hard drive produced. SMART technology was developed back in 1992 and is still being improved to this day. The main goal of SMART is logging the hard drive aging process. That is, information such as the number of HDD starts, the number of spindle rotations and many others is collected. More SMART watches for errors"screw", both software and mechanical and, to the extent possible corrects them. During the monitoring process, SMART performs various short and long tests to identify those same faults. In this material we will look at such programs that can read information from SMART:
- Ashampoo HDD Control 3;
- Defraggler;
- HDDlife;
- Victoria.
Each program on the list, in addition to reading SMART readings, offers a number of functions and tests that, to one degree or another, extend the life of the hard drive. But the most interesting is the program Victoria. The Victoria program, in addition to determining the HDD state, can also produce REMAP of bad sectors. That is, she can hide bad sectors by replacing them with spare ones, if available. Essentially, the REMAP procedure can completely restore the hard drive. It is also worth noting the possibility hard fixes disk thanks to the console application " chkdsk" The console program "chkdsk" can fix file system errors, which will allow you to avoid reinstalling Windows.
Ashampoo HDD Control 3
First we will look at the program Ashampoo HDD Control 3. Let's run this utility on a computer under Windows control 10.
The Ashampoo HDD Control 3 window displays the message “ ✓ OK", as well as the inscription " This hard drive has no problems" This information means that the hard drive in question is in perfect order. If when opening the program you see the message “ Error", as well as the inscription " This hard drive has a problem", this means that it has bad sectors or is overheating. To view complete information about the health of the “screw” taken from the smart, you need to click on the footnote “” located in the central block.
In addition to viewing information from the smart device, Ashampoo HDD Control 3 can launch self test S.M.A.R.T. And surface inspection test. You can test these tests in the "" block.
By performing these tests, you can also identify problems with the HDD. In addition to taking readings from smart devices and tests, Ashampoo HDD Control 3 can:
- Perform defragmentation;
- Clean the system of debris;
- Find and delete duplicate files;
- Securely erase files from the HDD, without the possibility of recovery.
The presence of such functionality of Ashampoo HDD Control 3 in monitoring the health of the screw and additional functions puts utility first.
Defraggler
Utility Defraggler primarily intended for defragmentation, but besides this she can read SMART readings . The utility is free and any user can download it from the website www.piriform.com. After launching the utility, you need to go to the “ State».
In the window you can see that the utility displays a message about the status of the screw, like “ GOOD" - this means that he is completely fine. If you see the message " Error" in status, this will mean that the hard drive has bad sectors and it’s time to change it. The utility is quite simple and is suitable primarily for novice PC users who want to monitor the health of the HDD and defragment it. I would also like to note that the utility supports all current operating systems, from Windows XP to Windows 10.
How to check your hard drive using HDDlife
Utility HDDlife It has a nice interface and immediately gives us the information we need, which is responsible for the serviceability and breakdown of the screw.
From the image above you can see that in the health block there is " OK!", which means that everything is fine with the HDD. To view smart details, you just need to click on the link “ click to view S.M.A.R.T. attributes».
If you see a message in the health block " DANGER!", this means that your HDD will soon become unusable.
In this case, you need to replace the old hard drive with a new one. The HDDlife utility is, first of all, suitable for novice PC users, since its simplicity will make it easy to monitor the health of the “screw”. In addition to the standard utility, the developer also releases HDDlife for Notebooks, which is designed for laptops. The laptop version has the same functionality as the standard version, but can also perform HDD noise level control. It is also worth noting that the program supports all current operating systems, from Windows XP to Windows 10.
Victoria
Program Victoria is being developed in a version for DOS and by Windows. For our example, we will use the Windows version of Victoria, which can be downloaded from http://hdd-911.com. On at the moment Victoria is available in version 4.47. By launching the Victoria utility, we will be taken to such a window.
Victoria does not have a beautiful interface, as in previous utilities and is written in such old languages as Delphi And Assembler.
In the first tab of the quiz " Standard"is all information about installed hard drives to the computer.
Second tab " SMART» needed for smart reading. To display smart results, you must click the Get SMART button, after which the results will be displayed.
In the hard drive in question, Victoria discovered 1212 bad sectors. This number of BAD sectors is critical, so in this case it is necessary to full backup all data from the HDD. To repair a hard drive using the REMAP test in Victoria, you need to go to the “ Tests" and select the mode " Remap" After these steps, you can begin the procedure of reassigning bad sectors to backup ones with the Start button.
The REMAP test in Victoria can take a very long time. The test time depends on the number of BAD sectors. This test of the Victoria utility does not always help, since there might not be any spare sectors left in the screw.
Please note that using Victoria tests, you can damage the serviceability of the HDD and the information on it.
How to check if a disk is healthy using “chkdsk”
It may happen that by checking the S.M.A.R.T. values. Using the utilities described above, you did not find any problems, but the system still behaves unstable. Instability can manifest itself as blue screens of death and freezes in programs. This behavior of the Windows operating system is caused by file system errors. In this case, the console command “ chkdsk" By running the "chkdsk" command, you can fully restore functionality Windows OS. For this example, we will take a computer with a new operating system Windows system 10. First of all, open the console in Windows 10 as an administrator. This can be easily done by right-clicking on the “ Start» and selecting the item we need.
In the running console, execute the following command CHKDSK F: /F /R After checking using the command application “chkdsk”, the result of the check will be displayed in the console.
Now let's look at the command " CHKDSK F: /F /R» more details. Immediately after the command “chkdsk” comes the letter “ F" - this letter local disk , where we correct errors. Keys " /F" And " /R» fix errors in the file system, and also fix bad sectors. These keys are almost always used, unlike the others. You can view the remaining keys with the command chkdsk /?
It is also worth noting that in Windows 10 the capabilities of the chkdsk application have been significantly expanded thanks to new keys.
How to check your hard drive's health using DST
Abbreviation DST deciphered Disk Self Test , that is self test disk. Manufacturers specifically integrate this method into the HDD, so that later, using special software, they can perform DST self-diagnosis, which will identify problems. By testing the “screw” using DST you can get data about probable breakdown hard drive. It is especially convenient to use DST on servers and computers of enterprises, where reliable storage of information plays an important role. Now let's look at using DST using HP laptops as an example. For new HP laptops with support UEFI BIOS exists special menu diagnostics " Startup Menu" This menu is launched using combination of power key and key ESC.
To run system tests, press the F2 button.
In the window that appears, DST is called Hard Disk Test. After selecting it, a self-test will start.
Other manufacturers also have a DST method, only the launch on a PC from other manufacturers differs from that discussed above.
Checking your hard drive in Linux
For example, let's take a computer based on the operating system Ubuntu systems 16.04. To do this, let's launch a terminal in Ubuntu. In the terminal, type the following command: sudo apt-get install smartmontools This command should install console utility Smartmontools.
Now that the Smartmontools utility is installed, you can use the command sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda which will display all the information of the smart hard drive in the console.
If you don't like working in console mode, you can install a graphical utility Gnome-disk-utility. In it you can see everything you need about the HDD and its condition.
Let's sum it up
In the article reviewed, we described how you can monitor the status of the HDD, as well as how to fix its sectors and file system, if possible. From the material it becomes clear that monitoring the status of hard drives is very important, as it allows anticipate HDD failure.
If you have discovered that your hard drive is problematic, then do not put off replacing it until later. The problematic “screw” can fail at any moment, and you will lose all the information stored on the computer.
We hope our material will be useful to our readers and will completely help solve the problem of checking a hard drive.
Video on the topic
Hard drive with important information may break during operation due to accidental impact or shock. If you are prudent, some of the files can be saved. To avoid unnecessary risks, always make a backup and preventive check for errors and bad sectors once every six months, after deleting junk files.
If during operation you notice that files and folders suddenly begin to disappear, when accessing a file, the computer slows down, information takes a long time to copy from one disk partition to another, then you should also check.
HDD diagnostics
A hard drive is made up of a large number of individual cells called sectors. Each sector stores information. Used to check sectors special programs. During testing, programs access each cell and measure the response time. The norm is considered to be 1 response every 3 milliseconds. If the program produces a result of 600 milliseconds or more, the result is considered critical and the cell is disabled.
All modern HDDs for disk self-diagnosis. The idea of the technology is that during booting, when initializing the HDD motherboard, a self-control test takes place. The computer owner can view the data from SMART and, if there are problems, has the opportunity in advance before they are lost.
A faulty disk may reduce the read/write speed of the heads, and therefore the data transfer speed will decrease. This will significantly reduce its performance. The computer will be slower at loading, copying data from/to the disk, and launching programs.
To diagnose hard drives for errors, bad sectors, to obtain S.M.A.R.T. data. , speed testing uses special programs.
Programs for checking HDD
SeaTools is a kit proprietary utilities, distributed free of charge. Can be downloaded from the official website. The proposed utilities check the disk for errors of different brands and can be used to correct sectors.
SeaTools for Windows carries out checks in Windows interface. The DOS utility is an iso image from which you can make a boot disk for testing. This version is preferable if the user wants to avoid problems associated with the OS accessing the disk during scanning.
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is a utility that was developed, especially popular among Russian users. Just like the previous one, it is free and has a version for Windows and ISO. Provides S.M.A.R.T. information.
CrystalDiskInfo and CrystalDiskMark
CrystalDiskMark is capable of measuring average read and write speeds on various sections of the disk. This free, multilingual program is designed specifically for measuring speed. It works with the most popular versions of Windows. In addition to HDD, it can be used for SSDs and flash drives. Presented in two versions: for installation and portable.
CrystalDiskInfo is designed to diagnose your hard drive and SSD. You can see the health status and temperature of the disk. You can view S.M.A.R.T. readings. such as and much more.
Built-in Windows utilities
Checking with built-in Windows tools. Go to “My Computer” (“This PC” for Windows 8.1). Right-click on the drive to open Properties. Select “Service” in the menu and click the “Check” button. Wait until the verification process is completed and the computer displays the result.
HDDScan
HDD Scan – good free program. Supports hard drives with IDE/SATA/SCSI interfaces, RAID arrays, external USB/FireWire drives, SSDs and flash cards. Allows you to check hard drives, bad sectors, get SMART data, perform various types of disk testing.
Victoria HDD
Victoria HDD is a popular software for diagnosing hard drives: tests the disk surface in order to detect possible faults, checks bad sectors, marks bad blocks.
Victoria HDD is a fairly simple and powerful hard drive test program that was created to evaluate performance, test, fix minor problems and format the drive.