Hard disk checker

The data structure on the hard disk may be corrupted. This happens for various reasons, but the most common are: crashes and freezes of programs while writing to disk.

A slightly damaged disk, as a whole, will not lose its performance, however, over time, if there are more faults, it may lose this very performance.

And more importantly, the surface of the disk can succumb to various defects - some area stops being read, and as a result, all the accumulated information can disappear in an instant. If so, it is necessary to act and take action.

Hard disk checker - HDD Scan

HDD Scan is a very handy tool that allows you to test your hard drive, as well as make a statistical report on the work done.

Since the application does not require installation, the Windows registry keys remain intact. You can also put HDD Scan on an external device and run it directly on any computer.

The main advantages of the HDD Scan program:

  1. Control over the noise characteristics of the hard drive;
  2. Stopping and starting the spindle motor;
  3. Information about S.M.A.R.T .;
  4. Three modes of checking the disk surface: Verify, Read, Erase.

On the popular site Softpedia, this utility received 5 out of 5 stars, which is a "bold" plus of the program.

http://www.softportal.com/get-4740-hddscan.html

A few words about the interface HDD Scan software.

After we unpack the archive with the program and run the HDDScan.exe application, the utility will automatically determine which model our hard drive has, serial number, LBA (number of available physical sectors) and Firmware (firmware version):

In the drop-down menu located in the Select Drive section, select the hard drive with which the program will work.

This program has only two buttons: this is the S.M.A.R.T. In short and clear, SMART is a technology for assessing the health of a hard drive, as well as a mechanism for predicting the likelihood of a hard drive failure:

So, when I pressed this button, the utility produced the following:

Let's describe the columns of this table:

  1. Num is the number of the attribute.
  2. Atribute name - the name of the attribute.
  3. Value - the value of the attribute. This value ranges from 1 to 255. The higher the value of the attribute, the better.
  4. Worst - shows the worst attribute value (lowest), for the entire lifetime of the hard drive.
  5. RAW (hex) is a hexadecimal number system (the exception is temperature, since the program indicates it in degrees Celsius).
  6. Threshold - threshold or acceptable value of the attribute. Used to compare against the Value attribute.

Now let's move on to the color scheme, which means green and others:

  • Green - the attribute is in a normal state.
  • Yellow (or, as in my picture - an exclamation mark) - the attribute is abnormal.
  • Red color - the attribute is strongly deviated from the normal state.

As you can see, I have 199 attribute deviated from the norm. But what does the attribute name mean: UltraDMA CRC Errors?

On the data recovery site, I found the following information: UltraDMA CRC Errors is an error in transferring information in a mode such as UDMA.

As it turned out, such a malfunction can be corrected. It's just that I might have an ugly twisted interface cable, as shown in the figure below:

There is another button in the program that will help us carry out a complete test of the hard drive:

For example, you can find out the temperature of the hard drive by simply clicking on the Temperature Monitor. Then an entry will appear in the Test Manager tab, clicking on which will display a widget with the temperature of the hard disk. We can even change the intensity of the color gamut by adding or diluting transparency:

At any time, any of the tasks can be stopped or deleted. To do this, we right-click on the desired task and select the required item:

And now you can get down to business more serious. Let's check the surface of the disc.

These test parameters are located in the Surface Tests section.

Start LBA, as well as End LBA, are the sectors from which the check starts and stops the check. If you want to check the entire hard drive, this parameter does not need to be changed.

Command - a choice like checking a hard drive (Verify - verification, Read - reading sectors, and Erase - this is writing to all sectors of zeros). Choosing a parameter such as Erase results in the complete loss of all recorded data on the disc! So be very careful!

Start and Stop - start and stop the check.

Block size - the number of sectors in one block. At the very beginning - 256 sectors (it is not recommended to change the value).

During disk check, the past time (Process time), the current sector, named Current LBA, and the read speed (Kbytes / s) are always indicated.

If we go to Map, we will find the map of our disk. The most important thing is the block colors. The blue square shows bad sectors. Also on the right side we will find the number of sectors with access times from 500 to 5 milliseconds. The fewer braking squares are found, the better.

By the way, if we disable the Disable map dynamic update checkbox, then the sector check will be available to us in real time:

To summarize, we can say that HDD Scan is a very powerful and at the same time simple program for checking a hard drive.

2. Ashampoo HDD Control 2

This is an excellent utility that, in a simpler user interface, will tell you all the details of the hard drive. The only significant drawback is that the program is paid.

Main advantages Ashampoo HDD Control 2 software:

  1. Continuous monitoring of the hard disk (or disks);
  2. The user interface has been expanded. Tips and information about the health, performance and temperature of the hard drive;
  3. Support for external USB and solid-state drives (SSD) has been significantly expanded;
  4. Supports SMART;
  5. Adjusts the noise level and power consumption of the hard drive (however, if this function is supported on the hard drive);
  6. Recovering deleted data;
  7. Fully automated for hard disk defragmentation;
  8. Online search for the results obtained as a result of testing your hard drive model.

You can download the program here: http://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/dld/0165/Ashampoo-HDD-Control-2/

3. Crystal DiskInfo

Another program to check the hard drive. The program interface is more user-friendly compared to HDD Scan, but there are no advanced settings and additional testing tools. It is perfect for casual users. Since it will tell you about the state of the hard drive in blue and white. This will happen immediately after installing and launching the program.

You can download the program here: http://www.softportal.com/get-6420-crystaldiskinfo.html

As you can see, the choice of software for servicing hard drives is very rich. Here I only looked at the ones that I counted the best programs for checking hard drive today. Read, test and choose the best one.