Hard drive diagnostics. Recovering Seagate HDD using programs

SeaTools Bootable is convenient universal remedy for quick diagnostics of drives. It provides several tests to check the condition of physical media from Seagate, LaCie, Maxtor, Samsung and hard drives produced by other companies.

Creating bootable media

Allowable flash drive capacity: from 256 MB to 32 GB.
The drive must be formatted with the FAT32 file system.
To create bootable media you need USB flash drive and the Seaboot USB tool, which can be downloaded from our website.

Using bootable media

Boot your computer from the bootable media you created earlier. If the computer does not boot from the media, change the order in the BIOS boot devices according to the computer manufacturer's instructions.

Select SeaTools Bootable Diagnostics

Note. The bootable media will contain two applications at once: SeaTools Bootable and SeaChest.

Select desired language and click OK

When will it open license agreement With end user, press the I Accept button

A list of all recognized drives appears, indicating identification number model, serial number and firmware version. At the top you will see seven menu options: File, Basic Tests ( Basic diagnostics), Rescan ( Rescan), Advanced Features(Advanced Features), Language, Help, and Exit.

File Menu

About(About the application) - contains the version number of the application.
View Log(View Log) - Opens the diagnostic log showing the serial number of the scanned drive and scan status: completed, failed, or aborted.

Basic Tests Menu

Note. If you are using the application on a laptop, connect it to a power outlet.

S.M.A.R.T Check(S.M.A.R.T check) - checks the S.M.A.R.T system data.
Short Drive Self Test(Quick self-test) - launches diagnostic tools built into the drive firmware.
Short Generic Test(Fast standard diagnostics) - checks different areas drive.
Long Generic(Full standard diagnostics) - checks all sectors of the drive.
Fix All(Error correction) - provides two options: Fix All Fast (Quick error correction) and Fix All Long (Full bug fixes). This feature repairs all bad sectors. Before running the error correction, be sure to back up your data on the drive.
- Fast(Quick Error Correction) - analyzes the drive activity log and, based on the results, identifies bad sectors. If one sector is successfully reassigned, it moves on to the next; otherwise it reports failure.
- Long(Full Error Correction) - completely scans the drive and reassigns all bad sectors. This may take several hours.

Advanced Features Menu

When you select this menu item, a warning appears indicating that some functions may result in data loss. To activate advanced diagnostics, press F8.

Spin Down(Rotation Slowdown) - This function is useful if there is suspicious noise in the system. It slows down the rotation of the disk to make it easier to understand where exactly these noises are coming from.
Set Max LBA(Set maximum logical block address) - allows you to set or remove restrictions on the use of disk space.
Erase(Erase) - fills the entire disk with zeros.
Erase Write Same(Erase and fill the disk with the same type of data) - more fast version Erase functions. Particularly time-saving when cleaning USB drives.
Erase Sanitize(Erase with Data Clear) - Processing each terabyte takes about 3 hours. To further use the drive, the operation must be completed completely.
Erase PSID(Erase PSID) - deletes the drive encryption key (the operation takes a few seconds).
- Note. Some data erase options are not available on all drive models.

The Erase menu contains four options.

Overwrite Full(Overwrite completely) - fills the entire disk with zeros. This operation erases all data on the drive and allows you to recover bad sectors.
Erase Track ZERO(Erase Zero Track) - quickly deletes data and partitions, filling the disk with zeros. The operation is completed in one second.
Range(Range) - allows you to specify the starting and ending addresses of the logical blocks that need to be erased.
Time(Time) - available options: 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes. This feature is convenient when it doesn't fit quick filling zeros (for example, in the case of bootloaders).

Language

Allows you to change the interface language of the SeaTools Bootable application.

Help

Opens the built-in help.

Logs

To save log files, use SeaTools on USB drive.
Then the diagnostic results will be automatically saved in a log file with a name corresponding to serial number drive. When using apps, log contents are also displayed in real time in tabs in the lower right pane.
You can also exit the SeaTools Bootable application to view the logs by clicking the "x" icon in the top left corner of the screen. This will open a terminal screen with the names of the logs saved on the USB drive. To view logs on Linux, use the command "more [drive_serial_number].log". To close the log you were viewing and return to command line, press the q key. To restart the SeaTools Bootable application, enter the command “sudo ST4L --exitPowerOff” (remember that Linux commands are case sensitive).

Most old hard drives contain erroneous records, etc. . Some of them lead to sad consequences; when will this happen to you hard drive- It's a question of time.

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

So what to check HDD for mistakes? Here is a list of recommended programs:

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

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

HDD Regenerator program interface

HDD Regenerator is a program for checking your hard drive and fixing errors. Can also be used as a full-fledged tool for . If the information is not readable, regeneration will allow you to bypass bad blocks and read problematic files.

In order to determine the condition of the HDD, you must pass a special test. Additional information allow you to extract . HDD Regenerator has the corresponding tools.

Other features of the program:

File files are supported FAT systems and NTFS, however, when testing the system type does not matter
Displaying detailed statistics about the operation and status of the hard drive
Creating a bootable regenerating flash drive or CD/DVD based on HDD Regenerator
Prescan mode: quick diagnostics hard drive (surface scanning)
HDD monitoring in real time
Data security: the program works in read mode (with the exception of overwriting bad sectors)

The cost of the PRO version of HDD Regenerator is $79.99/year. There is a free trial version available that allows you to restore 1 bad sector for free.

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

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test is a program for diagnosing a hard drive and finding 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. It should be noted that HDD testing may take up to 4 hours. To save time, you can choose one of three testing modes.

Seagate Seatools can also be used to “treat” your hard drive. That is, the program is able to detect bad blocks and try to restore or overwrite them with zeros (this method allows you to subsequently ignore problem blocks when reading/writing the disk structure).

HDD Health program: checking the disk and reading SMART attributes

HDD Health is another one free program to test the hard drive and monitor 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 temperature HDD (SSD) (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 different kinds 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 hard disk for errors that are not detected standard utilities Windows: bad blocks and bad sectors
Hard testing Disk (Read/Clear)
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 installing third-party programs. operating room Windows system allows you to do this through utility program Check Disk.

The CHKDSK utility appeared in DOS. It not only searches for, but also corrects basic file system errors. It should be clarified that it is not intended to search for all types of errors and is not a HDD diagnostic tool.

However, with using CHKDSK you can correct errors on various devices storage: not only on the hard drive, but also on a flash drive and SD card. Starting with Windows NT, it fixes bad blocks (physically bad sectors) by marking them accordingly. Subsequently, these areas are bypassed by other programs when reading/writing.

HDDLife - a program for monitoring the status of your hard drive

Usually the heart of a computer is called the processor or motherboard. But they serve faithfully for several years, and then the hard drive suddenly fails. In terms of loss, no component can compare with it.

The hard drive is computer memory, which, of course, needs to be protected. To prevent sudden data loss, you should regularly perform backups data to another HDD or storage media. However, if you want to prevent hard drive failure in advance, you need to determine its current state. 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 amount 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 risk it and promptly replace the component. In the pro version of HDDLife, you can configure pre-failure notification state of rigid disks by email. 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 heat, 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, the indicator available space. If there is not enough space on the partitions, the now familiar warning is displayed. Free space monitoring is available 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.

If external hard If the Seagate drive is no longer detected when connected to a computer, then the first thing you need to do is eliminate interface errors. Try connecting the removable HDD (hard drive) to another computer or replace the cable - sometimes this helps resolve the problem.

Checking the functionality of the controller

If you have desktop computer, try connecting an external hard drive directly to motherboard using the SATA interface. To do this, you will have to remove the HDD from the old container. If this is how the hard drive is detected, you need to replace the controller. Buy new box and install the hard drive from the old container into it. If the drive does not work even when connected via SATA, then you should look at its software component - the cause of the failure lies there.

Checking disk health

Connect the HDD to your computer and check if it is detected by the system. The following error messages may occur:

No access.
Reading is impossible.
Format the media.

There is no need to format the HDD - information deleted after deep formatting is difficult to return, and the error will not be corrected. Another sign that the hard drive is not in order - incorrect display volume. To see what state the HDD is in, let’s go a little further into the depths of the system:

Right-click on the “Computer” icon and select the “Management” section.
Open the Disk Management tab. Locate the connected external hard drive.

The HDD displays the correct capacity, but the file system is defined as RAW. This is the reason why the hard drive does not open. To get rid of RAW, you need to format the disk in a different file system. However, we don't want to lose important data, so before fixing the failure, we need to remove all useful information from the disk.

File recovery

Let's try to get it out of damaged disk all files using . You need to download it (the demo version is free) and install it on your computer. This utility can recover data even after a quick header format, so it should be able to retrieve files from a damaged disk without any problems. The program is universal: R-Studio makes no difference which disk to restore – Seagate Barracuda, A-Data or any other HDD.

Launch the program and select the connected HDD from which you want to recover information. Click the "Scan" button. Check Search for known file types and click Scan.
Once the scan is complete, select the files you want to recover (they will be in the Recognized folder) and save them to another drive.

If R-Studio did not help you return necessary files, try other recovery programs - Recuva, etc. All these utilities can work with damaged file system and can get useful information from the RAW disk.

Seagate File recovery

For tough Seagate drives has its own file recovery program called Seagate File Recovery. It can work with all series of Seagate drives (Barracuda, NAS, etc.) and hard drives from other manufacturers. You can download the utility on the official Seagate website.

After starting the program, a number of warnings appear on the screen. You can skip them - they contain information that you cannot restore files to the drive you are scanning. The process of extracting information from damaged media extremely simple:

To save the file to another location, right-click on it and select “Recover”. Specify the save location. You can select several files or entire folders at once to quickly transfer information from damaged media.

How to return the disk to working condition

The information has been saved, but it is also advisable to return the hard drive to operational state. This can be done using the SeaTools utility, which is designed specifically for restoring Seagate drives. You can download the program on the company's official website.

If the disk fails the test, try restoring it using additional tests:

Select the damaged HDD.
Open the “Basic tests” section and select “Additional tests”.
In response to the warning that appears, press F8. On top panel The “Additional tests” button will appear. Click on it and select “Full erase (SATA)”.
A warning will appear indicating that the files will be completely erased. To launch it, press F8 again.

Since all the information was previously extracted from the hard drive, you can safely format it if this corrects the errors. After erasing, run a long test to check that the HDD is now detected correctly.

Fixing bad sectors

If the SeaTools tests were unable to resolve the malfunction of the Seagate Barracuda or other hard drive, then check the disk surface using programs such as HDDScan or Victoria HDD. These utilities can be downloaded for free, so no financial investment is required. Let's see how the restoration is carried out Seagate hard drives, using the Victoria HDD program as an example:

More detailed information You can view information about the surface on the left side of the main window. Special attention deserves the line “Reallocated sector count”, displaying the number of bad sectors, information from which was transferred to reserve place. The reference value is 0.

If there are too many bad sectors, the disk will not work.

For more deep check go to the "Test" tab. A check run here will take a long time, but will give a more detailed report on the condition of the disk surface. Select the “Ignore” mode and put marks next to all blocks (you can only mark orange, red and blue). Click "Start" to start testing.

During the test, you need to monitor the number of red and blue blocks found - these are bad blocks, due to which the hard drive does not work correctly. To remove them, after completing the first test, you need to run the second one, changing the mode from “Ignore” to “Remap”.

After remapping bad sectors will be overwritten. You will lose information stored on your hard drive, but you may be able to extend its lifespan for a short time. However, using such a hard drive on permanent basis not recommended - if bad sectors there was a lot, then the hard drive will soon have to be thrown away.

Hard disks Seagate, like any other company, is not immune to trouble. As a result of errors, malfunctions or viruses, the information on them may be at risk.

What should I do if the necessary files become inaccessible? They can be returned using special programs, some of which we will consider in this article.

Photo: Seagate hard drives

Problems with HDD

Hard drive failures can occur for several reasons. They can be divided into two groups - mechanical and logical. Whenever mechanical problems most optimal solution will contact a service center, because they can be quite serious.

Signs of such problems are:

instability of the hard drive;
increasing its loading time;
the appearance of grinding, knocking and clicking noises during operation.

Logical (software) failures also lead to a variety of errors, including loss of information stored on the disk. Let's look at two of the most common problems.

Formatting HDD

Formatting can be either accidental, caused by negligence by the user, or resulting from a system failure. This leads to the loss of all files stored on the hard drive. In this case, do not despair - the data can still be restored. The main thing is to isolate the hard drive and not save new data to it, as this can lead to the complete loss of previously recorded files.

Boot block failure

As a result of this failure, the installed operating system stops starting, which makes the information stored on the hard drive inaccessible. It arises as a result critical errors OS that can be caused by the action malware. IN in this case data can also be recovered.

SeaTools is a specialized program

To test and restore Seagate HDDs, a software package called SeaTools was created. This is a universal tool for scanning a disk for various types of errors and subsequent data recovery.

Composition of the utility

SeaTools is a package of programs, each of which can be downloaded separately.

It includes:

HDD diagnostic tools for Windows, allowing you to check disks with SATA interfaces, USB, ATA and SCSI;
HDD diagnostic tools for DOS, which will help you check SATA hard drives and ATA using a boot disk;
Seagate File Recovery is a data recovery utility.

Note! Seagate File Recovery was developed primarily as a tool for working with Seagate drives, but this does not mean that the program only supports this brand of hard drive. It works not only with hard drives from other manufacturers, but also different types media – flash drives, memory cards, external HDDs.

Video: seagate restoration

Program installation

Let's look at the extremely simple process of installing the utility on a PC:

download installation file for Windows (you can do this on the official website);
save it to the folder selected on your computer;
after the download is complete, double-click on the file to start the installation;
follows the installer's instructions - select the directory where the program will be saved, confirm the choice;
We are waiting for the process to finish.

Disk check

After installing the program, launch SeaTools. The utility will detect connected hard drives and offer to perform various tests.

After scanning, if there are errors, you can perform automatic recovery damaged sectors, and also get detailed information about each of them.

All of these features are available from the Basic Tests menu. If you have questions about working with the program, you can use the built-in help in Russian.

Recovering information using Seagate File Recovery

So, let's start restoring files:
launch the utility; go to the list certain devices
(hard drives, flash drives, etc.); press right key mouse on the media of interest and select;
"Scan" in the window that appears, click again"Scan"

and wait for the process of searching for deleted or damaged files to complete; Important! This search process may take long time

, depending on the amount of information being scanned. During this time, do not close the program or turn off the power.

Attention! Recoverable files cannot be saved to the original device. For them, you need to allocate space on another hard drive or flash drive.

Other Seagate HDD recovery tools

In addition to SeaTools, there are many other universal programs that serve this purpose. Let's look at some of them.

Recuva Recuva – powerful and simple utility

from the creators of such a popular product as CCleaner.

Let's start working with it:

R-Studio Another one popular program

for operations with damaged files.

Working with it looks like this:

Important! The scanning and recovery process may take a long time.

A utility similar to the previous ones, with a wide range of tools. With its help, you can find damaged partitions that are not detected automatically, scan, restore and save the necessary data.

If your choice falls on it, then:

Despite its name, PhotoRec 7 is used to recover not only photos, but any data in general. It works with both hard drives and other media.

Let's start working with it:

In general, the return of information lost for one reason or another to hard drives Seagate is no different from working with hard drives from other manufacturers. For this you can use it as a specialized package SeaTools utilities, and others universal programs. The process itself is not particularly complicated and is quite doable for the average user. We hope our instructions helped you with this.

Hello, friends! In this article we will understand the topic - Hard Drive Diagnostics. The reason for writing this article was a message from relatives - our operating system has been installed for a maximum of two months, after which glitches begin and we have to reinstall it. Even after I installed Windows 7 for them, complaints began. I had no doubt about the operating system. It was already installed on more than 10 computers. I tested the RAM, replaced the thermal paste on the processor, cleaned the system of dust - nothing. Then I tested the entire system using the system stability test (functions of the AIDA64 program). Everything is okay.

After repeated successful testing, enlightenment came. Checking the hard drive completely slipped my mind. Spent HDD diagnostics third party first HDD program Regenerator. Having discovered errors (8 unreadable sectors), I ran the check again using a program from the manufacturer Western Digital. The latter confirmed the malfunction and the hard drive was sent to a service center under warranty. Read on to learn how to diagnose your hard drive...

Diagnostics by means operating system This is what can and should be used first. To do this, open the main Start menu and select Computer. Right-click on the partition and call context menu and select the item Properties

Disk Properties opens. Go to the tab Service and in the section Checking for errors press the button Check

This will be Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows.

The WinDlg_v1_28.zip archive will be downloaded, which can be opened using the 7-zip or WinRar program in the same way as a file with the rar extension. Unpack and run the Setup.exe file.

When finished, click Ready

Launch the SeaTools program again

Searches for supported drives. Need to wait a little

Then, accept the license agreement again

To diagnose a hard drive, the Short and Long universal tests are sufficient

To be safe, choose Long lasting universal and wait for it to finish. If the test does not pass, follow the instructions and if the program does not fix the disk, bring it under warranty.

In the Basic tests menu there is an item called Repair all. I have not tried this function. I’ll try as soon as I get a suitable hard drive.

Restoring the Seagate HDD

10_21_2013 A few months ago, bring a 160 GB Seagate hard drive without warranty. A long-term universal test produced an error. When connecting to another computer, I was able to copy all the important information from this disk without any problems.

To restore functionality we used Additional tests

A warning window opened saying that you can activate Additional tests using the key F8

By clicking on F8, the window closed and the Additional tests section appeared. Since our data was saved, I chose Full erase (SATA)

Another warning popped up

Scrolling the screen in this message with the slider, it was discovered that to start a complete erase, you need to press F8. After pressing, erasing started.

When the process was completed, I ran the Long-Term Universal Test again. The test was passed. After that we reinstalled the image working system using Norton Ghost. And until this moment no one complained.

Conclusion

In the article hard drive diagnostics you learned how to check your hard drive (HDD) for errors. Here we looked at two methods: built-in checking using Windows and check special utilities from manufacturers. In a combat situation I like to use it diagnostic utilities. Since this, for me, is 100% an option. If the disk passes the test, everything is fine. Otherwise, we will take it for repair under warranty. This is why in the article on choosing a hard drive I attach such importance to the warranty. It is necessary that she be 3 years old. This is a whole 3 years without a headache. Naturally all necessary guarantee period it is good to handle the hard drive, because service center They look closely at the scratches.

The main thing I want to convey to you is. Hard drives are consumables. Like printer cartridges. You need to have at least two copies of your important data on two different drives. For example, on an internal and external hard drive. One fails, buy a new one, restore the data from the backup one and you are happy again. In order not to buy often, look at the same guarantee. I wish it was longer. Another great option is to use Windows 7 archiving.

I have not encountered any problems with Samsung hard drives. I couldn't find any utilities specifically for these disks. If anyone has information, please share in the comments. For now I will check them with a utility from Seagate or WD.