How to check the health and resource of your hard drive. How to test a new hard drive after purchase

If the HDD makes strange sounds or there are problems with writing and reading information, you should use one of the programs to check the hard drive for errors. Depending on the task (checking the disk surface for damage, searching for bad sectors, correcting errors, etc.), different software may be useful.

You can quickly check the disk for errors using standard system tools, but to restore the hard drive you will need special third-party programs. Having learned how to check the health of a hard drive using various utilities, a user of any level will be able to cope with any problems that may arise.

CheckDisk System Service is the simplest hard drive diagnostic program that can't find complex errors or fix bad sectors, but is useful for fixing basic problems. It is available on all versions of Windows OS and can be used to check drives of any type. All users need to know how to check a hard drive for errors with this tool.

The graphical interface version of the utility is most convenient for novice users. You can launch it through the disk management menu, which can be accessed in two ways:

in Windows XP/Vista/7 - select “Manage” in the context menu of “My Computer”, then go to the desired menu;
in Windows 8/10 - press the Win+X combination and select the appropriate item.

In the window that opens, select the device that needs analysis, right-click on it and select “Properties” from the drop-down menu. By going to the “Service” tab, you need to run the hard drive diagnostic program.

The system will check and automatically correct errors if the disk is not currently busy with read or write processes. Otherwise, the program will offer to test after rebooting the PC. If necessary, in the scan results window you can see detailed information about the status of the HDD.

The GUI version does not always help, since checking the status of the hard drive is sometimes required from safe mode or without starting the operating system at all. In such cases, the console comes to the rescue; you can launch it before the system starts using a boot disk.

Once you open the recovery console, you need to run the chkdsk /f command, which will check all connected drives. In some cases, this will help fix the error. However, in most situations, if a HDD failure has made it impossible to start the system, a more in-depth check of the hard drive’s condition will be required.

To use the console command from inside the system you need to:

launch the command line (via Win+X or by entering cmd in the “Run” window);
enter the chkdsk command indicating the letter of the partition being checked and additional flags;
Confirm the operation by pressing Y.

Checking the HDD via the command line will be a little faster than when using the GUI version of the program; the results will be shown here in the console.

The Linux system also has standard tools - hdparm and smartctl, launched from the console.

Simple programs for quickly checking HDD

If standard utilities are not suitable, hard drive diagnostics can be carried out using simple third-party programs. They allow you to get more information about the health status of the HDD, but in case of serious problems they will not be suitable, since they cannot be used to fix the damage.

HDDScan is a free program that performs analysis in two modes:

according to S.M.A.R.T. indicators;
linear processing.

The tool evaluates the read and write speed of various sectors, marking the “slow” cells. During the analysis, the program ensures that the tested hard drives do not overheat; at the end of processing, the user is presented with a full report.

HDDScan good versatility. The utility allows you to check disks for errors regardless of the type of device: it can either check an external hard drive or analyze a RAID array, SSD drive or memory card.

Crystal Disk Mark has only one function - it evaluates the read and write speed. Despite this, it is often used, since it is still possible to check the hard drive for serviceability using just two indicators.

The test uses different algorithms, one of which is sequential recording mode. The program gradually fills all the space on the drive with blocks of a size specified by the user, after which it cleans the HDD. The same technique is used by hard drive manufacturers to check product quality. Its disadvantage is that it accelerates the wear of SSD drives.

CrystalDiskInfo And DiskCheckup They are similar in their set of functions, differing only in the interface. They check the status of the hard drive using S.M.A.R.T. algorithms and compile a history of checks, which allows you to track the dynamics of changes. CrystalDiskInfo has more options for visualizing history. For example, you can create a graph, not just get a written report.

Another feature of these programs is a convenient notification system. In-depth hard drive tests usually take a long time. If the user needs to step away from the computer, he can enable notifications of critical HDD errors via E-Mail.

Programs from hard drive manufacturers

Some HDD manufacturers have developed their own utilities for analyzing the status of the hard drive. They are intended for use with devices of the same name; diagnosing a hard drive from another company is possible with their help, but this must be done carefully. Unlike simpler programs, these utilities have versions in different languages, including Russian. Which program is better to analyze the HDD status?

The proprietary program from Seagate exists in two versions: a standard version for running under Windows and a DOS version in ISO image format, from which you can make a bootable USB flash drive. It is recommended to use the second option, since the check in this case will be more accurate and efficient.

SeaTools uses part of the S.M.A.R.T indicators. to test the hard drive without giving away details about each item. Three tests can be performed:

short self-test of HDD;
short rapid test;
a long-term check in which all sectors are read sequentially.

As the scan progresses, the program automatically corrects any errors found.

Owners of hard drives from WD should know how to check the performance of hard drives using proprietary software from this manufacturer. The range of its capabilities is similar to that of the program from Seagate, but is somewhat expanded and allows for more in-depth work with the affected device.

There are two additional functions:

deep disk formatting - the program writes zeros to all sectors, permanently destroying information;
blocking access to bad sectors - the program marks bad blocks, preventing the writing of new information to them.

Unlike SeaTools, this HDD diagnostic program can be freely used with devices from any manufacturer to check the hard drive for errors - no problems were identified with this.

Deep testing software

If you need not only checking the hard drive for errors, but also correcting bad sectors, you cannot do without sophisticated software that carries out the most in-depth analysis of the HDD state.

Victoria HDD

According to many users, Victoria HDD is the best software for detecting hard drive problems. The program gained this reputation due to its wide range of functions.

Victoria exists in two versions:

with a graphical shell for use from inside Windows;
with a DOS shell to create a boot disk.

It's better to use the second version. Diagnostics of the HDD outside the system allows you to achieve better results, so it is always recommended to follow the principle “if possible, test the disk from the boot disk.” As a last resort, you can use a LiveCD of another OS, for example, a Linux distribution like Ubuntu.

Victoria HDD has a variety of functions:

quick and complete disk scan;
reassignment of bad sectors and their restoration;
checking the status of contacts in the IDE or SATA cable;
equipment performance analysis;
viewing S.M.A.R.T. indicators.

When checking, you need to pay attention to the access time to sectors. It should not exceed 200-600 ms. You can also view the temperature of the disk during operation, but this is not so important.

HDD Regenerator

HDD Regenerator is a program for professional hard drive recovery. It not only marks bad sectors as unused, but also tries to revive them. For this, not the standard deep formatting method is used, but a proprietary algorithm based on transmitting signals of different levels to the sector. Despite its professional level, inexperienced users can also use this software, since testing a hard drive with its help is not difficult thanks to its convenient Russian-language interface.

Program features:

ensuring data safety - it works only in read mode;
support for different file systems;
the ability to scan the disk surface;
real-time monitoring.

The program is not suitable for everyone, since you can check your hard drive for functionality for free, but you will have to pay $90 for the sector recovery function.

If you don't want to pay, you can use TestDisk, a free program that can restore the partition table, boot sectors and MFT. It also detects bad sectors, can recover deleted information and fix file system errors. The only drawback is the lack of a graphical interface; you have to work from the console.

If, after checking the HDD and correcting all problems, the computer does not stop working incorrectly, it is worth checking the registry. Perhaps the failures are caused not by hardware failure, but by internal system errors.

1. How to check your hard drive?
2. Utilities for checking the system hard drive
3. Other ways to check the hard drive for damage
4. Disk analysis using the command line

A computer's hard drive is the main block of its memory, the part responsible for storing, distributing and moving information. Like any physical media, a hard drive has the ability to fail and become damaged, which is critically unacceptable in cases where vital information is stored on it. Checking your hard drive for functionality is the first thing you need to know how to do when purchasing a computer. We will help you understand the intricacies of this process.

How to check your hard drive?

The first thing we need to do is copy the existing important files to another physical medium, be it a Flash card or a third-party HDD. If your SDD or HDD makes strange sounds, clicks, or simply raises doubts about its functionality, you can resort to various methods of checking it before taking it to a specialized service. There are a great many different applications for checking a disk for bad sectors, software compatibility, hardware, etc. Where to start checking?

Utilities for checking the system hard drive

Microsoft is famous for its large toolkit for working with various system components, and one of them is the standard built-in CHKDSK program for checking and repairing bad sectors. In this case, we can check the disk without installing third-party applications. If the disk file system has errors, chkdsk is our assistant in finding and eliminating them.

Main functions of the built-in utility:

Finding and fixing errors in NTFS/FAT file systems
Identification of physically damaged bad sectors
Checking third-party media (USB flash drives, SD cards, etc.) for faults

Starting a system scan is very simple: open the standard “Run” window in the “Start” menu on “Windows”, or, if you do not have basic skills in interacting with the command line, find the menu we need through “Explorer”. For this:

Find the “My Computer” section in Explorer;
Right-click on the media that requires verification
Open the section “Properties->Service”;
Click the top button “Run check”. This command only works if you have administrator rights;

We restart the computer, while checking the disk, Windows automatically searches for problems and fixes the problems found;
If there are no problems, the disk will be checked without fixing, but if there are problems, be prepared for the fact that checking the disk will take quite a long time;
The system checks third-party physical media immediately, without rebooting.

Note that the built-in Windows tool performs only a superficial check, and is far from completely accurate in detecting problems with media. To conduct a more thorough and in-depth analysis, you will need to download and install third-party utilities, the most popular of which we will consider below.

Other ways to check the hard drive for damage

Useful utility utilities for checking disk health and troubleshooting:

Seagate Seatools is an equally useful utility, which, however, does not have the versatility of the previous one, and is only compatible with Seagate hard drives; for other models, the analysis will be fragmentary or completely erroneous. Using Stools is quite simple - you select items for diagnostics, and the program performs automatic testing. If the analysis is completed successfully, PASS will be displayed, in other cases you will see the message FAIL. Issues such as:

HDD file system errors;
Problems with the Windows MBR disk bootloader;
Hardware conflict and Windows driver incompatibility;
Availability of Bad Sectors;
The presence of Trojans, viruses and other applications that disrupt the operation of the disk.

In many cases, Seagate Tools automatically fixes problems found; in rare cases, it requires user intervention. It is worth noting that you will need to be patient before checking and correcting errors. A painstaking analysis of a hard drive is not a momentary task, and the duration of the process increases in proportion to the volume of recorded memory.

Disk analysis using the command line

This is how you can verify that your hard drive is working using simple combinations. The disk should be checked when you just bought a new computer, as well as after errors in installing programs or moving a large number of files. If you rarely use your computer, it is worth turning it on sometimes to overclock the physical media - each hard drive has a certain write-overwrite resource, and the method of writing data to a large media does not provide for static storage.

Even if the hard drive is fully operational and the manufacturer is reliable, it is recommended to always save copies of the most important files on third-party media. Although it is possible to recover lost or damaged files using some programs, this method is not absolute, and even a computer service center will not always help you recover erased data from physically damaged media.

One of the most important parts of a personal computer (or laptop) for the average user is the hard drive (or hdd, hard drive). It is he who is responsible for saving all important information, files and documents on the computer. Accordingly, since information is most often stored in a single copy on a hard drive (and very few people prefer to regularly make backup copies of important data on cloud services or removable media), the issue of hdd performance and its support becomes extremely relevant. Let's look at how you can check your hard drive for functionality.

How to check whether a hard drive is working or not?

First of all, it should be noted that assessing the performance of a PC or laptop hard drive is carried out using a software method, and there are two options:

— checking with software built into the operating system;
— verification using specialized third-party programs;

As a rule, specialized third-party programs have more features and more advanced functionality, but they must first be found and installed.

Checking the performance of the hard drive using OS capabilities

So, how can you check the functionality of a laptop’s hard drive using the tools built into the OS? The following may help:

- CHKDSK utility
- SMART technology

CHKDSK (the name comes from the abbreviation of the phrase check disk - check disk) is a built-in program in Windows (and MS-DOS) and its purpose is to check and correct errors in the file system of the hard drive of a PC or laptop. To run this utility, the user must enter the appropriate command at the OS command line, after which the check will be carried out the next time the operating system boots. It should also be said that, if necessary, this utility can be launched automatically to check the computer before turning it on.
SMART (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology - or technology for self-monitoring, analytics and reporting) is a specially developed technology designed to constantly monitor the condition of the hard drive using built-in self-diagnostic tools. It is important that leading companies that specialize in hdd production (including Seagate) took part in the development of this technology.

SMART technology regularly monitors the status of the hard drive and works with two groups of characteristics:

— characteristics that reflect the gradual wear of the disk (for example, the number of on-off cycles completed, the number of spindle revolutions, etc.)
— current hdd performance characteristics

The stored data is then converted into a disk reliability value (value) relative to a certain reference level. A lower value indicates a more worn-out condition of the hard drive and a higher likelihood of an early breakdown, failure, or an increase in the number of operational errors.

Thus, SMART technology allows you to perform the following actions:

— monitor changes in the quality characteristics of the hard drive
— scan the surface of the drive
— replace questionable sectors of the hard drive with more reliable ones (if possible, transfer data from sectors in a less reliable state to more “healthy” sectors)

However, SMART technology does not allow hard drives to directly report potential problems or problems to the user; this requires the use of additional software that provides analysis and display of SMART characteristics. We will tell you later in Russian how to check your hard drive’s functionality using special programs.

Checking the health of the hard drive using special programs

Examples of programs with which you can independently check the functionality of the hard drive of a computer or laptop:

- HDDScan
—Victoria
— HDDExpert and others

What these programs have in common is that they are all, in fact, a means for displaying and analyzing data obtained using SMART technology. Thus, their functionality is largely similar, only the appearance of the data presentation and less significant details differ.
HDDScan is a special program whose purpose is to check HDDs and SSDs for the presence of bad sectors, view the attributes of SMART technology, and also work with some additional parameters of the hard drive (including power management, adjusting the acoustic mode, and so on).
This program works successfully with various types of drives, for example HDDs with different connection types (ATA/SATA, USB, SCSI, IEEE 1394 or FireWire), SSDs or even Flash drives (though in this case only in test mode). The HDDScan utility has the following functionality:

— carrying out various tests of the hard drive (for example, linear verification, linear writing, linear reading)
— work (reading, analysis) with SMART data
— additional control of the hard drive operation (changing the operating noise level, power saving mode, forced start or stop of the HDD spindle, etc.)

An additional feature of this program is the very flexible ability to adapt the appearance of the utility to a specific user by installing various skins. These skins (covers) can be downloaded on the Internet or created independently.

Victoria. This program for checking the health of the hdd is currently one of the most common. An interesting feature of the program is that it was developed by a Belarusian programmer (Kazansky S. O.). In general, the functionality of the program is standard and allows you to diagnose and analyze the operation of the hard drive, process data from SMART technology, and, in addition, also correct errors and damaged sectors of the hard drive. Additionally, using Victoria, you can measure the performance of a hard drive, plot a graph of the disk surface, hide hdd defects, view unstable disk sectors, and also perform easy formatting of the drive. Many users note the following advantages of this utility: no installation required, low volume of the program itself, and high speed. In fact, many experts call this program the best among free utilities for working with hard drives. However, it is important to note that this program is not officially updated and its development has been discontinued, but there are many builds and versions developed by fans of the utility.

HDDExpert is another fairly popular program that is used to check the performance of hard drives by processing SMART technology data and presenting them in a form more convenient for analysis. It should be noted that this program does not support the Russian language, however, this should not prevent its use, since the utility interface is quite simple. Among other things, one of the clear advantages of this program is that in addition to detecting errors, it gives recommendations for correcting them. However, it is important to clarify that some of the tips may be promotional in nature. The ease of use of the program and the limited capabilities for checking a hard drive only by analyzing SMART data make HDDExpert suitable for a primary and fairly superficial test of the drive.

In addition to the indicated programs for analyzing the hard drive of a PC or laptop and checking its performance, you can also find others, but the functionality of most of them will be approximately the same. This is based on the fact that all such utilities are primarily associated with SMART technology in their work and are designed, for the most part, to more conveniently and simply display the data of this technology.

Thus, if the question arises of how to check whether a hard drive is working or not, and you also need to check the overall performance and condition of the hard drive, just download one of the above programs. Any of these utilities can quickly diagnose the hdd and provide information about its condition, the presence/absence of bad sectors and their number, as well as give a forecast of the time during which you can use this drive relatively calmly.

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 launching 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, the disk temperature is high, 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 condition 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 program window: hard drives (including external HDDs) will be presented on the left, and their status will be displayed in the right window.

By the way, there is a rather interesting function for predicting the performance of the disk, according to 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 has a rather useful function: you can set the threshold for the critical temperature of the hard drive, upon reaching which Hard Disk Sentinel will notify you that it has been exceeded!

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 Defragmenter;

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: everything is fine with the hard drive, condition 99%, performance 100%, temperature 41 degrees. (it is desirable that the temperature be less than 40 degrees, but the program considers that everything is in order for this disk model).

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, does not have many settings, and is designed in a minimalist style. At the same time, it has quite rare functions, for example, reducing the noise level of the disk, 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 a graphical display of the “health” of the disk, also need high-quality disk tests, in which they can familiarize themselves 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...

– one of the most unreliable computer components. With active use, modern hard drives last an average of 3 years. Therefore, in order not to lose your data, it is very important to regularly check the status of the drive (and do not forget to make backup copies). In this article we will look at several ways to check your hard drive for functionality.

Checking the health of the hard drive using S.M.A.R.T.

If you want to check your hard drive for performance, then you should start with data from the S.M.A.R.T. system, which can be viewed in the CrystalDiskInfo program. This program is completely free, and you can.

The CrystalDiskInfo program receives hard drive data from the S.M.A.R.T. system and provides an assessment of its technical condition. If the hard drive is in good condition, you will see a rating of " Good condition e". If there are any problems with the device, you will receive a rating of " Anxiety ". Well, in case of serious problems, you will receive a technical condition rating of “Bad”.

If you wish, you can independently analyze the information from the “S.M.A.R.T.” system. To do this, examine the list of options that is located at the bottom of the CrystalDiskInfo window. As a cheat sheet on the parameters “S.M.A.R.T.” can be used .

Checking the performance of the hard drive under load

If "S.M.A.R.T." does not show any problems, then the hard drive needs to be checked under load. To do this, just try to copy a large number of small files (weighing 2-5 megabytes) to it. For example, you might try to save a large folder of photos to your hard drive. If it is faulty, the following symptoms should appear when copying files:

A sharp decrease in copying speed;
Intermittent copy speed;
The copying process freezes;
Computer or Windows Explorer freezes;
Unpleasant sounds (crackling, grinding, squeaking);
Disabling the drive;

If such a manual check does not reveal any obvious problems, then you can resort to more serious methods of testing the drive.

Checking your hard drive using HD Tune

The next option is to check the disk's performance using HD Tune. This program is free and you can use it. Just don’t confuse it with the paid HD Tune Pro, a link to which is on the same page.

Launch the HD Tune program on your computer and go to the “Error Scan” tab. On this tab, you need to start the test using the “Start” button and wait for it to finish.

If a large number of errors were found during the scanning process, this means that your hard drive is in poor condition. Perhaps it will fail soon.

Checking the hard drive in Victoria 3.5

For the most accurate check, you need to use the program, it can be downloaded as an iso file, for example, (here is version 3.5, it is optimal for checking the HDD outside the operating system). The resulting iso file must be written to a CD (or flash drive) and the computer booted from it. After loading from the CD, you will need to select one of the options for launching the Victoria program. If you have a desktop PC, then select “Victoria for Desktop”, for a laptop “Victoria for Notebook” is suitable, the remaining items launch DOS and the Volkov Commander program.

To run a scan of the entire HDD surface, press the F4 key. As a result, a menu will open in which you need to select “Ignore Bad Blocks” and "Linear Reading". Please note that you do not need to use the “Write (erase)”, “Write from file”, or “BB = Erase 256 sect” options, since they delete information from the drive.

In order for scanning to begin, you need to press the F4 key again. After this, you need to wait until the program finishes checking the hard drive. At the end of testing, if the HDD does not have any problems, then you will see this result.

If the drive has any problem areas, orange and red spots will appear in the scanning window. The more such spots, the worse the condition of the drive. If the number of red spots is especially large, then most likely the hard drive is inoperative and it’s time to throw it away. Detailed information about problems will be displayed in the “Defects” block on the right side of the window.

Checking the hard drive in Victoria 4.46 (for Windows)

You can also check the hard drive for functionality using the Victoria 4.46 program from the Windows operating system. In this case, you do not need to burn iso images and you do not need to boot from them. Everything is done right in the Windows environment.

You can download Victoria 4.46 for Windows OS, for example. The downloaded archive will need to be unpacked into any folder and run the program vcr446f.exe. After launch, the main Victoria program window will appear, which looks something like the screenshot below.

First, let's look at the "Standard" tab. Here on the right side of the window are all the drives that Victoria was able to identify, at the top left is information about the currently selected drive (if necessary, you can select another), and at the bottom is a record of all actions, errors and other information.

To test your hard drive, go to the “Tests” tab. Here you first need to click on the “ Passp” button (this will allow you to obtain information about the selected drive), after which you need to start the test using the “ Start” button.

During the scanning process, the program will detect faulty and problematic sectors, the number of which can be seen in the column on the right, as well as at the bottom of the screen.