Menu
homeFiles and folders

Which utility should I use to check my hard drive? Recovering bad sectors. More complex software

Hello friends. Checking the hard drive or how to check a hard drive for errors and bad sectors, we will talk about this in detail today.

In the previous article I showed. Today you will learn about programs for testing hard drives and other storage media. At the end of the review I posted a short video tutorial.

Checking our disk

It is useful for anyone who has a computer to know about the status of the hard drive or drives, if there are several of them. After all, the hard drive stores information that is important for some, and not so important for others. So, in order not to lose it, I recommend making backup copies at least once a month.

You can purchase a portable disk or flash drive to store important information, or you can use regular CDs and DVDs. If you don’t know how to save information on optical plastic discs, then I recommend reading.

You can test computer disks in different ways and with special programs. In this article we will look at:

  • Checking the disk using Windows 7
  • Useful Victoria v4.3
  • HDDScan program
  • Ashampoo HDD Control 2

There are, of course, many other useful and worthy programs and utilities, but in this publication we will only talk about these 4 methods.

How to check your hard drive using Windows 7

Any hard drive or flash drive can be checked for functionality using Windows tools. I wrote more about this here. Here is a simple algorithm for the necessary actions.

Go to My Computer, select the desired hard drive or flash drive, right-click on it and go to Properties.

Check the boxes you need or all and click Start.

This procedure can take a long time, everything will depend on the size of the storage medium that you want to check for errors and bad sectors.

Checking the disk with Victoria program

Victoria one of the main programs that I personally use to check the hard drive through Windows, or if the operating system does not start at all, then through a boot disk with this utility.

After downloading Victoria version 4.3, you need to go into the archive, unpack it or run the file with a green cross called Victoria43.

Let's launch the program, it's in English, if you don't know this language, don't be alarmed, I'll help you figure it out.

The Standard window describes the main characteristics of the storage medium: its model, serial number, disk size, how many cylinders, sectors it has, and so on.

In the Smart tab you can see the status of the hard drive. Click on the Get Smart button and look at the indicators that appear. Since my hard drive is new, my indicators are normal, SMART status = Good. You may have different meaning and information.

Smart is a technology of analysis, self-control and reporting. Using it, you can view and evaluate the condition of the hard drive, its built-in self-diagnostic equipment, and also predict the possible time of its failure.

To test the storage media, go to the Test tab and click on the Start button. If you have a lot of green, orange, red and blue rectangles (sectors), this is not good. Ideally, all sectors should be light gray and grey.

If you have damaged sectors marked “Err X”, then after completing the test, check the box next to the word Remap and run the test again. The Victoria program will try to restore these sectors and fix errors on the hard drive.

Checking the hard drive may take a long time, so be patient, it all depends on the amount of information on the media. In the meantime, testing is underway, I recommend reading the article on how to set up your computer yourself or.

Checking the hard drive using HDDScan

HDDScan is a program for diagnosing and testing hard drives in English.

After downloading, you need to run the file called HDDScan.

Select the desired Select Drive device; on the right there will be basic information about it.

Click on the blue round button and select the desired action. Go to Surfase Test - select and run the test.

Check the boxes next to Verify or Read and click the Add Test button. I do not recommend choosing Erase - it erases data.

Once you click add a test, it will start automatically and will appear in the lower Test Manager window.

Double-click on RD-Read, go to the test that has started and look at its process, you can see it on the Graph.

View on Map. At the top there are navigation buttons for controlling the Pause, Stop and Report test process, cluster and testing speed in KB/s, and on the right is the sector scanning time in numbers from< 5 до >500 milliseconds.

In the third column of Report you can see the scanned clusters and sectors of the storage medium, and at the very bottom the progress of the test process is shown as a percentage.

Upon completion of the test, a corresponding message will appear in the task manager window.

If for some reason you did not like the first three methods, then I suggest for your reference a powerful and useful utility for diagnosing hard drives and storage media from Ashampoo.

Cool program Ashampoo HDD Control 2

I have already worked with this utility for diagnosing and monitoring hard drives from Ashampoo. I really liked this program, so I decided to mention it in this article.

After you download and install Ashampoo HDD Control 2. Depending on the language package, the program can be in either Russian or English.

It has a simple and accessible interface that anyone can understand.

Here you can see probably almost all the information about a hard drive or flash drive that you want: model, partitions, size, condition, performance, temperature and much other useful information.

This program has extensive capabilities and many settings; at the top there are seven navigation tabs:

  1. Control
  2. Defragmentation
  3. Testing
  4. Disk Cleanup
  5. Removing Internet Traces
  6. Deleted files
  7. Content Analysis

You can browse through all seven tabs and explore useful information.

We are interested in checking the hard drive, go to the Testing tab, click Scan hard drives, select the one you need and click on the magnifying glass that says Start. This test can measure the speed of your hard drive.

In order to check the surface of the disk, you need to return to the Control tab and click Surface Test.

After this, the Hard Disk Surface Testing window will appear, in which there are symbols: blue square - not yet tested, green - excellent, red (already bad) - at least one bad sector.

The scanning time will again depend on the capacity and speed of the hard drive or flash drive.

In custody

Today we discussed in detail the topic of checking a hard drive or how to check a hard drive for errors and bad sectors. To do this, we used four methods: standard Windows tools, useful Victoria, the HDDScan utility and the cool Ashampoo HDD Control 2 program.

Now let's watch a short video tutorial on how to check your hard drive.

Checking the hard drive | website

You may have questions related to checking your hard drive. You can ask them below in the comments to this article, and also use the form with me.

Thank you for reading me on

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:

  1. in Windows XP/Vista/7 - select “Manage” in the context menu of “My Computer”, then go to the desired menu;
  2. 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 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 obtain 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:

  1. short self-test of HDD;
  2. short rapid test;
  3. 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:

  1. deep disk formatting - the program writes zeros to all sectors, irreversibly destroying information;
  2. 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.

– 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 copying 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 the Victoria 4.46 program 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.

A computer's hard drive works hard every day, processing huge amounts of data, constantly writing and erasing it. Over several years of service, the condition of the drives may leave much to be desired: bad sectors are likely to appear, overheating, and frequent errors. To protect your data from sudden problems, as well as check the state of “health”, there are a number of useful programs for assessing the performance of the HDD.


Most special software can work with data from the S.M.A.R.T self-diagnosis system. Some programs make this easier, some cause difficulties for beginners, but are invaluable for specialists.

A small program to check the status of the hard drive. Despite its modest size, the functionality of this product is impressive. In addition to displaying temperature and health, you can get comprehensive information about your hard drive and all the available functions of the device. In addition, you can set up various types of important alerts.

It’s a pity that HDD Health doesn’t support the Russian language, and on x64 systems there may be glitches in the interface.

Victoria

A veteran in his field, an excellent program for diagnosing a drive. Unlike its analogues, it can perform a very detailed reading test, without missing a single sector. As a result of scanning, you can get not only S.M.A.R.T. data, but also a graph of the disk state by area, as well as statistics on the speed of individual sectors. So this is an ideal program for checking the speed of your hard drive.

The long release date makes itself felt, frightening the unprepared user with sudden errors and an archaic interface.

HDDlife Pro

The most convenient program for checking HDD, with a hint of professionalism. Conducts both general analysis of drives and monitoring during operation, notifying about problems in a whole range of ways.
Most will appreciate the support for the Russian language and the clarity of data display. This program will do everything quickly, efficiently, and most importantly – independently.

HDDlife Pro is not pleasing except for its accessibility - it is only available for free use for 14 days, and then you will have to pay for constant monitoring.

It's not difficult to thoroughly check your hard drive. The developers have prepared for us many tools that allow us to save our data in a timely manner and predict failures in the operation of the drive. Which program did you prefer?

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

A slightly damaged disk, in general, will not lose its functionality, but over time, if there are more faults, it may lose its functionality.

And it’s also important that the surface of the disk can be susceptible to various defects - some area can no longer be read, and as a result, all the accumulated information can disappear in an instant. If this is the case, it is necessary to act and take measures.

Program for checking your hard drive - HDD Scan

HDD Scan is a very convenient tool that allows you to test your hard drive and also make a statistical report on the work done.

Since the application does not require installation, the Windows registry keys remain untouched. You can also place HDD Scan on an external device and directly run it 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 for checking the disk surface: Verify, Read, Erase.

On the popular website 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 programs.

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

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

There are only two buttons in this program: this is the S.M.A.R.T. button. In short and clearly, SMART is a technology for assessing the condition of a hard drive, as well as a mechanism for predicting the likelihood of hard drive failure:

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

Let's describe the columns of this table:

  1. Num - attribute number.
  2. Attribute name — attribute name.
  3. Value—attribute value. This value ranges from 1 to 255. The higher the attribute value, the better.
  4. Worst - shows the worst attribute value (low) for the entire existence 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. Treshold—threshold or acceptable value of the attribute. Used to compare with the Value attribute.

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

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

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

On a data recovery website, I found the following information: UltraDMA CRC Errors are an error in transmitting information in a mode such as UDMA.

As it turns out, this problem can be fixed. It’s just that my interface cable may be twisted unsightly, as shown in the picture below:

The program has one more button that will help us carry out a complete test of the hard drive:

For example, you can find out the temperature of your hard drive by simply clicking on 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 drive. We can even change the intensity of the color scheme by adding or diluting it with 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:

Now you can get down to more serious things. Let's check the surface of the disk.

These test options are found in the Surface Tests section.

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

Command - a choice similar to checking the hard drive (Verify - verification, Read - reading sectors, and Erase - writing zeros to all sectors). Selecting an option such as Erase results in the complete loss of all recorded data on the disk! So be very careful!

Start and Stop - start and stop the scan.

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

When checking a disk, the past time (Process time), the current sector, called Current LBA, and the read speed (Kbytes/s) are always indicated.

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

By the way, if we turn off the Disable map dynamic update checkbox, then checking the sectors 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 your hard drive.

2. Ashampoo HDD Control 2

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

Main advantages Ashampoo HDD Control 2 programs:

  1. Constant monitoring of the hard drive (or drives);
  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 manages the energy consumption of the hard drive (however, if this function is supported on the hard drive);
  6. Recovering deleted data;
  7. Fully automated hard drive defragmentation;
  8. Online search for 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 for checking your hard drive. The program's interface is more user-friendly than HDD Scan, but there are no advanced settings or additional testing tools. It is perfect for ordinary users. Because blue and white will tell you about the condition of the hard drive. 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 have considered only those that I counted the best programs to check your hard drive to date. Read, test and choose the best one.