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We check the performance of the hard drive for errors and troubles. How to find out the condition and health of a hard drive, how to look at SMART readings (HDD, SSD) and estimate how long the drive will last

Regardless of your operating system (Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8), go to Computer (My Computer, This Computer), right-click on the drive you want to check, select " Properties".

In the properties window, go to the " tab Service" and click the " button Run check".

Check both boxes

Automatically fix system errors.

Scan and repair system sectors.

and press " Launch".

If you check the system volume (the disk on which the operating system is installed, usually drive C), you will see the message " Windows cannot verify the hard drive that is currently in use", click " Disk check schedule".

Then restart your computer/laptop; during boot, the process of checking and correcting errors on the disk will begin. It will last from several minutes to an hour (depending on the size of the partition and the physical characteristics of the hard drive). When finished, the operating system will boot.

Checking the hard drive using the chkdsk utility.

CHKDSK (short for check disk) is a standard application in the DOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems that checks a hard drive or floppy disk for file system errors (for example, the same sector is marked as belonging to two different files). CHKDSK can also fix file system errors it finds. (from Wikipedia)

In order to run the chkdsk utility, you need to run a command prompt with administrator rights, to do this:

IN Windows XP click - "Command line"

IN Windows 7 click "Start" - "All Programs" - "Accessories" "Command line" and select "Run as administrator".

IN Windows 8.1 right click on "Start" - "Command Prompt (Administrator)".

As a result, a command line console will open.

First of all, let's find out the syntax of the chkdsk utility:

CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]] ]

Volume Specifies the mount point, volume name, or drive letter of the drive being checked, followed by a colon.
file name Files checked for fragmentation (FAT/FAT32 only).
/F Correcting disk errors.
/V For FAT/FAT32: output the full path and name of each file on the disk. For NTFS: display cleanup messages (if any).
/R Search for bad sectors and restore surviving contents (requires /F).
/L:size For NTFS only: Set the log file size (in KB). If a size is not specified, the current size value is displayed.
/X Pre-dismount the volume (if necessary). All open handles to this volume will be invalidated (requires /F).
/I NTFS only: Less strict checking of index entries.
/C NTFS only: skip checking for loops within folder structures.
/B NTFS only: Re-evaluate bad clusters on disk (requires /R)
The /I or /C options reduce Chkdsk execution time by skipping some volume checks.

Of all the command attributes, the two most often used to check a disk for errors are /f and /r. The final command looks like this:

chkdsk C:/F/R

With this command we will check partition C, correct errors on the disk and restore information from damaged sectors (if any).

After entering this command, you will be prompted to check the volume the next time the system reboots, click Y and a key Enter.

Now you need to reboot the system, when loading you will see a window prompting a check, do not click anything, just wait 10 seconds.

Checking for hard drive errors using Victoria.

The Victoria program is designed to check for errors on hard drives with IDE and Serial ATA interfaces. The program is a completely ready-made solution for a comprehensive, in-depth, and at the same time, the fastest possible assessment of the real technical condition of the HDD.

First of all, download the ISO image of the program from official website . Unzip the downloaded archive and burn it to a CD/DVD, as described in the article How to burn to CD/DVD . After this, boot from the burned disk, how to do this is described step by step in the article How to boot from a CD/DVD disk or USB flash drive .

After booting from the disk within 10 seconds, select the program for your device (Victoria for the computer will load by default).

The program interface will launch. Press the F2 key so that the program itself finds the disk; if this does not happen, you must do it manually. To do this, press the "P" key. The same will have to be done if the system has several hard drives and you need to select one of them. If you have hard drives with a SATA interface, then in the Select HDD port menu that appears, select - " Ext. PCI ATA/SATA". Move using the cursor keys "up", "down", and select using the "Enter" key.

Next, to check the disk surface, press the F4 key. In the HDD scan menu window: select the necessary scan parameters. By default, it is proposed to scan the entire disk from the beginning of "Start LBA: 0" to the end of "End LBA: 20971520". I recommend leaving these default values. The next menu item – I recommend leaving “Linear reading”, since it is intended for the fastest and most accurate diagnosis of the surface condition. In the fourth point, I recommend choosing the mode BB = Advanced REMAP since this mode checks the disk most efficiently and corrects errors on it without deleting information.

After this, a check for hard disk errors will start and bad areas will be corrected. This procedure can take from several tens of minutes to several hours. Depends on the volume and spindle speed.

When finished, remove the disc from the drive and restart the computer.

Video of checking a hard drive using the Victoria utility. Error elimination - DRSC+DRDY is missing or the screw does not remove BUSY

Hello admin! I read several articles on your website about the Victoria program and a question arose. What, the latest operating system from Microsoft - Windows 10 - is so flawed and does not have a built-in hard drive diagnostic tool? Is it really not possible for it to determine the state of the hard drive on which it is installed and is it necessary to download third-party programs? I have a new laptop with Windows 10 and if there is such a tool, then please tell me about it in your articles. I also wanted to ask. In one of your comments, you said that it is useless to run the hard drive status check utility built into Windows 10 - CHKDSK to find and fix bad sectors (bad blocks). Why? After all, on all sites like yours it is written that chkdsk, launched with the /R parameter, can fix bad blocks!

How to find out the status of your hard drive using built-in tools in Windows 10

Hello friends! There are about a dozen articles on this topic on our website, but what’s interesting is that I didn’t tell you about this method, but it nevertheless exists.

In fact, you can find out the status of the hard drive in Windows 10 using built-in tools, but these tools will simply tell you: “Yes, the condition of the disk is good” or “The condition of the disk is bad,” but how bad is it and is it worth urgently copying data from HDD and replace it, or you can wait at least until tomorrow, that’s what they won’t tell you. Why?

In simple words, the operating system simply reads the self-diagnosis readings of the hard drive (S.M.A.R.T.) and if it is GOOD (good), then the system tells us so - “The disk is working fine.” If the S.M.A.R.T status of the hard drive is BAD (bad), then the system will indicate that the disk is faulty. But in life everything is relative and very often the HDD is on the verge of failure, and Windows still shows us that the disk is working fine.

In short, if you want to accurately diagnose a hard drive, then you can’t do without special programs and even chkdsk won't help you. I will try to prove this to you in today's article.

To find out the status of your hard drive in Windows 10 using built-in tools, you need to go to« Control Panel»

"Security and Service Center"

"Service"

As you can see, Windows 10 evaluates the condition of the hard drive as normal: All drives are working fine. OK.

But in fact, if you now run a special program for diagnosing hard drives, you will see that the condition of the hard drive is C (Alarm!) and it is full of unstable sectors that the built-in firmware of the hard drive could not fix.

The Victoria program will say the same thing.

How else can you find out the status of your hard drive using the built-in tools of Windows 10 or how to use the disk check utility (chkdsk). Running disk check from the GUI

Windows 10 has a disk checking utility, chkdsk, and you can run it directly in the graphical interface or using the command line. After checking, the utility will issue a full report on the state of the file system of your operating system installed.

Note: On many sites you may read that the chkdsk utility, run with the /R parameter, can fix bad sectors (bad blocks), but in fact this is not the case. Bad sectors can be reassigned to good sectors from backup tracks only by the technical control firmware built into the hard drive. disk status. What the chkdsk utility does is fix errors in the NTFS or FAT32 file system and it is best to use the utilitychkdsk to fix file system errors, not to diagnose the condition of the hard drive. Let me explain a little.
You all know that the minimum unit of information on a hard disk is a sector, the volume available to the user is 512 bytes. When formatting a hard drive into a file system, all sectors are combined into clusters (one cluster is placed on several sectors); accordingly, a cluster is the minimum area of ​​the file system. So here it is, utility chkdsk does not work with hard disk sectors, but at a higher level - with clusters. In turn, the Victoria and MHDD programs are used to check hard disk sectors, not clusters; therefore, they do not treat the file system.

Go to the Computer window and right-click on the drive (C:), select “Properties”

Go to the “Service” tab and click on the “Check” button

"Check disk"

The disk is being checked for errors.

The disk has been successfully verified. No errors found.

The process of checking a hard drive for bad sectors is a search for erroneous records and bad sectors located on the drive.

Some of these problems can cause information loss - in most cases, beyond recovery.

Therefore, every user should be aware of their occurrence - both in order to try to correct errors on the disk, and to back up important information to another location.

The principle of formation of bad sectors

Over time, the owner of almost every HDD has to deal with problem sectors.

The principle of their appearance is as follows:

  • During the production of disks, sectors are created, with the help of magnetization of which information can be written to the drive.
  • Reading and writing information on (especially if the disk is hit or dropped), and sometimes also the influence of computer viruses, lead to a gradual deterioration in the condition of its structure.
  • Bad sectors begin to appear on the surface of magnetic disks - areas in which information is stored incorrectly or not recorded at all.

It is possible to eliminate bad sectors, but the system does not automatically perform such actions - the user will have to manually run the scan and repair.

If there are few bad sectors, they are replaced by reserve areas.

When damaged HDD blocks appear, their addresses are reassigned to sectors from the reserve, and no data loss occurs.

Signs of a problem

Among the main signs that problem sectors have appeared on the disk and need to be restored are: The following are worth noting:

  • The computer freezes while loading the operating system;
  • failure to start the OS - in most cases, the download only reaches a certain point (for example, the Windows logo or the “Welcome” sign) and stops;
  • unreasonable and frequent computer reboots;
  • errors in the operation of the system, expressed in the inability to launch applications, closing windows and slow response to user actions.

The list of utilities that can be used to solve the problem is quite large.

They are divided into two main groups– those that are already built into the operating system (for example, Windows), and applications from other manufacturers.

The latter can also be divided into paid programs and free versions, which are more popular among domestic users.

Using Windows Tools

To correct errors and bad sectors, Windows OS already contains .

The advantages of using it include the ability to restore areas damaged during operation or as a result of infection of the system with viruses.

Another plus– the ability to start in two ways, in normal mode or.

The utility is capable of checking any physical and logical disks, however, there are slight differences in working with inactive and system areas.

Thus, the stages of checking and restoring a regular partition (which does not contain system control files and the OS itself) will be as follows:

1 Going to the window "My computer".

2 Right-click to open properties of the selected disk.

3 Select a tab "Service".

4 Pressed check disk button.

5 Put checkbox next to check bad sectors.

System volumes on which Windows is installed are scanned differently.

Starting the utility launch coincides with the steps for a regular partition, but when you try to check the disk, a message appears on the screen stating that it is impossible and asking you to do this after a reboot.

After a reboot, the system does not boot - instead, the system HDD partition is checked, the progress of which can be determined by the information displayed on the screen.

And you can run Hitachi Drive Fitness Test not only from Windows, but also in mode if problems with the disk have already made it impossible to boot the system.

Seagate Seatools

The Seatools utility is a free application that whose capabilities include:

  • detection of HDD structure violations, including bad sectors and write or read errors;
  • fixing bad sectors or overwriting them with zeros, so that in the future the system ignores damaged areas;
  • Windows OS problems;
  • damage to the system bootloader;

The application works most effectively with Seagate drives.

The average time to fix detected errors (together with the verification process), depending on the size of the partition, can reach 4 hours.

The advantages of the program include its free distribution and the provision of a detailed report.

HDD Health

The free HDD Health program features the ability to receive while checking bad sectors the following information:

  • HDD manufacturer and firmware;
  • current storage temperature;
  • the general condition of the device structure, including whole and damaged sectors;
  • a number of other useful attributes.

The utility is distributed free of charge by Panterasoft.

At the same time, the disk health assessment is carried out only using S.M.A.R.T indicators and is less effective than checking the disk with other applications.

Victoria

A good way is the free Victoria program.

During the scanning process, the user can obtain information not only about disk sectors, but also about all partitions (volumes) of the computer and the connectors to which they are connected.

The utility does not require installation, but should only be run as Administrator.

Rice. 9. HDDScan disk problem detection program.

Among the additional information– temperature control of all disks that are connected to the PC. In addition, the test results are generated in the form of a report and can be saved in a separate file.

How to check your hard drive (HDD) for errors?

We will need the Victoria program. Download the program image to write it to a disk here or the image for a floppy disk here and write it to a disk (floppy disk).

Now we need to boot from this disk (floppy disk), reboot the computer. And when you boot your computer or laptop, press F12 or Tab, you need to launch the BOOT MENU. If all else fails, try looking at the name of the keys at the bottom of the boot screen, or look through the instructions for the motherboard. You can also go into the BIOS and specify the first boot device. To enter the BIOS, press Delet when booting the computer, on laptops and old computers F2. In general, on the first page immediately after turning on the computer, this information is written at the bottom of the screen. BIOS menus vary slightly among different manufacturers. Your task is to change booting from the Hard Drive to CDROM. Look for the Boot device Priority, “Boot” or “First boot device” tab

In the BIOS you need to set the CDROM (or Floppy Drive if you are booting from a floppy disk) to the very top line (using the + - or F5 F6 buttons). Save the changes and restart the computer.

If the message Press any key to continue appears, press any key, after which the Victoria program will launch.

Press the P (English) key and select the desired channel, the selection is made using the arrows (if you don’t know what drive you have, select one by one).

Press Enter and F2. A list of hard drives should appear (if there are several, or one if you only have one hard drive). If it doesn’t appear, press P again and select another channel.

And press the number that is written opposite the desired disk. And Enter. After we have selected the disk we need, we will begin checking it for errors. To do this, press F4. Another small window will open, in it we do not change anything and press Enter (you can read about the functions in this window in the instructions that I will attach below). The hard drive will begin checking for errors.

In the upper right corner you see the numbers 5 ms, 20ms, 50 ms, etc. This shows the access time for each sector on the hard drive. The more sectors with less load, the better. And in the Defects tab, bad sectors will appear (these are sectors where the hard drive is damaged and no writing or reading can be done to this place). If you find defects, you will have to purchase a new hard drive. In principle, defects on a hard drive can be eliminated by shrinking the hard drive (read the instructions for how to do this), but I would not recommend doing this because the hard drive will still continue to crumble and in the end you will lose all your data.

You can also run the program under Windows, and it will work, but to do this you need to fulfill one of the conditions written below (download, extract to a folder and run):

  • Disable (Control Panel > System > Hardware > Hard Drive Controllers) the IDE controller channel to which the hard drive under test is connected. This is necessary so that the program can access the HDD ports directly.
  • You don’t have to disable the channel in the system, but then when Windows boots, nothing should be connected to this channel (otherwise the OS, having found the ATA device, will block the ports). If you choose this option, then you need to connect the hard drive after booting the system. Or, as an option, turn on power to the hard drive under test only after the OS is fully loaded (not all cheap power supplies “tolerate” this)
  • It is absolutely pointless to disable the hard drive in the BIOS, because modern multitasking operating systems do not use the BIOS to check for the presence of a HDD on the channel. The driver does this for it. But if you have a “clean” DOS, disabling the HDD in the BIOS will be useful for so that DOS itself does not see this disk (and does not use ports in this way, which theoretically can lead to conflicts between the OS and the program).

You can download the instructions here.

ps-land.ru

How to check a hard drive through BIOS?

A hard drive is not the most reliable part of a personal computer and at the most inopportune moment this device can fail. To prevent this, the HDD requires constant analysis of its performance and checking the data recorded on it for integrity. As a rule, this is done by specialists, which means several things: they will definitely charge you money for it and well, the tough ones will have to say goodbye for a while. However, we have a little secret for you, using which you can easily check the status of your hard drive on your PC. This secret lies in the system BIOS.

Before you start

Before we begin to explain to you how to check the BIOS hard drive for functionality, you should understand a few things:

  • this method will not work with SSDs;
  • Depending on the BIOS version, the names of its menu items and their locations may differ significantly (or not significantly).

Actually, that's all. Now let's enter the BIOS and figure out how to use it to diagnose the HDD.

Enter BIOS

We have already talked about the BIOS environment, its varieties and settings, and we have dedicated an entire article for this. There, in one of the points, we told you how to enter the BIOS. Follow this link and check out the Entering the BIOS section so that you and I can continue further.

Enable hard drive check

So you're inside. Next, be extremely careful, since the points that will now be named in this article may look and be placed completely differently for you. Using your keyboard arrows to navigate, navigate to the Diagnostics section, then select Primary Hard Disk Self Test. Provided that your computer uses more than one hard drive, the system will prompt you to select a drive to scan from the available ones.

The system will take some time to check the hard drive for bad sectors. However, after completing this process, you will easily understand whether there is damage on your hard drive:

  • if the test fails, your hard drive is damaged and requires repair or replacement;
  • if the test was completed 100%, everything is fine with the HDD, and all minor errors of the hard drive will be corrected by the system.

Bottom line

Using BIOS as a tool for checking bad sectors on a hard drive, you can quickly diagnose the health of the hard drive on your computer. Of course, there is a problem here, namely, the visual difference between different versions of BIOS, as a result of which it is sometimes quite difficult to find this or that item following some example. Despite this, this method is very good, and everyone should know about it.

chopen.net

Learning to understand the computer

When you install a new hard drive on your computer, the drive is not always detected by the system. You connect it, check it in the list of devices - but the disk is not there. In such a situation, you should think about how to enable the hard drive in the BIOS.

The fact is that certain settings may not be configured for a new drive in the BIOS. In order for the drive to appear, you need to set up the correct system configuration. For this:

  • Turn on the computer's power;
  • Before the OS starts loading, a screen will appear on the monitor where you can launch the BIOS. Typically, to perform this operation, you need to press the "DEL", "F2" or "F11" key;
  • Having entered the BIOS, press the line “MAIN”, then the “Enter” button;
  • In the menu that opens, you will see all the drives and disks connected to the PC. Select the desired line and click on it;
  • If you do not find it, point to the “SATA” number to which you connected, and then select “AVTO”. The disk search will begin;
  • When the system detects it, select "save end exit". The computer will restart;
  • And now you will be able to find the hard drive by clicking “Start”, then “My Computer”.

Checking the SATA connector

However, the disk may not be detected. The probable cause is that the SATA interface controller is disabled. To fix this:

  • Go to BIOS and find the “SATA configuration” item;
  • On the “controller” tab, click “enable”;
  • Then use the same algorithm of actions described above.

Activating a previously disabled disk

You may have disabled the hard drive in the BIOS. To activate it, you need to perform a factory reset. To do this, go to the BIOS and click on the “Load Default” line. After this, the PC will reboot and the disk should be detected. Go to My Computer and see if it is there.

Update Device Manager

When the system “sees” the disk, it will be necessary to update information about the connected devices. For this:

  • Turn on your PC;
  • Click on the “My Computer” icon with the right mouse button;
  • Click on “Properties” and open “Device Manager”;
  • Right-click on the line that shows the system name (at the top of the window);
  • Then click Update Configuration. A scan will be performed, after which the drive should appear in Device Manager.

If the disk does not want to be detected, perhaps the problem is not in the software components. To find out, do the following:

  • Try connecting the drive to a different connector on the motherboard;
  • Replace the interface cable, replacing the power supply cable may also help;
  • By the way, perhaps the problem is in the power of the power supply. It's simply not enough to identify the hard drive. In this case, failures may also occur in the operation of the first disk (on which the OS is installed);
  • If you use IDE-SATA splitters to connect the drive from the motherboard, replace them with others. Maybe that's the problem;
  • The hard drive may not be detected in the BIOS if there are any failures in the system. Often in such a situation only a specialist can correct the situation;
  • If you have an IDE drive (today SATA is mostly used), then you might think that the problem is the compatibility of older designs with the new motherboard. This is wrong. If the motherboard has at least one IDE connector, then a drive of this type will work in the system. Another thing is that the corresponding function may be disabled in the BIOS. The “Award BIOS” parameter must be activated.

Checking the health of the hard drive

Another possible reason is that the hard drive simply does not rotate. This is due to the fact that there is not enough power supplied to the device or there is no power at all. To find out for sure, do the following:

  1. Turn off your PC;
  2. Open the computer system unit by unscrewing the bolts on the side cover;
  3. Then remove the data cable from the drive. After this, the system will no longer receive information about the need to save energy;
  4. Turn on your computer. Listen to see if the disk has started spinning. To better understand, you can touch the hard drive - you should feel vibration. If there is no vibration, then the disk is not turned on;
  5. If you can’t accurately understand whether the hard drive is spinning, do the following:
    • Turn on the PC, listen to the disc;
    • Turn off your computer;
    • Remove the PC power cable;
    • Then remove the hard drive power cable;
    • Insert the PC power cable;
    • Turn on the car and listen again. Then restore power to the drive and listen again.
  6. Check the hard drive's power cable by connecting it to another device, such as a disk drive.
  7. If all else fails, connect the drive to another PC.

The disk still hasn't started spinning? It's probably malfunctioned and just doesn't work. Then it will need to be replaced. Hard drives are usually not repairable. Magnetic hard drives (HDD) can fail after one fall, so they must be handled very carefully so as not to damage moving elements. In the case of SDD standard disks, even with a serious impact, the disk will remain in working condition, since there are no magnetic elements in its design.

Enabling the hard drive in the BIOS and all related operations can be performed independently. Usually a new hard drive is detected by the computer immediately. Maximum after setting up the BIOS. If the cables are faulty, replacing them is easy. If the disk is broken, then you will need to buy a new one.

comp-genius.ru

How to quickly check and repair your hard drive | Everything-Nauchim.ru

Has your computer started to slow down? Do files and programs take a very long time to open? Are there any glitches happening all the time? All this may indicate a hard drive failure. How can you find out the status of your hard drive? You will find out in this article.

Hello. Today I will tell you how to test and also repair your hard drive.

Indeed, the cause of slowdowns and malfunctions of the computer may be the hard drive. The fact is that the hard drive is constantly in use. We constantly write information onto it and then erase it. There is a constant overwriting of data on our hard drive. All this can lead to malfunctions in its operation. But how do we determine the status of the hard drive?

Quite a few different programs have been created for this, and we will look at one of them today. This program is called “HDD Regenerator”. Why did I choose this particular program? Yes, simply because this program is quite easy to use, for example, if you compare it with the Victoria program. Although, of course, the Victoria program has more capabilities, it is more difficult to work with. In general, today we are working with “HDD Regenerator”.

This program tests the hard drive and also restores bad sectors (damaged sectors). These are the main features of this program.

You can use the program both from Windows, that is, with the operating system turned on, and from dos, without using the operating system. Program management is the same in both cases. The only difference is how to run the program. Below there is a video in which I showed how to use the program with the operating system turned on, therefore, here I will describe the second option, namely how to use the program from under DOS. Let's begin.

How to use HDD Regenerator

First you need to install this program. The installation process is normal, so I won't describe it. After installation, you launched the program. A program window will open in front of you.

In this window you need to do the following:

  • Select “Bootable USB Flash”, click on it.
  • Next, you will need to select your USB device; the flash drive should already be inserted into the computer. Select it and click "OK".
  • Next, an information message will appear in which you just need to click “OK”. The flash drive will burn very quickly and you will be prompted to restart your computer (in English). Click “Yes”, the computer will reboot.

Now we do the following:

  • When you turn on the computer, press and hold the "F12" key. This is necessary in order to launch the “BOOT MENU”. On some computers it starts differently, if it doesn’t start for you, look on the Internet how it starts on your computer.
  • In the “BOOT MENU”, select boot from “USB-HD” (this item may look different, for example, “USB-HDD”).
  • After this, the program with which we will work will be loaded.

The program opens and you are asked to select the drive you want to scan. Select the one you need by pressing the corresponding key (number).

  1. Prescan – this option will show you bad zones if there are any.
  2. Normal Scan – this option will scan and restore damaged sectors.
  3. Version Info is information about the hard drive.
  1. Scan and repair is scanning and recovery.
  2. Scan, but do not repair – this is to scan, but not restore. It will just show the bad sectors.
  3. Regenerate – this option rewrites the entire disk, even if there are no bad sectors.

I select the first option and press “Enter”.

Now you need to choose which sector to start with. I choose the first option to start scanning from sector zero. I recommend that you do the same. Press one and press “Enter”.

So the scanning has begun, and if the program finds bad sectors, it will restore them.

After checking, a similar window will appear.

To exit the program, press the “Esc” key. Another thing is that often after pressing “Esc” a black screen appears with an input line. Just press the reboot button on your system unit. After rebooting, do not press anything, Windows will boot automatically.

That's all. You have learned how to test and repair your hard drive. If everything is not clear, watch the video, in which I showed the process of scanning a hard drive. It should be noted that this method only helps if the hard drive fails; it is unlikely to help if, for example, you dropped the hard drive on the floor, that is, with physical damage.

You can download this program on the Internet, and this program is also on the bootable flash drive that we created earlier. Here is a link to a note that talks about this flash drive...

Well, this is where I will end this note. I hope you found it useful. Subscribe to the news of the blog or channel "PC Instructor"

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vsemu-nauchim.ru

How to check the status of your hard drive

Hello dear readers of my blog! In this article I will tell and show you how to check the status of your hard drive; and it doesn’t matter whether it’s an HDD or an SSD, 2.5” (for a laptop) or 3.5” (for a PC). Someone checks the status because they notice that the reading or copying speed is lower than it was before, someone is playing it safe for fear of losing important data, and someone is simply out of curiosity. It doesn’t matter for what reasons you are faced with this issue, what matters is which program is best to use and how.

Why does the hard drive break?

  • Overheat. The HDD operating temperature should not exceed 45 degrees.
  • Hit. Happens less often on a computer. Most often on a laptop, when it is closed abruptly, transported in working condition, or during operation, when Windows freezes, many people have the habit of hitting the case.
  • Forced shutdown, that is, from a button or socket instead of the usual: Start - Shutdown.
  • And lastly, service life. Sooner or later everything breaks down, even though there was good care.

Hard drive diagnostics

I won’t hide it, I’ll say right away that the best program for checking the condition of a hard drive is Victoria. So, let's get started. To get started, download the Victoria program and install it on your computer. A shortcut to the installed utility will appear on the desktop. You should run it under administrator rights, to do this you should do the following steps: point to the Victoria shortcut, right-click, select “Run as administrator”, on windows vista, 7 and 8 it may ask the question “Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes on this computer? - click yes.

The ability to store data with you and use it at any workplace is possible with small-sized drives connected to a computer via a USB port. Let's consider three main types of such devices.

Hard magnetic disks

Initially, they were exclusively internal, but necessity forced some to get out of the system unit. In another, more compact, adapter block from hard drive format (IDE, SATA) to USB.

Let's look at how to check the functionality of an external hard drive:

  • connect to a switched off computer;
  • launch and wait for loading;
  • in the “My Computer” folder we check for the presence of a new disk.

If the HDD drive is not added, reboot the computer by pressing DEL or ESC to call Setup. If it does not detect the device, then it is most likely faulty. Either HDD, or adapter, or both. To determine more precisely, you can remove the hard drive and connect it to another adapter or directly to the hard drive controller.

Solid State Drives

The first SSDs, like HDDs, were internal and, for external use, an adapter was used. Nowadays this method is rarely used due to the large number of initially external devices.

Let's look at how to check the SSD for functionality:

  • connect to the computer and wait for the operating system to detect new equipment;
  • open the drive in the “My Computer” folder and work with it.

If the system does not respond to the connection, try restarting the computer. You can try formatting the SSD. () If the situation has not changed, then the disk is most likely faulty.

Flash drives

The closest relative, or rather, the ancestor of the SSD. It has a smaller capacity and size, as well as the absence of a connecting cable. These include memory cards: SD and microSD – connected to USB via a card reader.

Testing external drives with software

An approximate and often sufficient check of devices can be carried out using standard system programs - formatting and copying. The process should proceed stably and evenly, without error messages.
For a more in-depth check, allowing you to identify hidden defects and speed characteristics of drives, there are many programs that perform these functions in whole or in part. They usually have a simple interface where you just select a device and run the test. If there is a fault, it will be indicated.