HDD testing. Programs for checking errors and bad sectors on a hard drive. Hard drive error: causes, checking and correcting errors and bad sectors

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

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

Now you will learn about a small but very useful program HDD Scan. As the name suggests, this program is designed to scan the hard drive on a computer.

But, in addition, the program is capable of carrying out a COMPLETE diagnosis of the hard drive, assessing the condition of any data drive (it supports IDE / SATA / SCSI hard drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire drives and even flash cards)!

HDDScan will allow you to find out the number and even the firmware version of the hard drive installed on your computer and find damaged sectors of any scanned hard drive.

The program will show how exhausted the hard drive's resource is, what problems the hard drive being tested has, and more! This utility will allow you to fix hard drive surface errors.

It has a very nice modern interface design

Here: you can download a program for checking hard drives (gcontent) download HDDScan (/gcontent)

And below on the page you will see a video tutorial on working with this hdd (hard drive) scanning and recovery program.

Checking hard drive sectors

This is no longer a problem even for beginners. In general, HDDScan is an almost irreplaceable program! In terms of quality of work and functionality, at the moment there are almost no analogues to it.

Since the good old and time-tested programs for checking hard drives, such as MHDD and Victoria (read more in the article: How to fix bad sectors on a disk in Windows) are no longer able to recognize modern hard drives, much less perform their comprehensive diagnostics...

After you download this program to your computer, unzip it.... enter the folder with the program and run the executable file, which is mentioned at the beginning of the video lesson.

You don't have to install the program (that's another plus!), and it takes up negligible space on your hard drive. But despite this, it is so functional that one can only wonder how we managed without it before :-)))

How to check your computer's hard drive for functionality

The interface of the HDD Scan program is made in English. However, the program is so easy to use and will be understandable even for novice users.

Well, after watching this video tutorial on working with this utility to check hard drives that are currently connected to the computer, there will be no questions left :-)))

Turn on the speakers and press "Play"....

Checking hard disk sectors for errors

Quite often, many computer users experience deterioration in the performance of hard drives during use.

Even in the best scenario, this leads to a decrease in performance and the appearance of faulty areas on the surface of hard drives, but this can also cause the loss of all information located on the hard drive!

Specialized programs and utilities for diagnosing and recovering data on hard drives, like the free HDDScan program presented here, are designed to help in such cases.

Checking the external hard drive

Using the HDD Scan program, you can easily scan not only internal, but also external hard drives that are connected to your computer.

It is designed to check hard drives under Windows. The utility works from the Windows operating system - this means that you do not need to bother creating any boot floppy disks.

Very comfortably! It is simply advisable to disable the antivirus and programs running in the background and occupying resources, for example, download managers, while the program is starting and running.

HDD hard drive recovery

As you probably noticed when watching the video, starting from the 14th minute it is shown how you can try to fix it, that is, simply remove the bad sector of the hard drive if you do not want to replace the hard drive completely (buy a new one).

We start testing the surface with the “full erase” parameter. This usually helps to get rid of these types of bad blocks on the surface of the hard drive.

Attention! Before doing this, copy all important data from the HDD you want to test. In general, if you want to try to recover bad sectors on the disk, then watch the video tutorial again from the 14th minute.

Conclusion: the best way to fully diagnose a hard drive today is the HDDScan program, which works from the Windows environment and at the same time allows you to perform a comprehensive assessment of the reliability and surface condition of any hard drive, including even external USB drives.

The hard drive is a very important component of any computer. At the same time, he is sensitive and susceptible to various problems. Thus, broken sectors on the surface can lead to complete failure and the inability to use the PC.

It is always easier to prevent a problem from occurring than to deal with its consequences. Therefore, it is important for every user who wants to prevent possible problems associated with incorrect HDD operation to monitor the presence of bad sectors.

Sectors are units of information storage on a hard disk into which it is divided at the production stage. Over time, some of them may become faulty and unavailable for writing and reading data. Bad sectors or so-called bad blocks (from the English bad blocks) can be physical and logical.

Where do bad sectors come from?

Physical bad blocks may appear in the following cases:

• Manufacturing defects;
• Mechanical damage - falling, air and dust getting inside;
• Strong shaking or impact while writing/reading data;
• HDD overheating.

Such sectors, alas, cannot be restored; we can only prevent their occurrence.

Logical bad sectors occur due to software errors caused by viruses or a sudden power outage while writing to the hard drive. Every time the HDD is checked before recording, it is not written to problem areas. Moreover, physically such sectors are fully functional, which means they can be restored.

Signs of bad sectors

Even if the user does not check his hard drive, bad sectors will still make themselves felt:

• System freezes, especially when writing and reading data from the hard drive;
• Sudden reboots and unstable PC operation;
• The operating system produces various errors;
• A noticeable decrease in the speed of performing any operations;
• Some folders or files cannot be opened;
• The disc makes strange sounds (creaking, clicking, tapping, etc.);
• The surface of the HDD is heating up.

In fact, there may be more signs, so it is very important to be attentive to the operation of the computer.

What to do if bad sectors appear

If bad blocks appear as a result of physical impact, such as dust and debris inside the device, or malfunction of disk elements, then this is very dangerous. In this case, not only will it be impossible to fix bad sectors, but it will also be impossible to prevent their further appearance every time the system accesses data written to the disk. To avoid complete loss of files, the user needs to reduce the use of the hard drive to a minimum, rewrite the data to a new HDD as soon as possible and replace the old one in the system unit.

Dealing with logical bad sectors will be much easier. First, you need to test using a special program that will help you find out whether such a problem exists on your disk in principle. If it is found, then all that remains is to run the error correction and wait for them to be resolved.

Method 1: Use a utility to diagnose the condition

You can find out if there is a problem with your HDD using specialized software. The program is simple, accessible and free. Its functionality includes a complete diagnosis of the hard drive, in the report of which you need to pay attention to 3 points:

• Reassigned sectors;
• Unstable sectors;
• Uncorrectable sector errors.

If the disk status is marked as " Fine", and blue lights are lit next to the above indicators, then you don’t have to worry.

But the disk status is “ Anxiety!" or " Bad"with yellow or red lights indicates that you need to take care of creating a backup copy as soon as possible.

You can also use other checking utilities. In the article at the link below, 3 programs are selected, each of which has a function for checking bad sectors. You should choose a specific utility based on your experience and knowledge for its safe use.

Method 2: Using the built-in chkdsk utility

Windows already has a built-in program for checking a disk for bad blocks, which copes with its task no worse than third-party software.

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Buying a HDD is not a complicated process, but it is a responsible one. Any PC component is responsible for its performance, and the hard drive is one of the leading links in the system, since the operating system is often installed on it. If the hard drive does not work correctly, then there can be no talk of any sane use of the system.

Another thing is that it is not possible to test the device before purchasing. There are only 2 factors that save you here:

• confidence in the manufacturer;
• official product warranty.

Remember that you have 2 weeks to test the hard drive for bad sectors and errors and identify manufacturing defects. In the future, you can operate with the official guarantee period, but the return procedure will take much longer, and it is often not enough.

Manufacturer selection

Practice shows that products are in greatest demand Western Digital And Seagate. As a catch-up we can note Toshiba. This company strengthened its influence in the market thanks to the purchase of a bankrupt HDD manufacturer Fujitsu.

The comparison shows that all 3 manufacturers are on equal terms and it is almost impossible to determine a clear leader for the title of “best hard drive”. The percentage of defects is the same, as are the production technologies. The only differences are model lines, storage capacity, Cache memory size and product name.

Try to buy CDs as new as possible. This is indicated by the HDD marking. This way there is less chance of running into a defective batch with problematic firmware. Considering that almost every component in a PC is hardwired, insufficient attention is paid to correcting the performance of the hard drive, promptly eliminating only critical damage to performance.

Preliminary inspection

The purchase has taken place, the goods are in hand. It is worth checking it externally for scratches, abrasions, and especially dents. Mechanical damage They will tell a lot about the conditions under which they were stored in the warehouse and moved from place to place. HDD is a mechanical device based on magnetic plates. Information is read from them by a special head. The surface of the plates reacts very strongly to vibrations, shocks, shaking and other aspects, since the head can simply scratch the disk and this sector will automatically become unreadable.

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The threads on the sides will tell you whether the hard drive was previously installed in the system unit. There is indicator paint on the holes for the screws. If someone has previously used the product, the paint layer will probably be scratched or completely erased. Return the HDD immediately and demand a replacement for a new one, or better yet, take the money.

Installation in the case and testing

If you are satisfied with everything, then proceed with installation. Remember that nothing in the case should interfere with the device. Be sure to leave free space at the top and bottom for ventilation and cooling. Secure the HDD with 4 screws or latches. If there are anti-vibration rubber bands, great, they will prevent resonance from the operation of active components like coolers.

If the SATA cable connects without problems, then pay special attention to the power supply. The voltage supplied to the disk is 5 V. Underestimation leads to “stop-starts”, overestimation leads to overheating and increased operating temperatures. Both will definitely not increase the service life.

Test run

This check applies to those hard drives on which important data or backups will be stored. It is important to know here that bad sectors are completely absent. First, let's run the S.M.A.R.T. check. in BIOS. After this, you can evaluate the status of the device through special software like HD Tune, MHDD or Victoria.

Start the test with linear data reading speed. Compare the result obtained with the one indicated in the specifications. If the error does not exceed 10%, then everything is in order. A higher variation is suspicious, and a difference of 50% forces you to replace the drive.

Next stage - magnetic surface check within 24 hours using Victoria or MHDD. Set the reading mode to random and wait for the result. Yes, the disk may crack, but this is quite normal. After completion, repeat the procedure in mode Butterfly.

The last step is to launch the program IOMeter. You need to configure the block size, enter the random search range, write-to-read ratio, and only then run the scan for 24 hours. Your reference point is the S.M.A.R.T table. If the HDD works correctly for these days, then it is in perfect order and ready for further use.

aass, didn't use it. But I note that Victoria and MHDD are proven tools for serious diagnostics.

And Windows 7 can track SMART information. It will warn you if anything happens.

aass

Vadim Sterkin, Thanks for the answer and for the topic!
I agree with the assessment of the Victoria and MHDD programs, I myself use Victoria for serious diagnostics, but I try to test other programs, everything is learned by comparison.)

Dmitriy

When checking the hard drive with a standard program on Windows 7, it says that bad clusters were detected in null.sys... what kind of driver is this?

Dmitriy

Vadim Sterkin,

thanks...can it cause the system to slow down?

Sanyok

Hello.
I ran (hypothetically) checking drive C: from the graphical interface with parameters similar to your screenshot. Clicked the "Schedule disk check" button. Changed my mind. How can I cancel this one-time system disk check before rebooting the system?
I myself assume that it may be entered into the Task Scheduler.” But I want to know for sure. I see no point in experimenting. Since, after such a check was completed successfully once (in practical reality), it would be entered into the “Scheduler” even as a one-time check, and should, in theory, be saved. After all, tasks from the “Scheduler” do not have the ability to self-delete (I think so). But I didn’t find any traces in the “Planner”. As you probably know, I didn’t receive an answer on the Internet or on the forum.

Simply put, I want to know where this mythical “Check Schedule” is located and what methods and methods Windows 7 offers for adjusting it. And then it turns out like this - click, and ala-ulu...

Sanyok

Yeah…
There were graphics, but they all came out. This is some kind of graffiti, black and white, with a register. Just like Battleship Potemkin.
(Yes, I Googled, but really for a slightly different request). Thank you.
You can plan this by checking two boxes in the chart, and canceling by going to the register. They got smart here. Well, okay, there’s nothing to do - I’ll post in the forum.

Yes, by the way, does it make sense to check the second (bottom) checkbox if the system is on an SSD? After all, as far as my knowledge is concerned, the SSD controller itself periodically (when idle) scans the memory for faulty cells.
And this second checkbox, by definition, is intended to check for broken cells on the surface of the HDD.

Sanyok

Sanyok,

You turn on your TV with the remote control and set the wake-up timer. The next morning you wake up to the music of your favorite music channel. And life flows smoothly and measuredly. But at one fine moment it dawns on you - after all, tomorrow is Sunday. No problem, you tell yourself. With a slight movement of your hand and a screwdriver, without disconnecting the TV from the network, you remove the back cover, quickly replace a couple of resistors on the board and you're done. Tomorrow you can sleep peacefully until lunchtime.
Do you feel what I mean?

Vadim Sterkin: Sanya, what do you mean, smart? You don’t have to split hairs by pressing all sorts of strange buttons, and everything will be fine :)

It's really funny, but also of course, of course Truth.
Yes, but it’s not quite out of place. I don’t see anything unpredictable or completely incomprehensible in checking the disk. And the conversation was about the fact that if you have already provided a graphical opportunity to schedule such a task, then be kind enough to provide the same opportunity to disable it, and not through one place (the registry). Either remove graphics when planning (do planning only through CMD), or provide the ability to disable this task using the graphical interface. As an engineer, in my technical practice and in the practice of interfaces of various industrial programs and IT, this is the first time I have come across something like this. Yes, and in Windows OS too.
That’s what I wanted to convey when I said, “We’ve been clever.”
When faced with a question, I noticed that this function causes complaints from the user in terms of frequent independent launches. But let's not talk about that. As unrelated to the topic.
And of course, thanks for the comments. Everything is clear to me here.

Regarding the bottom daw:

To perform a thorough disk scan, select the Scan and repair bad sectors option. In this mode, the scanning program attempts to find and correct physical errors on the hard drive itself, which may take much longer.

It doesn't say anything about the file system. More about physical disabilities. Some of us are wrong. Or I didn't understand something.
And further in the text:

To check for both file and physical errors, select both options: Automatically fix system errors and Scan for and repair bad sectors.

Please comment. I would like clarity on the issue.
So as not to press “all sorts of strange buttons”, and everything was fine. :-)

Vyacheslav

I am very surprised by the capabilities of checking and restoring a disk under Windows 8. Changing the partition size upward using Acronis Disk Director 11 ended with errors. I wanted to increase the size of the system disk using the empty space on the adjacent partition by 200 GB. As a result, this program reports that everything is OK, and the disk size in Explorer has not changed. I checked the disk using the OS - it said that there were errors and needed to be rebooted. After the reboot, nothing changed and a request appeared to reboot to fix it. As you can already guess, this also did not help. As a result, we have lost 200 GB, despite the fact that Acronis says everything is ok, but the system is not able to correct the errors found. Sadness. Do I need to format it?

Vyacheslav

Vadim Sterkin,

In fact, under Windows 7, a similar operation was always performed without problems. I always perform the task of expanding/narrowing a partition in 2 stages: first, we cut off a piece of space from the partition being compressed and transfer it to the “unallocated space” status from the required end of the partition, and then we expand another partition using this space (I do everything manually in 2 reboots in case of “jambs”, because Acronis performs a group of operations very strangely. There is a sad experience under Windows XP). So, if under Windows 7, after checking the disk, everything returned to normal and the free space did not disappear so easily, then under Windows 8 Acronis completed the first stage successfully, and when performing the second it broke down with errors, although then it reports that “everything is fine.” The problem was eventually resolved by booting from a Live CD from Acronis. It's a pity that this cannot be done under Windows 8. And I was counting so much on the “improved checking and correction of file system errors” promoted in the media. Of course, it is very difficult to trust that checking and background diagnostics of FS problems is working correctly. It is very confusing that the time to scan one partition under Windows 7 and under Windows 8 differs by orders of magnitude, for the better for the latter. Are all problems really so easily and quickly fixed? Maybe Windows 8 simply doesn’t notice most of them, or even worse, ignores them?

Vyacheslav

Vadim Sterkin,

Well, what option is there in Windows 8 to expand the partition size? I saw the Disk Management snap-in. Well, I didn’t see how it’s possible to cut the size of a logical volume from the desired end using “standard means”. There's also no way to move a partition within the unallocated space. If there is an analogue that I missed, tell me. Along the way, you did not quite correctly understand what I meant by the phrase “I had a bad experience under Windows XP.” And it was like this: after a reboot, this operation was performed and at that moment the electricity went out. Thus, I lost 2 partitions, although, in theory, there could have been 3 options: the second partition would have been lost, from which space was taken due to the incompleteness of the operation of moving NTFS service zones, or only the system partition would have been lost (although this is unlikely), or both partitions would be fine, and between them there would be some area of ​​unmarked space. But I was very “lucky”. Let’s skip the topic of uninterruptible power supplies and it turns out that Acronis is a reputable company, and their products are sometimes dangerous to use in any way in the absence of alternatives from the OS. And then another “surprise” emerged. And even here everything is fine with the power supply. But as I already noted, the last problem was solved by booting from a Live CD from Acronis and a classic disk check, and not the over-optimized one from Windows 8, the benefits of which I have not yet felt. It seems to be there, but there seems to be no point. Or maybe I was using the disk check tool wrong. Unfortunately, this “optimization” still raises more questions and mistrust in me than answers.

Vyacheslav

Vadim Sterkin,

Irina

Conducted Windows hard drive diagnostics (chkdsk). There were no messages, but later it turned out that there was no free space. Although before the check, less than 50% of the disk was full. And now it shows 931 GB occupied. Was all the free space wasted? The disk is six months old.

I forgot to say, after that I checked with Victoria and reported that there weren’t even any errors.

Irina

This is not the case for me. We are not talking about the system disk. And about the external drive. I’ve already found out that the system marked all the free space as bad blocks. Now I’m trying to figure out whether it’s a failure or whether the screw has died.

Sergey

Vadim, I have the following problem: After running the chkdsk disk check utility, if both “daws” are checked, it asks to reboot and the check is performed, I don’t know what to call it, but it looks like MS-DOS - lines run quickly on a black background. After the next reboot, I look at the information in the Windows Logs - Application, text in English, “there are many letters,” but the meaning can be understood from a single sentence: “Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.” At the same time, a few lines above I was kindly informed that, they say, “Cleaning up 31 unused security descriptors.” Sometimes it is not “31 unused security descriptors” that are cleared, but more or, conversely, less. That is, something is still not quite right, and the program corrects it a little. Like, overall everything is fine, but the Bug died. So, no matter how many times I run this chkdsk, it requires a reboot to correct these errors, nothing else is detected. Previously, on another machine in Windows XP this happened rarely, but now it happens time after time.
The SSD drive is about a quarter occupied. The system is legal Windows 7 x64 Professional and is automatically updated. If you don’t run disk check, then there is no reason to worry, everything works fine, doesn’t glitch or crash. So, in connection with this, the question is - maybe there is no need to spoil your mood. I didn’t find a solution to the problem of these file system errors on the Microsoft website, and are they really errors?

far_town2 Kulyasov

Are there any methods to check if the power supply is sufficient? And due to its insufficient power, can freezes/errors occur in games?