Boot program to check your hard drive. Checking the hard drive for bad sectors and errors

CrystalDiskInfo is a free program for servicing computer HDDs and SSDs with ATA (PATA, SATA), USB and IEEE1394 connection interfaces. If something strange happens to your hard drive, do not be lazy to download CrystalDiskInfo in Russian for your computer for free using the link from the site https://site without registration and SMS. The advantages of the utility include: displaying detailed, reliable information about the status, powerful monitoring and verification tools, as well as effective tools for changing hard drive settings. If problems are detected, Crystal Disk Info displays a warning and sends an email to the user.

Before a large number of bad sectors appear, read and write errors, unpleasant noise, the temperature rises, and performance decreases, it makes sense to download the useful CrystalDiskInfo program for free for a computer with the Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 (32- bit and 64-bit). The utility is quickly installed on your computer and uninstalled correctly, without being tracked in the system registry. When you start the program, it checks the status of the hard drive of your computer or laptop; this takes some time.

Checking, monitoring, analysis, graphs and changing settings

When checking, the utility displays detailed information, including information about external HDD USB and IEEE1394. Displayed: firmware version, AAM*/APM** data, interface type, spindle speed, buffer size, operating life, number of bad sectors, temperature and even a graph of temperature dynamics over time, as well as other technical characteristics. S.M.A.R.T*** parameters are monitored, including: number of read errors, overall performance, start-stops and other data. CrystalDiskInfo dynamically tracks changes in a large amount of data from drives in the system, keeps a log and allows you to beautifully display this in the form of graphs. This format allows you to clearly see the overall health picture of the computer’s disk subsystem.

There will be people who want to download CrystalDiskInfo for free without registration and SMS, without leaving the https://site, also because the utility allows you not only to diagnose the hard drive, but also to take care of its health. Changing the AAM and APM settings allows you to control performance parameters and the corresponding amount of acoustic noise produced, as well as power consumption parameters. If necessary, it is possible to reset the bad sector counters. In the "Tools" menu there is a link to the system "Disk Management", where all the necessary transformations are done with them: create a partition, expand or shrink partitions, etc.

Interface and functionality of CrystalDiskInfo

The nice, modern interface supports many localizations, as well as themes (skins), three of which are available immediately after launch. Positive reviews and comments from users are caused by an intuitive display of the status in color: blue (or green) - good, yellow - warning, red - problems/alarm, gray - no information.

This small, free, open-source utility, developed by Japanese programmer Noriyuki Miyazaki (known as Hiyohiyo), is why many in Europe and America find the menus and settings confusing. The Japanese do not share this opinion. Unfortunately, there are no hints or explanations about the importance of parameters unfamiliar to the average computer user, and to figure it out, sometimes you have to refer to the help section.

Rich functionality allows CrystalDiskInfo to compete not only with free, but also with paid programs. According to reviews and comments from many users around the world, it is definitely worth downloading CrystalDiskInfo for Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP (32-bit and 64-bit) for free in Russian. Among the competitors, it is worth noting the paid programs HDDlife Professional and Hard Drive Inspector and the free Active@ Hard Disk Monitor with Russian language support, as well as the paid HD Tune Pro in English. As for the functionality of Crystal Disk Info, you definitely need to know about the following advantages of this utility:

• high data reliability,
• correct interaction with S.M.A.R.T technology,
• monitoring of more than 25 parameters,
• data on current operating modes in real time,
• temperature and S.M.A.R.T data monitoring,
• displaying disk temperatures in the system tray,
• prompt e-mail notification about problems,
• ability to change AAM/APM settings,
• control of speed and amount of acoustic noise,
• settings to save energy consumption,
• no conflicts with the latest versions of SSD drives,
• work with external HDDs with USB and IEEE 1394 interfaces,
• compatible with a wide range of equipment****.

reference Information

* Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) - control of the track search time parameter, in this case, the faster the block of magnetic heads moves along the radius during search, the more noise.

** Advanced Power Management (APM) - energy management.

*** Self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (S.M.A.R.T.) - an internal self-diagnosis and self-monitoring system using hardware built into the disk with the ability to generate reports and predict the breakdown period.

**** A comprehensive list of compatible equipment is located on the official crystalmark website in the info domain.

Download the latest version of CrystalDiskInfo in Russian

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Now you are on the page "Russian Crystal Disk Info - checking the hard drive and taking care of its health", in the Computer Tests section of the site, where everyone has the opportunity to legally download programs for a computer running Microsoft Windows OS. This page was created/substantially updated on 11/20/2018. Thank you for visiting the section.

The hard drive is an important, but far from perfect, component of a personal computer. For some users it does not work reliably, it crashes, data from it is lost or is significantly damaged. One of the most common problems with a hard drive is the appearance of so-called “broken” (bad) sectors on it, which become a “headache” for many users. In this article, I will talk about the reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on a hard drive, list a number of programs that allow you to recognize them, and also explain how to check a hard drive for bad sectors on your PC.

What are “bad sectors”?

As you know, a traditional hard drive consists of several rotating magnetic disks, over which magnetic heads move, magnetizing some part of the disk and thus writing information onto it (in the form of zeros and ones).

The disk itself is divided into tracks, and the latter, in turn, are divided into sectors onto which the information the user needs is recorded.

Due to certain reasons (I will list them below), information from a number of sectors cannot be read by the hard drive. Such sectors receive the status of “bad sectors” (bad sector), and the system tries to either restore the functionality of such a sector (restore), or reassign the address of such a bad sector to the backup sector (remap), or completely clean up the bad sector (erase). In the case of remapping, spare workable sectors are usually located at the end of the hard drive, and the hard drive spends additional time accessing them, which inevitably affects the speed of the hard drive and the loading of various applications and programs. Next, I will tell you how you can check your computer’s hard drive for bad sectors.

Reasons for bad sectors

What are the reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on an HDD disk? Usually they are as follows:

• Gradual “shedding” of the surface of the hard drive due to its wear, due to which there are more and more bad sectors on the disk;
• Physical impact on the hard drive due to various types of external shocks;
• Power surges in the network, which directly affect the violation of data integrity on the hard drive and lead to the appearance of bad sectors;
• Incorrect shutdown of the computer (improper operation), as a result of which bad sectors appear on the hard drive.

Symptoms of bad sectors

Due to the reasons described, there are more and more bad sectors on the hard drive, which begins to directly affect the operation of the operating system. In particular, you may notice the following:

• The system boots slowly;
• The system slows down (freezes) when reading and writing data from the hard drive;
• The system refuses to boot at all (quite often in the middle of the process);
• The computer sometimes restarts for no reason;
• Various errors regularly occur while the OS is running.

After we have described the symptoms and reasons for the appearance of bad sectors, let’s move on to a description of how to check a hard drive for bad sectors.

The best ways to check your hard drive for bad sectors

So how to check bad sectors (and fix them)? Below I will describe a number of methods that have proven their effectiveness in working with various hard drives.

Method 1. Use the CHKDSK system utility

The easiest and most convenient way to find and fix bad sectors on an HHD hard drive is to use the functionality of the CHKDSK system utility.

1. To take advantage of its capabilities, launch Explorer, right-click on an inactive volume (on which there is no operating system installed), and select “Properties” from the menu that appears.
2. In the window that opens, go to the “Service” tab, there click on the “Run check” button.
3. Check the boxes next to the two verification options, click on “Run”, and wait for the process to complete.

The same can be done for the system volume (on which the OS is installed). The only thing is that this may require a system reboot, but after the system reboots, it will begin checking the disk for bad sectors.

You can also run CHKDSK through the console. To do this, run the command line as an administrator and enter:

chkdsk c: /f /r - (instead of: if necessary, specify a different letter of the problematic drive) press enter and wait for the process to complete.

Method 2. Use the Victoria HDD program to analyze and treat the disk

Victoria HDD is probably the most popular program for checking a hard drive for bad sectors (and even for restoring the latter). It effectively checks and repairs bad sectors, has good reviews from experts, and can be used in both classic graphics mode and DOS mode.

One of the Wiki bonuses is the ability to read the SMART indicator of your hard drive, which allows you to monitor in sufficient detail the degree of its performance (the “SMART” tab of the program). In addition, the Victoria program performs “remapping” (reassignment of damaged sectors), resets bad sectors, conducts a detailed test of the hard drive surface, ranking sectors into different groups depending on the speed of reading information from them.

1. To use this program, download and run it.
2. Then go to the “Test” tab, select “Ignore” there and check the surface for bad sectors.
3. If such are found, you should select the “Remap” mode in the same tab, this will allow you to reassign addresses from bad sectors to backup ones.
4. If, after remapping, bad sectors remain, you can try to restore them using the “Restore” function, while the “Erase” function completely erases data in bad sectors, writing zeros there.

In general, the functionality of “Victoria” is quite extensive, and to get a full description of it, you need to go to the material specifically about using the program.

Method 3. Use the HDD Scan program to check the hard drive for bad sectors

Another program that can check a hard drive for bad sectors is HDD Scan. This is a fairly popular utility that offers several different tests (Surface Test, Smart Offline Tests, etc.). Select Surface Test, check the “Read” box on the right and run a disk surface test.

The program will analyze the response time of the available sectors and give us the result in graphical mode.

Method 4. Check your hard drive with HDD Regenerator

The HDD Regenerator program allows you to check and restore data on your hard drive, the same applies to bad sectors. I note that the program is paid, but those interested can search for free options online.

1. To take advantage of the program’s capabilities, you need to launch it, select the disk to work with, decide on the scanning mode (I recommend Normal Scan), and then select the “Scan and repair” option.
2. Then it will be necessary to specify the scanning boundaries (starting from sector 0) and monitor the scanning process itself.
3. Depending on the response speed, sectors will be marked with different letters and colors.

Method 5. Scan the disk with HDD Health for damaged sectors

Another program for checking the disk surface for damaged sectors. HDD Health analyzes the general condition of the disk, provides detailed statistics on existing partitions (using SMART technology, including the general health of the structure, disk rotation temperature, the presence of bad sectors, and so on).

The icon of the running program is located in the system tray, and the program itself notifies the user, as necessary, of any problems in the operation of the hard drive.

Recovering a hard drive, removing BAD (bad) sectors [video]

Typically, checking a hard drive for bad sectors is carried out using special software tools, the Victoria HDD level or HDD Regenerator. The most effective of all the programs listed in the article, Victoria HDD, allows you not only to check the surface of the hard drive for bad sectors, but also to restore them, remap them and clean them. If bad sectors begin to appear on your hard drive, then I recommend using the functionality of the above programs; they have proven their effectiveness in working with the hard drives of many users.

There is no need to say that a computer hard drive is an ordinary piece of hardware with a limited service life. Everyone knows this. The only question is when exactly it will fail. To prevent this from happening, a constant check of the disk's performance is required. Now we will look at what this process is like in different versions, and will also touch on topics such as data recovery, bad sectors and the hard drive itself in the presence of physical damage.

Why is hard drive diagnostics necessary?

As a rule, not every user of modern computer systems thinks about the condition of the hard drive, which stores a huge amount of information. Unfortunately, many users begin to solve this problem only after the hard drive “crumbles” or is, so to speak, on the verge of a foul.

Here, every user should understand that at least a weekly check of the hard drive for functionality will not only increase its service life, but will also prevent the emergence of extremely unpleasant situations related to disruptions in the operation of the operating systems themselves.

System errors are perhaps one of the most common phenomena. Their occurrence may be associated, say, with incorrect shutdown of programs, a power outage at the most inopportune moment, cleaning the inside of the computer, when the connection of the HDD cables to the motherboard is disrupted, etc. What can I say, even an overestimated number of spindle revolutions at An attempt to speed up access to data stored on a hard drive can play a cruel joke. However, this is not about that now. Let's look at the most common and most effective means by which a hard drive is diagnosed.

Standard verification tools

Let's start with the fact that users of absolutely all versions of Windows operating systems have available tools. Although they are quite primitive, they nevertheless allow you to get rid of many problems, most often associated with system errors.

The simplest tool is the built-in hard drive diagnostic utility, called from the properties of the hard drive or logical partition in the context menu from the standard Explorer.

There is a special cleaning button for removing junk or unused files, there is a button for checking the hard drive for errors (on the “General” tab), as well as two buttons in the service menu that allow you to run processes for checking for system errors and optimization.

In addition, in any version of Windows, you can use the command line or the Run menu, where you enter the chkdisk command with different variations. When standard checking for system errors, it is advisable to use the additional automatic correction option. If absolutely necessary, you can also enable checking the surface of the hard drive (the so-called Surface Test).

Now let's take a different look at the question of what hard drive diagnostics are. Windows 7, for example, like any other “operating system” of this “family”, can use not only the standard command for checking system errors on the hard drive. Today, not all users know that the chkdisc line can easily be supplemented with letters and symbols, the use of which as a main command will help perform various actions.

For example, entering the line chkdsk c: /f provides automatic error correction. For an NTFS file system, the chkntfs c: /x command is applicable with the same result. In this case, not only system errors are searched, but the hard drive is also checked for bad sectors. However, in most cases, the same automatic startup starts even when the system itself boots after unexpected failures. Unfortunately, such a hard drive diagnostic program cannot always boast of a positive result. This is why many specialists and experts in this field recommend using more powerful third-party utilities. But more on that later.

Defragmenting your hard drive

Separately, it is worth noting that diagnosing and restoring a hard drive cannot be done without using the defragmentation process. The fact is that at this time the most frequently used files or program components are moved to the fastest areas of the hard drive. If there are bad sectors, this is the first means of restoring application launches.

Basically, nothing special happens - the logical address with the file checksum remains the same. Only its physical location changes. And who knows, maybe there is, say, physical damage in the place where the file was originally stored? No one is immune from this.

Formatting your hard drive

In the most extreme case, the system provides for partial or complete formatting (well, if nothing helps at all). The essence of this process in the first case comes down to clearing the table of contents (MBR file allocation tables), after which the data can be restored using special utilities. In the second option, the situation is much worse. When fully formatted, the data is deleted without any possibility of recovery.

This can be explained with an example. During normal deletion, the file is not erased in terms of its physical presence on the hard drive. It’s just that the capital letter in its name is changed to the “$” symbol. After this, neither the user nor the system itself sees such a file. But it is precisely by this symbol that it is possible to restore it. It is clear that any recovery utility (such as Recuva) first determines the state of the hard drive, after which it identifies deleted files by the first character and finds out the degree of their damage and the possibility of recovery. But this only applies to those cases when certain sectors of the hard drive were not overwritten. If other information was saved in this place on top of the old one, no program for checking the hard drive for errors in order to further restore the information will help.

Removing computer junk

Residual or unused files can also cause system errors to appear on the disk. We are not talking about physical damage now. But in terms of the fact that the system constantly accesses the system registry, which contains keys and entries about absolutely all folders and files located on the hard drive, this is quite a big problem.

Such constant access only leads to the fact that even the loading of the Windows OS itself slows down, not to mention the launch of user programs and applications.

To get rid of all this, you can use utilities for completely removing installed programs or special automatic cleaners, optimizers such as iObit Uninstaller, CCleaner.

Checking for bad sectors

Almost every third-party hard drive diagnostic utility is capable of performing a special test for the presence of bad sectors. As is already clear, errors of this kind are corrected by rewriting the checksums of the files to another location. In essence, the functions of defragmentation and standard scanning are combined here. Among other things, there are quite a lot of software packages that even allow you to avoid repairing or replacing a hard drive if it falls apart.

What to do if the HDD is physically damaged?

The HDD Regenerator software package is a unique program for diagnosing a hard drive that may have been physically damaged or damaged.

It works using a completely non-standard technology. Not only does it check the hard drive for bad sectors, it is also capable of resuscitating the hard drive even if the surface is damaged. The essence of the impact method itself comes down to the use of hard drive magnetization reversal technology.

It was created relatively recently, however, as practice shows, it has managed to prove itself at the highest level. By the way, using it does not even require formatting the hard drive with subsequent deletion of important information and identification of undamaged sectors. And this is one of the most important advantages of the package. What do you think the FBI uses to recover hard drive data from computer hackers and pirates? That's it. In addition, the hard drive is checked for functionality in such a way that the user does not need to interfere with the process itself. Agree, it’s very convenient.

Actually, this is the most powerful program that can be used to diagnose a hard drive. Windows 7, of course, is no exception as a platform for running the resuscitator. The application works perfectly in almost all systems, starting with the “expansion” system.

The most powerful utilities for checking hard drives

As for some standard utilities of this type, you can find quite a lot of them on the Internet.

Among the most interesting are applications and software packages such as Norton Disc Doctor, ScanHDD, Victoria.

A good program that can be used to diagnose a hard drive is Victoria. She deserves special attention. Although it was created by a Belarusian programmer-enthusiast, it occupies one of the first places in the world of modern computer systems and technologies.

It is worth noting that this application is capable of working both in normal mode (when run in a Windows environment) and in DOS emulation mode, which is not supported by many operating systems. What is most interesting is that it is in DOS that the program demonstrates the highest performance.

As for the interface and control system, they are terribly simple. To start the analysis, just click the appropriate button. For most users, checking the hard drive in Russian is provided by default. It is also advisable not to change the basic parameters, especially if you are not a qualified user in this area.

On the other hand, the advanced settings for hard drive checking and error correction parameters provide a fairly flexible configuration. True, in order for an uninitiated user to understand all this, it is necessary to at least carefully study the accompanying technical documentation.

Recovering data from an image

Now let's deal with the issue of data recovery in case of loss or unexpected deletion. If you look at it, diagnosing a hard drive using standard or third-party tools cannot be done without creating a system restore checkpoint.

Few people think about this, but in vain. Thus, even if the result of any utility is incorrect, you can always make a so-called rollback to the initial state without losing data. True, in the case of using Windows operating systems, as stated, the changes do not affect user files. However, the truth is that even a system restore from a checkpoint restores all deleted data.

In this case, it is better, naturally, to use a system image. Here it will certainly be clear that only the data that was registered in the image itself will be restored.

External media

As is already clear, diagnostics of an external hard drive such as a USB HDD or a regular flash drive is carried out according to the same principle that applies to standard disk drives. The only thing worth paying attention to is the inclusion of the required component in the list of devices being tested.

This applies equally to standard Windows operating system tools and specialized utilities for checking HDDs or recovering data.

BIOS

It is also worth noting the BIOS settings, without which some programs created to check and diagnose the status of hard drives simply will not work.

In particular, this applies to the SATA controller mode, which sometimes needs to be switched from AHCI mode to IDE mode. Only in this case is guaranteed uninterrupted access to the hard drive with all the ensuing consequences.

As a rule, after installing this mode, absolutely all programs can access the hard drive, naturally, using user-controlled parameters. It goes without saying that the BIOS is accessed differently on different devices. In the standard version, this is pressing the Del key before starting the system; sometimes you can use the function keys F2 and F12. It all depends on the BIOS version and the developer. However, when loading, the system itself signals in the status bar what exactly needs to be clicked to enter the main settings.

Instead of an afterword

Now let's try to sum up all of the above. It remains to add that diagnosing a hard drive is the key to the normal functioning of a computer system and data storage. Moreover, this concerns not only Windows performance, but also optimization of access to files and folders.

Everyone chooses for themselves which tool with which to diagnose a hard drive to use for their needs, but with a high degree of probability we can say that better utilities than Victoria and HDD Regenerator have not yet been created. This statement is based not only on calculating the performance of the software packages themselves, but also on the results of the tests that they demonstrate. And, I must say, these indicators are superior to all other programs taken together, not to mention the standard tools of Windows operating systems, which, alas, are not particularly flexible and effective. Even in the top ten, the results are far from encouraging.

Separately, we need to dwell on the issue of simultaneous use of several tools for checking the hard drive in one system. It happens that permanently installed software packages may conflict with each other. This is due to the fact that some of them try to work in the background, like optimization programs that constantly “hang” in the system tray.

If it so happens that there are several applications of this kind on one computer terminal, you should remove one of them, and instead use, say, a portable version that does not install its own files and libraries into the system. This allows you to start the scanning process of a hard drive or removable media even from a regular flash drive. Even if the program’s executable file and additional folders are present on the same flash drive, this does not interfere with the launch of the utility.

Here it is worth paying attention to one more fact. As sad as it sounds, with the transition to Windows 10, with a free update from the official Microsoft website, some utilities of this type flatly refuse to work. The situation is such that the “ten” blocks not only the installation of applications of this kind, considering them as such that they can harm the system, but also does not launch even some portable versions of programs. So here you will have to scour the Internet thoroughly to find something that works more or less normally.

Today we’ll talk about such an important computer component as the hard drive.

Sometimes users complain about the slow operation of the system, its frequent freezes, the appearance of blue screens of death BSOD, system errors, missing or damaged files and/or directories, etc., not suspecting that the problem is not at all in buggy Windows, clumsy drivers or viruses.

The problem is the hard drive, which is slowly starting to crumble. This is where a program for checking your hard drive comes in handy.

To understand the further content of the article, first consider the principle of operation of a hard drive.

In addition to error detection, there is also a function to automatically correct them and restore the ability to read and write to the hard drive.

In addition to diagnosing hard drives, the tool can also be used to diagnose removable media (USB, SD cards, etc.).

Before checking the disk, close all programs and applications.

Click Start, write “My Computer” in the program search field, and select the item found by the system. In the central window we see a list of hard drives.

Right-click on the hard drive you want to check and select “Properties”.

Go to the “Service” tab and click the “Run check” button, in the window that opens, check the “Automatically correct system errors” checkbox and click the “Run” button.

For initial diagnostics, these settings are quite sufficient.

For more detailed diagnostics, you need to check another box in the “Scan and repair bad sectors” field.

In this mode, verification may take longer than in the previous one.

If the disk you select is a system one, i.e. an operating system is installed on it, it is impossible to perform a check at this point in time, because When checking, the disk must be disconnected.

In this case, the system will display a warning window and prompt you to perform a scan before the next Windows startup (“Disk Check Schedule”).

If the disk you select is not the system one, there is no need to restart the computer; before checking, the system will prompt you to disconnect it.

You must click “Disable” in the appropriate window, after which the scan will begin.

After the check is completed, we will see a window with its results.

The presence of bad sectors is the first sign that after some time the hard drive will fail.

Therefore, to avoid losing valuable information, we recommend that you do not waste time and immediately copy all valuable data to another physical hard drive.

Review of third-party programs for checking drives

To diagnose a hard drive, there are quite a large number of different utilities of varying functionality and convenience with free or paid types of licensing.

MHDD- a fast, free, compact program for working with low-level drives developed in 2000 by Dmitry Postrigan.

The program is aimed at professionals and has an ascetic DOS interface.

In addition to diagnostics, the program can read/write arbitrary sectors, manage the SMART and password system, noise management system, perform extreme testing, work with the drive’s password system, etc.

Before working with the program, in order to avoid damage to the equipment being diagnosed, the developer strongly recommends that you read the documentation for the program available on the official website.

Advantages:

Free;

Compact;

Fast.

Flaws:

Works exclusively under DOS so is not suitable for beginners;

Has relatively complex settings;

English interface language.

HDDExpert- a free utility whose operating principle is to convert SMART information of drives into data convenient for user perception and analysis.

The program provides complete information about computer hard drives (performance, errors, warnings, temperature) and has the ability to test their performance.

Despite the lack of Russian language support, the program has a simple interface that even a beginner can understand.

The program's capabilities are limited by the parameters of SMART technology, so you can't count on serious diagnostics and testing.

Advantages:

Has a simple interface.

Flaws:

Suitable for primary, shallow diagnostics;

Victoria. For testing hard drives, as well as for eliminating some problems, in 99% of cases the Victoria program is suitable.

It was developed by Belarusian programmer Sergei Kazansky, is absolutely free, has a small size (up to 1 MB) and works with hard drives at the port level, i.e. at the lowest level, which allows achieving high performance qualities.

Due to these characteristics, service center specialists prefer to use the program.

In addition to more complex tasks, the program allows you to perform a number of tasks for the average PC user:

• perform low-level testing,
• determine the average access time,
• control the noise level,
• erase information without the possibility of subsequent recovery and much more.

Among other things, the program can work in Windows and DOS environments.

DOS mode is relevant when the operating system cannot be loaded and it is necessary to check the hard drive.

Advantages:

Free;

Compact;

Has a wide range of functions;

Works in MS DOS and MS Windows;

Has a simple interface.

Flaws:

The project is not being developed and some of the widely used versions of the utility have an English interface and do not support work in 64-bit operating systems.

The problem is solved by downloading alternative versions of the program created by the community.

Perhaps the most important component of a PC is the hard drive (HDD), since it contains all the information created by the user. Of course, any HDD needs timely maintenance, namely checking for errors and bad sectors, in order to avoid the loss of important information.

A “bad sector” is an unreadable sector on a hard drive. It can be natural: the factory state of some sectors of any hard drive, an inevitable manufacturing defect, or acquired - a successful power failure, a shock, a leak. Few people are interested in the appearance of bad sectors one by one; this is a routine that SMART successfully grinds up.
The emergence of interest in bad sectors is usually associated with the fact that you have a partially or completely unreadable disk. From this point of view, the classification is simple:

1. Broken sectors are permanent, for example, those associated with surface damage - something that cannot be restored.
2. Broken sectors are temporary, associated with non-fatal errors in logic, which is what you can try to pull out; strictly speaking, the question of the operability of the restored sectors remains open.

The number of bad sectors on the disk can be:

• Constant within normal limits (live hdd). No action required.
• Constantly above normal (usually the consequences of a blow). Sometimes it can be done with manual intervention.
• Growing (crumbled due to age or design). Requires urgent replacement of the hard drive.

Reasons for the appearance of a bad HDD sector

To put it simply, the modern hard drive is a product of the evolution of the gramophone. The record spins, the head reads the record sector by sector, the control unit glues files from the read pieces. The head hovers above the surface of the plate, and when it stops, it falls. There are readable and unreadable sectors on the tracks; a sector itself is the minimum part of the track, Wikipedia will confirm.

This model is sufficient to demonstrate the main problems:

1. Damage to the surface of the disk—mechanical contact of the plate with the head—may cause the disk to shed, or may remain a fixed area.
2. A partial change in the surface properties (magnetization) of a sector (a typical reanimated sector) can be extended by referring to neighboring sectors.
3. Various logic errors, SMART arbitrariness, fs errors (everything corrects itself during operation and based on the results of self-diagnosis).
4. Shedding of the magnetic layer from the surface is known as a sign of old age, but may be a consequence of loss of tightness.

Contrary to popular belief, a blow to the case of a working HDD is not as bad as vibration. The head is held above the surface by such cunning magic that touching the surface requires a significant force, which is unlikely to occur upon impact, but is easily achieved by resonance.

How to check a disk for bad sectors and errors

It is worth remembering that the disk is checked for reading, checking sectors for writing will erase everything that was on the disk! Well, it’s also worth keeping in mind that for a proper test, the disk must be free from other tasks at the time of testing. Checking a hard drive for bad sectors is not a common task; Windows does everything that is necessary automatically.

Windows has long had a utility that checks and corrects hard drive errors, chkdsk. You can find the utility in the disk properties, the button is called “check disk”.
Any self-respecting manufacturer, when releasing a disk, puts on the website a diagnostic utility that not only monitors the condition of the HDD, but can also carry out service actions designed to alleviate its suffering, sometimes even including calibration. Checking hard disk sectors is a must for this class of programs.

In addition, there is a zoo of diagnostic, repair, “professional” tools, in which the devil himself would break his leg for a long time. And quite a large number of truly professional programs for analysis and repair. It is worth noting that most of them are destructive, that is, with their help you can kill a working hard drive in a way that not every master can restore.

Programs for checking your hard drive for bad sectors

For those who do not believe in chkdsk, graphical programs for checking the hard drive, or rather more or less gentle tools that do not punish for the wrong key, are HDD Regenerator, HDD Health. Graphical utilities show a health graph, tell you what parameters are being tested and, importantly, have adequately labeled buttons that make it easy to understand the program. Linux users are less fortunate; most utilities are console-based and require an understanding of the parameters.
Among the utilities from the manufacturer, it is worth remembering Seagate SeaTools - a convenient, powerful program, all its power is manifested only on native hard drives, but checking hard drive sectors is also available for “outsiders”

Checking HDD using Windows 7 and 10

Checking your hard drive for errors using Windows always involves running chkdsk in recovery mode. This launch can be done using the button in the disk properties.
“My Computer” -> “Properties” -> “Tools” → “disk check” “Run check”.

Or, if the button is missing, this occurs in some editions of Windows 10, this check can be easily launched from the command line as an administrator using the command
chkdsk c: /f where c: is the letter of the drive being checked. Checking the hdd for bad sectors in the case of a system partition will begin after a reboot, since checking requires exclusive access to the disk.

You should not run this command often, but the check window that appears at every boot is the reason for the question: “how to check a hard drive for errors” and the answer to this question, since it is usually associated with disk problems.

What to do if you detect bad sectors on your hard drive

Not so long ago, hard drives were released on which it was possible to manually reassign sectors, and this is why many people are convinced that formatting from Bios cures all illnesses. But alas, now calibration is so complicated that it is carried out once at the manufacturer. It should also be understood that most changes in surface condition are irreversible and nothing can be restored. It can often be reassigned without loss of capacity, although it all depends on the condition of the “patient”.

Options for hard drive states and subsequent actions:

• The disk is working, works well, is stable, the percentage of bad ones is not growing - make a backup, forget that there are bad sectors on it and enjoy life.
• The disk is basically working, the number of bad sectors is not growing, but when accessing a certain area there are problems - try to divide it into partitions without affecting the problem area, save for a new one.
• The disk is not working, strong brakes, smart and BIOS warnings - change the hard drive.

Programs for recovering HDD drives

Victoria and Mhdd, any of these programs allows you to conduct a complete diagnosis and save the drive from many problems. They are launched from DOS and require careful study of the manual before starting, as they can irreversibly destroy the data or logic of the hard drive! In general, do not start without knowing what you are doing, especially since such hard drive maintenance has long been entrusted to the shoulders of the controller and in most cases he copes with it. If it's not broken, don't fix it; this old advice is most relevant when it comes to the broken sector.

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