Hello everybody! In this video, I’m going to show you how to check your hard disk if
your computer can’t boot. I’ll show
you how to scan it quickly with free software, and how to find out if there was a hard disk
failure, or there is another issue that prevents your PC from booting up, check the hard disk
for bad sectors and so on.
If you see an error like this when you start your PC, and the system won’t boot, use
the free utility Hiren’s BootCD PE. This is a distribution package for emergency recovery:
in addition to the hard disk checking tool, it also contains a a set of utilities for
recovering data, operating system, antivirus and other interesting stuff.
You can download it from the official website by following the link below this video.
After the download is finished, you will need to create a bootable flash drive with this
utility; in this website, there is a special program to help you with it and a manual on
using it, which is available in English only.
To download a program for creating a boot disk, click on the tab “USB booting” and
download “ISO2USB.exe.” Connect a flash drive to the computer, run
the program, select your USB drive here and specify the path to the image you have downloaded
from the given link, and then click on “Process.” It’s a simple step that takes little time.
In BIOS, you should change the boot priority so that the computer boots from the USB drive.
You can watch one of our videos to see how to do it properly. Find the link in the description.
After booting, you can see the desktop very similar to that in Windows 10. Open the folder
Utilities, Hard Disk Tools, Diagnostic. In this folder, run the utility WD Data Lifeguard
Diagnostics, accept the license agreement and click Next.
To check a drive or see its SMART data, select the device and then choose the icon in the
upper row, or right-click on it. After you click on the line “Run Diagnostics”,
you will see a window with the following menu options:
QUICK TEST - performs SMART drive quick self-test to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information.
EXTENDED TEST - performs a full disk scan to detect bad sectors. Duration of the test
depends on the drive capacity and can last for several hours.
ERASE - overwrites the disk contents with zeros. There are two modes available: full
erase and quick erase. The file system and all data on this drive will be destroyed.
VIEW TEST RESULT - shows results of the last test.
Before you start any of the tests, it is recommended to back up all important data because it may
get damaged and be lost during the checkup. Choose the test you’d like to run and click
on the “Start” button. When the process is over, you will see the
message if this drive completed the test successfully, and then you should click on the “Close”
button.
The GSmartControl utility analyzes SMART information of the disk, determines its health and can
run various tests. It will automatically inform you about any
disk issues, and will show you detailed reports on the disk, its attributes and statistics.
So you can run tests, view the error log, temperature log and many other things.
HD Tune is another utility for a hard disk or solid-state drive with a number of useful
functions. You can use it to test the disk performance, check it for errors, see its
health values (SMART), erase all data safely and so on.
For example, you can quickly check the hard disk for bad sectors. To do it, select this
tab, check the box next to “Quick Scan” and click “Start.” Then you will see if
this disk has any bad sectors. They will be shown in red.
In the tab “Info” you can find all the information available for this disk.
With these utilities, you will be able to find out if the booting issue is caused by
the malfunctioning hard disk.
When you make certain that your disk is damaged, you can try restoring it.
Use your browser to download a utility to fix the hard disk - for example, Victoria.
There is a special video in our channel about using it.
Alternatively, you can check the disk and repair errors with the command CHKDSK.
If the disk is all right, but the operating system is damaged, there is also a good utility
to restore it - Lazersoft Windows Recovery. With a single click, you can solve booting
issues of a Windows operating system, or use other functions of this tool.
Check the disk for errors with CHKDSK but without having to type any commands - just
push a few buttons. Restore the registry, check the system memory,
and even get to know the license key for your operating system which you will need when
reinstalling the system. This LiveCD features a lot of utilities you
will find useful when encountering various problems with your PC - the only minor disadvantage
is that the whole system and all of its tools support English language only.
That is all for now. Hit the Like button and subscribe to our channel. Leave comments to
ask questions. Thank you for watching. Good luck.