Hello everybody!
In today’s video, I’m going to show you a few good programs to help you test a hard
disk and fix any errors they can find.
Most old HDDs do experience certain errors or contain the so-called bad blocks which
are, in fact, unreadable sectors.
Having bad blocks means you are bound to face some sort of negative consequences sooner
or later - it’s only a matter of time before you are going to lose important data.
To prevent that misfortune, it is recommended to test hard disks for bad blocks regularly.
There are tools that can help you examine a hard disk and even fix the blocks that have
gone bad over time.
Any Windows operating system contains an integrated utility for checking hard drives for errors
(unsurprisingly, it is called Chkdsk), but it isn’t actually intended for disk diagnostics
and testing.
That is why I’ll be talking about other, more effective tools to test a hard disk and
fix possible issues.
So, let’s begin.
HDD Regenerator For starters, we have HDD Regenerator.
It’s a professional tool for disk diagnostics, scanning and fixing hard disk errors.
HDD Regenerator can both detect errors, problems and bad blocks, and repair them.
In other words, you can use it as a tool to restore damaged hard disk sectors.
HDD Regenerator can also be used as a tool for recovering damaged data.
If the computer can’t read some data (or if the hard disk is detected but is not displayed
in “This PC” window), this tool can help you bypass the damaged clusters and still
read the faulty files.
The program also features a special test for disk operability, while S.M.A.R.T data adds
more information.
HDD Regenerator includes all the tools required to check a hard disk and repair any errors.
It supports FAT and NTFS file systems, Offers detailed information on the hard disk
health and performance.
And can create a bootable regenerating USB drive, CD or DVD.
In addition, it features a Prescan mode - a quick scan of the disk surface, and
Real-time disk monitoring Visit out channel for a detailed video guide
on using this tool.
We are going to have that link below.
Windows Drive Fitness Test (WinDFT)
The next one on the list is Windows Drive Fitness Test
Windows Drive Fitness Test (WinDFT for short) is one more free diagnostics utility for hard
disks of any type, brought to you by well-known hard disk manufacturer Western Digital (earlier,
it was introduced by Hitachi).
However, the tool is good to test ANY disks, not only those produced by WD or Hitachi.
It includes not only several disk scan functions, but also options for SMART attributes preview
and disk cleanup.
Though WinDFT is designed to work in a Windows environment, it CANNOT scan or test the disk
containing the operating system.
By way of compensation for that, it supports work with external hard disks and other USB
media.
The main menu displays only supported drives and brief information on them, such as model
name, serial number, firmware, capacity and status.
Double-click on a disk to see its SMART status.
Choose between Quick Test or Extended Test.
It can run the test for one or even several disks at the same time.
By pressing the Utilities button, you can see an advanced menu that opens in a dedicated
window.
There’s a number of extra functions to choose from: erase MBR, erase disk, short test, long
test and so on.
If you can’t boot from the system disk, WinDFT can run as LiveCD.
An important feature in terms of subsequent data recovery is that this tool tests the
disk without overwriting data.
Seagate SeaTools for Windows Another utility in today’s review is SeaTools
for Windows by Seagate It is a free tool for disk diagnostics and
error correction, as well as for testing disk performance.
It can help you detect any issues your disk might have before you will be forced to contact
a service center.
Unfortunately, this program has ONLY limited product compatibility and only works with
Seagate hard disks.
Here’s a brief list of problems it can detect: Damage to the file system
Bad blocks, read errors, driver errors and system failures
Incompatible hardware MBR issues
Presence of viruses, key loggers and other malware
To start work, select a test and run it.
When it’s over, you will see a detailed report.
If the HDD completed the test successfully, you will see PASS, and if things are not so
fine, you’ll see FAIL.
Another thing to remember is that testing a hard disk can take up to 4 hours.
So to save your time you can choose from three options.
Seagate SeaTools can scan hard disks for bad sectors and repair them.
In the course of repairing, the tool either tries to restore bad blocks or zero-fill them
(this method makes the operating system ignore bad blocks during read or write operations).
https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/
HDD Health HDD Health - another free utility for testing
hard disks and monitoring their health.
It examines a hard disk for errors and calculates a kind of a health index to predict its behavior
in the future.
It can work with both HDDs and SSDs.
This is the information you can see in its main window:
Manufacturer, firmware, current temperature, general status, as well as other attributes
in the extended information window.
As well as other diagnostics utilities, HDD Health reads the S.M.A.R.T data which gives
you a general idea of the disk status and performance.
This program contains no other components for detecting errors and checking the disk
for bad blocks.
Summing up, it is good for quick diagnostics UNLESS your disk is in a critical condition.
You can download the tool from the official website.
Find the link below.
https://hdd-health.en.softonic.com/
HDDScan HDDScan is a free diagnostics utility for
hard disks which can read S.M.A.R.T.
attributes, check the SSD status and examine a number of other things.
After a disk test, you will see a log file containing detailed information on its condition.
HDDScan supports various storage devices: RAID arrays, hard disks with IDE and SATA
interfaces, SSDs as well as USB drives.
This utility helps you check the disk for errors that integrated Windows tools will
never show you.
I mean physical and logical bad blocks or bad sectors, whatever you call them.
You can choose between several types of tests (verify, read, butterfly, erase)
It also features temperature monitoring for all hard disks connected to your computer
and it can export any data into a configurable report file.
You can check the download link below.
https://hddscan.en.softonic.com/
CHKDSK As I was saying at the beginning of this video,
Windows also has a disk-checking utility of its own, - Check Disk/
Windows 10 and Windows 8 already have the feature of checking hard disks for errors
automatically, but you can do it manually as well.
Open properties for a hard disk, select the tab “Tools” and click on “Check.”
Alternatively, you can open Command Prompt and run the CHKDSK command.
However, this utility can help you find and fix only some basic issues.
Unfortunately, it is not intended to search all kinds of errors and it can’t help you
with diagnosing an HDD at all.
However, with CHKDSK, you can fix errors on your storage devices and even repair some
damaged partitions.
As a result, such partitions will be marked in a special way so other tools will ignore
them when reading or writing data.
Follow the link below to watch a detailed video guide on checking and fixing a hard
disk with this utility.
Summing up, I’d like to say that this is only a brief list of tools for testing hard
disks, as I selected only a few popular applications.
You can check the description for this video and find links to many other free utilities
like DiskCheckup, GSmart Control, Samsung HUTIL,
Bart’s Stuff Test, HD Tune, EASIS Drive Check, Macrorit Disk Scanner, Ariolic Disk
Scanner, and the famous Victoria.
That’s all for today!
I hope you find this video useful.
Don’t forget to hit the Like button and subscribe to our channel.
Leave comments to ask questions and share your opinion.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.
(…And may your disks always be healthy)