One of the most significant problems a computer owner can encounter is a hard drive that fails. Besides having to buy a new one, there is a risk of losing some or all of the data stored on the hard drive. Since the life expectancy of a hard disk is between 3 and 5 years, the need for a regular HDD status health examination becomes obvious.
Thus, we have created a brief summary of recommended tests to check the health of an HDD.
S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a monitoring system embedded in any modern HDD or SSD but unfortunately only makes its presence known when a hardware failure is imminent.
Many utility software tools can read the various reliability indicators used by S.M.A.R.T.
Any modern version of a Windows operating system has a tool called Check Disk, which is a simple way to search and identify errors on an HDD. But it seems to have little utility in identifying hardware issues.
Many diagnostic tools can help us anticipate and protect ourselves from the unavoidable circumstances of an HDD failure.
All these utilities read the S.M.A.R.T. readings mentioned above, which provides information on read and write speed, temperature, and other crucial HDD reliability indicators.
Here are a few of the most used such utilities today:
1. IOLO System Mechanic Pro
2. HD Tune
3. PassMark DiskCheckup
4. Samsung HUTIL
5. Seagate SeaTool
6. CrystalDiskInfo
7. Bart’s Stuff Test
8. GSmartControl
9. Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool
10. HDDScan
11. Windows Drive Fitness Test (WinDFT)
12. Ariolic Disk Scanner
13. Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic (DLGDIAG)
14.Free EASIS Drive Check
15.Macrorit Disk Scanner
However, our own suggestion would be any one of these free diagnosis tools: PassMark DiskCheckup, CrystalDiskInfo or HDDScan. These utilities incorporate the S.M.A.R.T. mentioned above into their overall report, which helps them provide information on read and write speed, temperature, and other important hard disk reliability indicators.
PassMark DiskCheckup
DiskCheckup is a free hard disk drive testing program designed for personal use. You need to download a small 2 MB file, which is quite simple to install and it will immediately report the specific S.M.A.R.T. attributes.
Within the SMART Info tab, you can view the current status and values of the following attributes: raw read error rate, spin up time, reported uncorrectable errors, power on time ), load cycle count, temperature, command timeout, current pending sector count, total logical block addressing read (total number of positioning hard disk drive, free fall protection, and head flying hours.
You can also enable “Record SMART attributes for TEC computation” in the Configuration function of the program. This option stores a history of the DiskCheckup monitored attributes that can be used (if enough data is compiled) to estimate when they will be out of control, and a malfunction is possible. The exciting part of this option is that you can choose (in the same Configuration window) to receive a message from the program when things are working poorly or even send an email to one or more addresses.
DiskCheckup can also run two types of Disk Self Tests: a short one that lasts about 5 minutes and an extended one which, depending on the state of the HDD, can take up to 45 minutes. Both can check for errors on the hard drive and also can display information about the interface type (e.g., SATA), model, serial number, capability, compliance standards, geometry, and supported features. This data can be exported to a TXT file.
Note: DiskCheckup can not diagnose external hard drives.