Frequent errors in the system or even rebooting with the "Death screen" are forced to conduct a thorough analysis of all components of the computer. In this article we will talk about how the easiest way to check the battered sectors on the hard disk, as well as assess its condition without calling expensive specialists.
Check hard disk for performance
All further action will be made using special software. You do not need to use each software alternately, because it will be enough to choose only one option. First, we suggest familiarizing yourself with all the presented methods in order to find a perfect solution for yourself.Method 1: HDD Health
The simplest and speed program capable of quickly checking the hard disk for health is HDD Health. The local interface is very friendly, and the built-in monitoring system will not let you skip serious problems with the memory device even on the laptop. Supports both HDD and SSD drives. The process itself is as follows:
- Download the program and set through the EXE file.
- When starting the program can immediately turn into a tray and start monitoring real-time. Click on the icon in the tray unfolds the main window.
- Here you need to choose a disc and evaluate the performance and temperature of each. If the temperature is not more than 40 degrees, and the state of health is 100% - it is not necessary to worry.
- You can check the hard disk on error by pressing "Drive"> "Smart Attributes ...". It displays the promotion time, the readability frequency, the number of attempts to promotion and much more.
- See that the value ("value") or the worst value in history ("Worst") did not exceed the threshold ("Threshold"). The permissible threshold is determined by the manufacturer, and if the displayed values exceed it several times, it will have to take measures to correct the situation.
- If you do not at all understand the subtleties of all parameters, just leave the utility to work in the rolled mode. She will give it to know when serious problems with performance or temperature will begin. Select a convenient alert method in the settings.
Unfortunately, the program other than information goals will not help the jug in correcting errors. It is suitable for one-time assessment and monitoring, but to correct the problems detected, you will need to refer to the method 2 or other programs.
Read more: Troubleshooting errors and broken sectors on hard disk
Method 2: Victoria
Victoria is rightfully considered one of the best programs for testing and restoring hard drives on which there are broken sectors. It does not require installation, because the developers immediately created a portable version that runs from the archive. The process of checking the drive here is as follows:
- Download the archive from the official site of Victoria, open it and run the executable file.
- Move to the "Standard" tab.
- Here click on the "Passport" button to view the hard disk information, and then select the desired verification device.
- The drive information is also displayed in the status bar below.
- On the SMART tab, you can get basic information about the health of the disc. To do this, click on the GET SMART button.
- The output of information will not take much time. However, after you get a table with values and status marks. Check out her to be a little in the course of the health of the device.
- Then move to the main tab "Tests".
- While all the settings leave the default, just run the scan.
- In the window will begin to create blocks of different colors. Normal is considered to be the range to the green, then the blocks are recognized as unstable, and the blue marks mean the presence of errors (most often it is broken sectors). Delay information is displayed in the Right section.
- Upon completion of the scan, separately should be familiar with the number of red and blue blocks. If it is large enough, then the disk is considered unstable.
- Recovery occurs due to the reassignment of broken sectors, during the inspection they are simply hidden. This is done through testing with the "Remap" attribute. More detailed information about recovery you will learn a little later.
Additionally, we want to pay attention to that some users may experience problems with the launch of the tests in Victoria due to the installed AHCI mode. To avoid the appearance of difficulties, it is recommended to select IDE (compatibility). All the necessary information on this topic are looking for in the materials below.
Read more:
What is SATA MODE in BIOS
What is AHCI mode in BIOS
If during the analysis you found a large number of broken sectors and want to restore the drive with the help of the same software, we advise you to read the instructions in our other article by the following link. There, the author maximally described this process, explaining each action that is necessary for execution.
Read more: We restore the hard drive Victoria program
Method 3: HDDScan
Another program similar to Victoria, however, having a more modern interface is called HDDScan. We recommend using it in the case when with Victoria there are some difficulties or it does not suit you for certain reasons. The testing process here is not particularly different.
- To begin with, you can get basic information about the health of the drive by selecting it and clicking on "Smart".
- The information here is excreted at about the same level as shown in Victoria.
- Next, go back to the main menu and start one of the types of tests. More about them you will learn below.
- Leave analysis settings unchanged.
- To display detailed information, double-click on the job row.
- As you can see, the scan card is almost the same as in the previously reviewed version, only the color marks are a bit different on the delay.
- Upon completion of the analysis, you can familiarize yourself with the detailed report, where the status of the drive is specified in the form of graphics and additional information.
Now let's consider each version of testing in more detail, because it is important to choose the correct technique to obtain accurate information:
- Verify - scanning sectors without reading data on them;
- Read - checking sectors with reading data (respectively, will take much more time);
- Butterfly - reading blocks in pairs, one from the beginning and one from the end;
- Erase - Recording blocks filled with sector number (delete all user data).
The program, like the first, only diagnoses problems. Above, we have already given links to articles, thanks to which recognized failures can be eliminated.
Conclusion
Now various developers have created a sufficiently large number of programs that allow you to check the hard disk for errors. They work approximately by the same principle, because there is no special meaning to disassemble them. Instead, we recommend familiarizing yourself with a separate material on our website where reviews are collected on the most popular detailed solutions.
Read more: Programs for checking hard disk
If suddenly you found that the drive used does not work at all, it is not necessary to do without repair. However, only experts can help in this. Certain actions are fully carried out and manually. Read about it further.
Read more: How to repair the hard drive
If the hard drive is not visible in the system at all, refer to the following material:
Read more: Why does the computer sees the hard drive
Today you have been acquainted with the program methods for checking the hard disk to work. As you can see, there is nothing complicated in this, you should only choose one of the proposed software to run testing.