Top hard drive diagnostic tools

It can scan each sector status by reading data from the sector. After scanning, disk block without reading error will be marked with green color, while disk block with reading error will be marked with red.

If there are some bad sectors, you can use software to shield bad tracks. If there are still red disk blocks after shielding, you have to send the disk to professionals to repair the physical bad sectors. With the help of MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, I successfully performed a disk surface test to check bad sectors on hard drive. Click to tweet. You can use it to check hard disk health with the hard drives' built-in S.

It can do basic self-monitoring to inform the coming hardware failures. You can view a basic S. If your hard disk status is NOT OK or shows other statuses—such as Pred Fail , Bad , Caution , or Unknown , it means that your drive may have too many bad sectors and you need replace it as soon as possible. Most well-known hard drive manufacturers have developed their own HDD test tool. Just check which brand you are using and download the corresponding hard drive test tool. There are many other hard drive test tools for Windows users to test your hard drive health, but the four HDD test methods I introduced are all reliable and highly recommended by many people.

If you are looking for a HDD health check tool, you can try the four kinds of hard drive test tools at ease. With the four hard drive test tools mentioned in this post, I can check hard drive health easily.

After reading this post, you should know how to check hard drive health and fix hard drive errors with hard drive test tools. If you want to test hard drive health, you can try using the above four hard drive test tools. If you have any question about how to perform hard disk check with the above hard drive test tools or how to test HDD with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, you can leave a message on the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible.

HUTIL will load and find your non-Samsung drive but you will not be able to run any diagnostics on the drive. These utilities let you run a number of hard drive tests. Bart's Stuff Test is a free, Windows-based hard drive stress test. There aren't a lot of options in Bart's Stuff Test, and it's not as thorough as some other tests on this list. All things considered, Bart's Stuff Test is a decent addition to your hard drive testing arsenal, especially if you're having problems testing with an ISO based tool above but want something besides the Windows default tool.

However, we tested the latest version in Windows 10 and Windows 8 without any errors. Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool is a free hard drive testing tool designed for Fujitsu hard drives.

However, the bootable version is designed for floppy disks—an image that works with a CD or USB drive is not available. Two tests are available with Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool, a "Quick Test" about three minutes and a "Comprehensive Test" time will vary based on hard drive size. It might also run just fine in Windows 11 and Windows Download For :. Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool will perform hard drive tests on Fujitsu drives only. If you have any other make of hard drive, try one of the manufacturer independent tests listed toward the beginning of this list.

HD Tune is a Windows-based hard driver tester that works with any internal or external hard drive , SSD, or memory card. The SMART test lists more than 40 values about a hard drive, while the sector test checks the surface of the media for reading errors.

The report of either test can be read straight from the program when complete, configured to be sent to you by email or printed off. Error Checking, sometimes referred to as scandisk , is a hard drive testing tool that comes with Microsoft Windows that can scan your hard drive in search of a wide range of errors and correct many of them.

It's built into all modern versions of Windows. Macrorit Disk Scanner is a simple program that checks for bad sectors on a hard drive. It's easy to use, and you can start using it in no time since it's fully portable and doesn't need to be installed.

The majority of this screen is used as a visual representation of the progress of the scan and clearly indicates if there's damage.

Ariolic Disk Scanner is similar to Macrorit Disk Scanner in that it's just a read-only scan of a drive to check for bad sectors. It has a minimal interface with only one button, and is easy to understand if any parts of the drive contain bad sectors. The program is portable and just over 1 MB in size. One thing that's different from Macrorit Disk Scanner is that Ariolic Disk Scanner lists the files where read errors occurred. Nicolae loves everything that has to do with technology and his goal is to share his knowledge and experience with others.

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Click the button below to subscribe! Should the problems magically disappear, then you know that the hard drive itself is fine, and you need to identify and fix the real issue. If fixing your hard drive and recovering lost data is important to you, then it makes sense to let data recovery professionals with plenty of experience and state-of-the-art equipment take care of everything for you.

Hard disks are mechanical devices, and, like all mechanical devices, they can fail without notice. Some hard disk failures are entirely avoidable, but many others are governed only by luck and chance. Because there are only 3 nanometers of clearance between the head and the disk platter, which holds the actual data, even the slightest misalignment can, and usually does, result in a catastrophic head crash.

Every traditional hard disk comes with an air filter that equalizes the atmospheric pressure and moisture between the enclosure and the outside environment.

Often, a head crash is caused by a sudden jolt, such as when a user throws his or her laptop on a bed instead of carefully laying it down. All reputable hard disk manufacturers thoroughly test their products before selling them to consumers.

But even with modern testing methods, defective hard disks still sometimes slip out and end up on sites like Amazon. Most hard drives are designed to operate at temperatures from 5 to 50 degrees Celsius, and some newer hard drives can operate at up to 60 degrees Celsius.

In extreme cases, heat can even cause the electronic circuit board that controls the entire hard drive to fail, making it impossible to do hard drive repair regardless of which software you choose for the job.

Inside every hard drive is a plethora of sensitive electronic components. A sudden power failure preceded by a short power surge can literary fry these components, rendering the entire hard drive useless. A high-quality surge protector is by far the best way how you can protect yourself against electronic hard drive failure.

When unintended changes are introduced to data during the data writing process, we talk about file corruption. Of course, you can do a lot more to prevent hard drive data loss, but these five best practices are enough to provide a solid foundation that you can then build on as you see fit.