The hard drive contains the operating system and all sorts of necessary files. And if he starts to work poorly, then in the future he may even go to another world. You need to check the HDD for errors, find bad sectors and fix them. There are certain programs for this. And among them there are their leaders.

No. 1. HDD Regenerator

This product is popular because it is capable of not only searching for bad sectors, but also quickly fixing problems. Not all similar programs are capable of this. However HDD Regenerator cannot always cope with the problem. Even despite the rich functionality.

Possibilities:

1. Support for various file systems. The program can work with FAT and NTFS file systems. In new versions it is planned to add Ext, exFAT and other formats.
2. Creation bootable media. The program allows you to create boot disk or a flash drive with the HDD Regenerator distribution kit for testing from under MS-DOS.
3. Monitoring. The program constantly checks the hard drive for errors in real time. This helps to quickly identify errors and correct them.
4. Statistics. The application is capable of providing complete usage statistics hard drive. The report can be saved as a separate file.

Advantages:

• simple installation process;
• Russian language included;
• adequate work with Windows 10;
• several operating modes;
• checking the status of the hard drive in real time;
• work from MS-DOS;
• well-placed controls.

The program has only one drawback: it is paid. Otherwise, this is a great product for finding errors on the HDD and then eliminating them.

No. 2. Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

Hitachi produces hard drives and special software for testing them. But proprietary utilities can work not only with HDDs from this manufacturer. They work great with any type of hard drive.

Possibilities:

1. Carrying out tests. The program can test the hard drive in automatic and manual modes. Based on the results, the user can decide to replace or repair the HDD.
2. S.M.A.R.T support The program can read and check S.M.A.R.T attributes. After checking, the utility will display a message about the errors found.
3. Creation boot image. The program allows you to create a boot disk with your own distribution for HDD checks in Live mode.
4. Testing without rewriting. Other similar utilities move and rewrite data on the HDD during the scanning process. But not the program from Hitachi.

Advantages:

• intuitively clear interface;
• Russian language included;
• the program is completely free;
• works adequately with Windows 10;
• can conduct stress tests from under MS-DOS;
• supports almost all versions of Windows OS;
• simple removal process.

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test is an excellent free program for checking your HDD for errors. However, she does not know how to correct the errors found. And this is its main drawback. But for checking and making an informed decision, it will do just fine.

No. 3. HDD Health

This program checks the overall health of the hard drive, looks for bad sectors and checks S.M.A.R.T attributes. There is a main window with the main HDD indicators (temperature, spindle speed and other necessary information).

Possibilities:

1. Forecast. The program checks the hard drive for wear and makes an approximate forecast of its performance in the future. The utility can determine with amazing accuracy how much time the HDD has left until the end.
2. General condition of the disk structure. HDD Health calculates the degree of hard drive wear with scrupulous accuracy and provides the user with comprehensive information.
3. Comprehensive information about the manufacturer and brand of drive. To obtain this information, the program actively uses the Internet.
4. SSD check. The program can correctly check solid-state drives without the risk of reducing their resource or somehow damaging the memory modules.

Advantages:

• simple and straightforward installation process;
• work with everyone Windows versions(including XP);
• minimal processor load and RAM;
• intuitive interface;
• fast work even on old cars;
• well-placed controls;
• simple removal process.

HDD Health is great for checking your hard drive for S.M.A.R.T attributes. The program is completely free and has no advertising. But the Russian language is not included in the kit. But even without him everything is clear.

No. 4. Victoria HDD

Victoria HDD is the most popular utility used for full hard drive diagnostics. In addition to analyzing SSDs and HDDs for errors, using this software you can restore bad sectors and fix minor failures of the storage device.

The program provides users with the following features:

1. Receipt detailed information about the hard drive. In the “Standard” section of the application, you can get detailed information about your device: model, serial number, disk space, cache, etc.
2. SMART. The main test for any disk. This tool checks the storage device for serious errors in the operation of the device. Upon completion of the analysis, users have access to a report that displays various elements marked in different colors: green – no faults were detected in the sector; yellow – there are minor problems; red – presence of serious errors.
3. Tests. Allows you to perform various tests for the presence of bad sectors. In the work report, the results are marked in different colors.

No. 5. Crystal Disk Mark

Crystal Disk Mark is a useful utility for checking the writing and reading speed of a disk. The program allows you to measure indicators by performing sequential and random recording.

Main features of the application:

1. Testing parameters. Before starting the SSD analysis process, you must set the parameters for the upcoming testing and select the number of tests. There are 9 checks available in total. The default value is “5”. If you want to perform a more detailed analysis of the drive, then increase this indicator to perform more tests.
2. Selecting the file size. For SSD optimal The recording file size is 2GiB. If you work with large amounts of information, then increase this indicator. The testing time depends on the choice of this indicator. The maximum allowed value is 32GiB.
3. Testing. There are 4 options available for testing the hard drive: Seq – sequential read and write test; 4k – diagnostics in random mode using 4Kb blocks. The Q32T add-on allows you to work in 1 thread with a queue depth of 32. If necessary, you can run all 4 options by clicking the “All” button in the Crystal Disk Mark interface.

No. 6. HDDScan

HDDScan is a program for checking storage media for malfunctions and breakdowns. The main advantage of this software over its competitors is its simple and user-friendly interface, which is a big plus for novice users.

Features of the HDDScan disk diagnostic application:

1. View detailed information about the device: model, serial number, LBA, etc.
2. SMART. To fully analyze an SSD drive, it is necessary to conduct a special S.M.A.R.T test. This tool checks all the most important components of the device. Upon completion of the diagnosis, you can see the faulty components, which are marked with an icon with exclamation point.
3. Surfacetest. Detailed surface analysis for faults.

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The post contains a list of the 20 best free tools for partitioning, diagnostics, encryption, recovery, cloning, and formatting disks. In general, almost everything you need for basic work with them.

1.TestDisk

Note: PhotoRec is a related application to TestDisk. With its help, it is possible to recover data in the memory of a digital camera on hard drives and CDs. In addition, you can restore basic image formats, audio files, text documents, HTML files and various archives.

When you run TestDisk, you are presented with a list of hard drive partitions that you can work with. The selection of available actions carried out in sections includes: analysis to adjust the structure (and subsequent recovery, if a problem is detected); changing disk geometry; deleting all data in the partition table; boot partition recovery; listing and copying files; recovering deleted files; creating a snapshot of the section.

2. EaseUS Partition Master

On the left is a list of operations that can be performed with the selected section.

3.WinDirStat

Clicking on a field in the diagram will display the file in question in a structural form.

After loading WinDirStat and selecting disks for analysis, the program scans the directory tree and provides statistics in the following options: list of directories; directory map; list of extensions.

4. Clonezilla

Clonezilla Live is a bootable Linux distribution that allows you to clone individual devices.
Clonezilla SE is a package that installs on Linux distribution. It is used to simultaneously clone multiple computers over a network.

5. OSFMount

An additional function of OSFMount is the creation of RAM disks located in the computer's RAM, which significantly speeds up working with them. To start the process, go to File > Mount new virtual disk.

6. Defraggler

Defraggler analyzes the contents on the disk and displays a list of all fragmented files. During the defragmentation process, the movement of data on the disk is displayed. Those highlighted in yellow are data that is being read, and those highlighted in green are those that are being written. Upon completion, Defraggler displays a corresponding message.

Supports file systems NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT.

7. SSD Life

By monitoring SSD wear, you can increase the level of data security and identify problems in a timely manner. Based on the analysis, the program concludes how often the solid-state drive is used.

8. Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN)

DBAN has two main modes: interactive mode and automatic mode. Interactive mode allows you to prepare the disk for data removal and select the necessary erasing options. Auto mode Cleans all detected disks.

9.HD Tune

When launching the application, you need to select a drive from the drop-down list and go to the appropriate tab to view the information.

10.VeraCrypt

The VeraCrypt project was created on the basis of TrueCrypt with the goal of strengthening methods for protecting encryption keys.

11. CrystalDiskInfo

The top panel on the screen displays all active hard drives. Clicking on each one reveals the information. The Health Status and Temperature icons change color depending on the value.

12. Recuva

The required files are identified using the preview function and marked with checkboxes. You can sort the search result by type (graphics, music, documents, videos, archives) and immediately view the contents.

13.TreeSize

Folder sizes are displayed from largest to smallest. This way it becomes clear which folders take up the most space.

Note: With Defraggler, Recuva and TreeSize, you can trigger Defraggler and Recuva functions for a specific folder directly from TreeSize - all three applications integrate seamlessly.

14.HDDScan

HDDScan is designed for testing SATA, IDE, SCSI, USB, FifeWire (IEEE 1394) drives.

15.Disk2vhd

Disk2vhd creates one VHD file for each disk with selected volumes, preserving information about disk partitions and copying only the data that belongs to the selected volume.

16. NTFSWalker

The presence of its own NTFS drivers makes it possible to view the file structure without Windows help on any computer readable media. Deleted files, regular files, as well as detailed attributes for each file are available for viewing.

17.GParted

GParted allows you to create partition tables (MS-DOS or GPT), enable, disable and change attributes, align partitions, recover data from damaged partitions and much more.

18. SpeedFan

SpeedFan works with hard drives with SATA interface, EIDE and SCSI.

19. MyDefrag

The program has a convenient function of working in screensaver mode, as a result of which defragmentation will be performed at the time designated for launching the screen saver. MyDefrag also allows you to create or customize your own scripts.

20. DiskCryptor

DiskCryptor has quite high performance - it is one of the fastest disk volume encryption drivers. The program supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT file systems, allowing you to encrypt internal or external drives.

In this article you will find a guide to using chkdsk, links to programs that allow you to comprehensively test your hard drive, as well as instructions for them. In addition, the article describes how to scan your hard drive partitions using built-in Windows tools.

On this page

Windows Check Disk Utility (chkdsk)

Windows OS has its own disk checking utility. It can be launched from the GUI or from the command line.

Running disk check from the GUI

Open the window My computer, right-click on the drive or partition you want to check and select from context menu paragraph Properties. In the disk properties window, go to the tab Service and press the button Run check.

In the next window, click the button Launch.

The scan of the non-system partition will begin immediately. If you are checking system partition Windows 7, you may see a message saying that it cannot be completed at this time.

It's ok because system partition used by the operating system. Click the button Disk check schedule. To run the scan, you must restart your computer. After the computer restarts, the disk check will be performed before the operating system starts.

Run disk check from the command line

Below is an example of running a partition check C from the command line.

Chkdsk c: /f /r

Note. The command line must be run with administrator rights.

In Windows 7, as in the case of checking the system partition from the GUI, after executing this command you will see a message stating that the scan cannot be completed.

Enter Y and restart your computer to start checking.

Additional information about the command line parameters of the utility chkdsk you can get it by running it with the key /? , or on this page.

Run a disk check if the system won't boot

If the operating system does not boot due to errors on the disk, you can check the disk using installation disk Windows.

Windows 7, 8.1, 10

1. Boot into the recovery environment and open a command prompt (instructions for Windows 8 and later, Windows 7)
2. IN command line enter the command chkdsk c: /r

Windows XP

If the problem occurs in Windows XP, use the Recovery Console. After booting from the installation disk into the console, run the command

Chkdsk c: /r

For more information about the Recovery Console, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

• Installing and using the Recovery Console in Windows XP
• Enable automatic administrator login when using the Recovery Console

Hard drive diagnostics using third-party programs

If after checking the hard drive with the utility chkdsk If you continue to experience critical errors related to your hardware, you should perform more thorough testing using specialized programs. As a rule, hard drive manufacturers' utilities or programs such as Victoria or MHDD.

Attention! Before testing your hard drive using third party programs need to do backup all data.

Hard drive manufacturer utilities

Diagnostic utilities may be on the CD that came with your hard drive. In any case, they can be downloaded from the hard drive manufacturer's website. Links to some manufacturers' download pages are provided below.

• Western Digital: Data Lifeguard Tools (you must select the disk model).
• Seagate: SeaTools.
• Hitachi: Drive Fitness Test.
• Samsung: Shdiag.

Diagnostic tools from other manufacturers can be found on their websites.

Victoria

program Victoria, designed for in-depth testing of the health of the hard drive, can be found at this link on the website hdd-911.com.

• Excerpts from the official documentation of the Victoria hard drive test

MHDD

The MHDD program is also capable of comprehensively testing the hard drive and fixing errors on it. You can download it from this link from the website MHDD.ru.

You will find more information at the following links:

The disk is in perfect order - what next?

If no errors are detected on the hard drive, it most likely is not the cause of the problem. critical errors. It is possible that the problem lies in faulty RAM or the power supply does not have enough power to ensure the operation of all devices. You can check your RAM and drivers as described in the articles linked below.

You can mark fragments of text that interest you, which will be available via a unique link in address bar browser.

about the author

I am interested in your opinion about these programs:

PC-3000 DiskAnalyzer, Ver1.02 Diagnostic utility for all types of drives (ATA-8, SATA, USB, SCSI, Flash, SSD), Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 S.M.A.R.T. Vision, Ver4.1 S.M.A.R.T utility. diagnostics HDD IDE (ATA-8, SATA, USB, SCSI, Flash, SSD), Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 http://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/resource.php

aass, didn't use it. But I note that Victoria and MHDD are proven tools for serious diagnostics.

And Windows 7 can track SMART information. It will warn you if anything happens.

aass

Vadim Sterkin, Thanks for the answer and for the topic!
I agree with the assessment of the Victoria and MHDD programs, I myself use Victoria for serious diagnostics, but I try to test other programs, everything is learned by comparison.)

Dmitriy

at checking hard disk, the standard program on Windows 7 says that bad clusters have been detected in null.sys... what kind of driver is this?

Dmitriy

Vadim Sterkin,

thanks...can the system slow down because of it?

Sanyok

Hello.
I ran (hypothetically) checking the C: drive from the graphical interface with parameters similar to your screenshot. Clicked the "Schedule disk check" button. Changed my mind. How to cancel this one-time check system disk before rebooting the system?
I myself assume that it may be entered into the Task Scheduler.” But I want to know for sure. I see no point in experimenting. Since, after such a check was completed successfully once (in practical reality), it would be entered into the “Scheduler” even as a one-time check, and should, in theory, be saved. After all, tasks from the “Scheduler” do not have the ability to self-delete (I think so). But I didn’t find any traces in the “Planner”. As you probably know, I didn’t receive an answer on the Internet or on the forum.

Simply put, I want to know where this mythical “Check Schedule” is located and what methods and methods Windows 7 offers for adjusting it. And then it turns out like this - click, and ala-ulu...

Sanyok

Yeah…
There were graphics, but they all came out. This is some kind of graffiti, black and white, with a register. Just like Battleship Potemkin.
(Yes, I Googled, but really for a slightly different request). Thank you.
You can plan this by checking two boxes in the chart, and canceling by going to the register. They got smart here. Well, okay, there’s nothing to do - I’ll post in the forum.

Yes, by the way, does it make sense to check the second (bottom) checkbox if the system is on an SSD? After all, as far as my knowledge is sufficient, the SSD controller itself periodically (when idle) scans the memory for faulty cells.
And this second checkbox, by definition, is intended to check for broken cells on the surface of the HDD.

Sanyok

Sanyok,

You turn on your TV with the remote control and set the wake-up timer. The next morning you wake up to the music of your favorite music channel. And life flows smoothly and measuredly. But at one fine moment it dawns on you - after all, tomorrow is Sunday. No problem, you tell yourself. With a slight movement of your hand and a screwdriver, without disconnecting the TV from the network, you remove back cover, quickly replace a couple of resistors on the board and you’re done. Tomorrow you can sleep peacefully until lunchtime.
Do you feel what I mean?

Vadim Sterkin: Sanya, what do you mean, wise? You don’t have to split hairs by pressing all sorts of strange buttons, and everything will be fine :)

It's really funny, but also of course, of course Truth.
Yes, but it’s not quite out of place. I don’t see anything unpredictable or completely incomprehensible in checking the disk. And the conversation was about the fact that if you have already provided a graphical opportunity to schedule such a task, then be kind enough to provide the same opportunity to disable it, and not through one place (the registry). Either remove graphics when planning (do planning only through CMD), or provide the ability to disable this task using the graphical interface. As an engineer, in my technical practice and in the practice of interfaces of various industrial programs and IT, this is the first time I have come across something like this. Yes, and in Windows OS too.
That’s what I wanted to convey when I said, “We’ve been clever.”
When faced with a question, I noticed that this function causes complaints from the user in terms of frequent independent launches. But let's not talk about that. As unrelated to the topic.
And of course, thanks for the comments. Everything is clear to me here.

Regarding the bottom daw:

To perform a thorough disk scan, select the Scan and Repair option. bad sectors" In this mode, the scanning program attempts to find and correct physical errors on the hard drive itself, which may take much longer.

It doesn't say anything about the file system. More about physical disabilities. Some of us are wrong. Or I didn't understand something.
And further in the text:

To check for both file and physical errors, select both options: Automatically fix system errors and Scan and repair bad sectors.

Please comment. I would like clarity on the issue.
So as not to press “all sorts of strange buttons”, and everything was fine. :-)

Vyacheslav

I am very surprised by the capabilities of checking and restoring a disk under Windows 8. Changing the partition size upward using Acronis Disk Director 11 ended with errors. I wanted to increase the size of the system disk using the empty space on the adjacent partition by 200 GB. As a result, this program reports that everything is OK, and the disk size in Explorer has not changed. I checked the disk using the OS - it said that there were errors and needed to be rebooted. After the reboot, nothing changed and a request appeared to reboot to fix it. As you can already guess, this also did not help. As a result, we have lost 200 GB, despite the fact that Acronis says everything is ok, but the system is not able to correct the errors found. Sadness. Do I need to format it?

Vyacheslav

Vadim Sterkin,

In fact, under Windows 7, a similar operation was always performed without problems. I always perform the task of expanding/narrowing a partition in 2 stages: first, we cut off a piece of space from the partition being compressed and transfer it to the “unallocated space” status from the required end of the partition, and then we expand another partition using this space (I do everything manually in 2 reboots in case of "jambs", because Acronis performs a group of operations very strangely. There is a sad experience under Windows XP). So, if under Windows 7, after checking the disk, everything returned to normal and the free space did not disappear so easily, then under Windows 8 Acronis completed the first stage successfully, and when performing the second it broke down with errors, although then it reports that “everything is fine.” The problem was eventually resolved by booting from a Live CD from Acronis. It's a pity that this cannot be done under Windows 8. And I was counting so much on the “improved checking and correction of file system errors” promoted in the media. Of course, it is very difficult to trust that checking and background diagnostics of FS problems is working correctly. It is very confusing that the time to scan one partition under Windows 7 and under Windows 8 differs by orders of magnitude, for the better for the latter. Are all problems really so easily and quickly fixed? Maybe Windows 8 simply doesn’t notice most of them, or even worse, ignores them?

Vyacheslav

Vadim Sterkin,

Well, what option is there in Windows 8 to expand the partition size? I saw the Disk Management snap-in. Well, I didn’t see how it’s possible there “ standard means» trim the size of the logical volume from the desired end. There's also no way to move a partition within the unallocated space. If there is an analogue that I missed, tell me. Along the way, you did not quite correctly understand what I meant by the phrase “I had a bad experience under Windows XP.” And it was like this: after a reboot, this operation was performed and at that moment the electricity went out. Thus, I lost 2 partitions, although, in theory, there could have been 3 options: the second partition would have been lost, from which space was taken due to the incompleteness of the operation of moving NTFS service zones, or only the system partition would have been lost (although this is unlikely), or both partitions would be fine, and between them there would be some area of ​​unmarked space. But I was very “lucky”. Let's skip the topic of sources uninterruptible power supply and it turns out that Acronis is a reputable company, and their products are sometimes dangerous to use in any way in the absence of alternatives from the OS. And then another “surprise” emerged. And even here everything is fine with the power supply. But as I already noted, the last problem was solved by booting from a Live CD from Acronis and a classic disk check, and not the over-optimized one from Windows 8, the benefits of which I have not yet felt. It seems to be there, but there seems to be no point. Or maybe I was using the disk check tool wrong. Unfortunately, this “optimization” still raises more questions and mistrust in me than answers.

Vyacheslav

Vadim Sterkin,

Irina

Conducted diagnostics of hard Windows disk(chkdsk). There were no messages, but later it turned out that there was no free space. Although before the check, less than 50% of the disk was full. And now it shows 931 GB occupied. Was all the free space wasted? The disc is six months old.

I forgot to say, after that I checked with Victoria and reported that there weren’t even any errors.

Irina

This is not the case for me. It's not about system disk. Oh external drive. I’ve already found out that the system marked all the free space as bad blocks. Now I’m trying to figure out whether it’s a failure or whether the screw has died.

Sergey

Vadim, I have the following problem: After running the chkdsk disk check utility, if both “daws” are checked, it asks to reboot and the check is performed, I don’t know what to call it, but it looks like MS-DOS - lines run quickly on a black background. After the next reboot, I look at the information in the Windows Logs - Application, text in English, “there are a lot of letters,” but the meaning can be understood from a single sentence: “Windows has checked the file system and found no problems." At the same time, a few lines above I was kindly informed that, they say, “Cleaning up 31 unused security descriptors.” Sometimes it is not “31 unused security descriptors” that are cleared, but more or, conversely, less. That is, something is still not quite right, and the program corrects it a little. Like, overall everything is fine, but the Bug died. So, no matter how many times I run this chkdsk, it requires a reboot to correct these errors, nothing else is detected. Previously, on another machine in Windows XP this happened rarely, but now it happens time after time.
The SSD drive is about a quarter occupied. The system is legal Windows 7 x64 Professional and is automatically updated. If you don’t run disk check, then there is no reason to worry, everything works fine, doesn’t glitch or crash. So, in connection with this, the question is - maybe there is no need to spoil your mood. On the site Microsoft solutions I didn’t find any problems with these file system errors, and are they really errors?

far_town2 Kulyasov

Are there any methods to check if the power supply is sufficient? And due to its insufficient power, can freezes/errors occur in games?

If your computer is running slowly, then one of the reasons is the slow speed of the HDD (hard drive). Today we’ll look at two free small but useful programs for testing a computer hard drive.

CrystalDiskMark is a program designed to test the performance of computer hard drives.

CrystalDiskInfo– a program that allows you to diagnose HDD/SSD drives, USB-HDD drives.

Both programs are small in size and do not require installation ( Portable- portable software). They are very easy to use.

CrystalDiskMark

To conduct a test in the program CrystalDiskMark you only need to select the hard drive (if you have several), the size of the test file (from 50 to 1000 MB) and the number of runs (from 1 to 9). After a short test, you will be issued average speed reading and writing the main file, 512 and 4 KB blocks to the hard disk.

CrystalDiskMark – useful application, which makes it possible to conduct a comparative analysis of the performance characteristics of computer hard drives and storage devices.

CrystalDiskMark measures the speed of reading and writing data. Upon completion of testing, it visually displays the average indicators and saves them for further analysis.

CrystalDiskMark— a free program, there is a Russian-language localization, small in size, supports SSD drives.

After starting the program, a window will open in which you indicate the disk you are going to test, the number of runs and the size of the test file.

After pressing the button All the full test will run.

Button "Seq Q32T1" you can run a random write/read test (block size 512 KB)

Button "4K Q32T1"- Random write/read test (block size 4 KB, queue depth 32) for NCQ and AHCI.

Button "Seq"- Sequential write/read test (block size 1024 KB).

Button "4K"- a similar test, only for blocks of 4 kilobytes.

Below is an example of a window with scan results:

Here the left column is the speed of reading information.

The right column is the recording speed.

CrystalDiskMark is a free program that is designed for comparative analysis performance of hard drives and other computer storage devices. Its performance affects the speed of the computer as a whole.

The program works in all versions operating systems Windows (from 9x to Vista/7 32 and 64).

CrystalDiskMark also allows the ability to change the theme, has a simple user interface with support for the Russian language.

• Update: 03-02-2016
• Version: 5.1.2
• System: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Vista, Windows XP
• License: free
• Size: 2.9 MB Portable (zip)
• Developer: hiyohiyo

CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo– a program that allows you to perform hard drive diagnostics for a PC, monitoring for HDD/SSD drives, USB-HDD drives. CrystalDiskInfo is very easy to use; after launch, information about state of rigid disk or other storage device that needs diagnostics. You can download the CrystalDiskInfo program in Russian at the bottom of the page.

• Update 02/03/2016
• Version: 6.7.5
• System Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Vista, Windows XP
• Interface: Russian/English, etc.
• License: free
• Size: 4.5 MB Portable (zip)
• Developer: hiyohiyo

CrystalDiskInfo— detailed diagnostics, determination of disk parameters, external drives and plotting graphs of disk or drive characteristics, the ability to use the function of comparing different graphs.

While using the utility, you can view any necessary information about the disk: model, capacity, firmware version or serial number.

You can also find out the type of interface used, the mode for data transfer, and the rotation speed. The program determines the cache size, the total operating time of the device, and the number of starts.

After launching the CrystalDiskInfo program, it immediately displays the S.M.A.R.T. values, temperature, and general condition of the disk, including values ​​such as “Wear,” “Number of read errors,” “Erase errors,” “Alarm!” and others.

The programs described above were developed by a programmer from Japan Noriyuki Miyazaki (nickname hiyohiyo).

Analogs of programs

You can also consider similar programs for testing, analyzing, and treating HDD:

HDDSpeed ​​- A free utility whose main task is to determine speed hard disk. Displays information about physical characteristics and speed parameters. Can diagnose hardware problems and identify faults that could lead to failure.

HDDScan - Free software, which tests and diagnoses hard drives. Checks them for errors, regulates their operation and displays useful information.

Victoria - A free program that allows you to test your hard drive and check its overall health. It has all the necessary tools for analyzing performance and finding errors.

P.S. HDD- one of important components any computer, laptop. It stores a lot important information, which when a disk fails is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to restore. Now hard disks are replacing solid-state drives (SSDs) - they are faster, but more expensive and not yet as large. After purchase new hard disk, it must be tested with the above or similar programs.

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How to add a second hard drive?

Sooner or later, but earlier large in volume HDD(aka hard drive, aka HDD) today begins to report a lack of free space, especially if it is divided into several parts.

On a computer things are simpler: there is space - insert it new disk that's all.

Is it possible to upgrade the laptop in this regard? You can, of course, replace the HDD with a larger one, or you can add a second one! But where?

Or removable hard drives are almost the most important for ensuring the functionality of the entire computer system and proper storage of information without loss of data in unexpected situations. HDD operation should be monitored regularly. Let's look at what programs for diagnosing a hard drive exist today and what they are capable of.

What is hard drive diagnostics?

First, let's look at some of the most important aspects. Hard drive monitoring and diagnostics include several basic processes. The most significant here are the following: preliminary collection of information about the state of the hard drive (monitoring), checking the hard drive (scanning), error correction and data recovery (if errors cannot be corrected using software).

In principle, the utility programs themselves for diagnosing a hard drive should be divided according to their direct functions (informants, scanners, “doctors” and restorers). They will be discussed in more detail a little later, although today there are many software packages that combine all these functions.

The most common HDD problems

In considering the question of what they are best programs To diagnose a hard drive, it’s worth focusing on the most common problems and errors that they can correct.

First of all, the most common are system errors that can occur when the Windows OS itself malfunctions, applications are not shut down correctly, files and folders are incorrectly copied or moved to other areas of the HDD, a sudden power outage, etc. In principle, most Such problems are identified and eliminated by hard drive diagnostic programs.

It's another matter when the user is faced with a situation of physical damage to the surface of the hard drive. Here the problem is much more complicated. Programmatically It is sometimes possible to transfer information to another area or section, but, alas, damaged areas cannot be restored. If there are too many of them, in the worst case you will have to change the hard drive. Of course, you can try to restore some of the information yourself, but in especially serious cases, say, after a temperature jump when the hard drive melted, such a procedure without the intervention of specialists will simply be impossible.

Information Preview

Now let's look at specialized utilities that allow you to collect and view complete information about the status, operation and main characteristics of the hard drive. According to experts and users, the most popular utilities are Everest, CPU-Z, CrystalDiscInfo, etc.

Any hard drive diagnostic program of this type allows you to view a full report, and it will contain much more information than in standard Windows OS reports, although using such tools you can still see something.

By the way, it is wrong to believe that monitoring applications fix any errors or problems. They were initially created only to view all equipment parameters, and not to influence their settings in any way. In this regard, only the CrystalDiscInfo utility can control some HDD parameters.

However, some parameters can be viewed and adjusted even when accessing the BIOS before directly starting the system. But even there the information is far from complete, and changing the parameters will affect, say, a fan or something else. But sometimes you will have to apply some settings of hard drive controllers.

Checking HDD using Windows OS

As for the “operating systems” of the Windows family, there is a minimum set for checking the hard drive for errors, as well as for correcting them. But this only applies to system errors.

In terms of monitoring, information can be viewed by calling the “Properties” menu from the context menu by right-clicking on the “My Computer” icon. More complete information is contained in the DirectX dialog box, which is called up from the Run menu by entering the dxdiag command. In any case, the information contained in these reports cannot be compared with what is offered free utilities.

In Windows OS, the “native” program for diagnosing hard drives is called very simply. To do this, in the standard “Explorer”, right-click on the drive or partition letter, and again select the “Properties” line from the drop-down menu. On the “General” (or “Service”) tab there is a special “Run check” button.

In the menu that appears, you can check the box next to the automatic line. If this is not done, the system will simply display a message stating that errors have been detected and need to be corrected. In some cases, it will not be possible to fix problems even with automatic error correction, and with each subsequent boot of the OS, an intrusive message will appear stating that one of the disks requires checking. Agree, it’s quite inconvenient, especially since even a specified hard drive surface test takes a lot of time. It's better to use here special programs for diagnosing a hard drive with advanced capabilities. By the way, the effect of their use will be felt immediately. Any user will be able to see the result even with, so to speak, an inexperienced eye.

Hard drive diagnostics: programs for testing HDDs for bad sectors

Naturally, among software To monitor the operation or basic parameters of hard drives of any type, you can find a lot of paid, shareware or completely free utilities. What is most interesting, as practice shows, free apps are often not inferior to licensed software and cope with the functions assigned to them quite effectively.

Among all the variety, it is worth highlighting utilities such as Norton Disc Doctor, HDD Scan, Hard Disc Sentinel, the same CrystalDiscInfo application, as well as CheckDisc or something else like that. For Western Digital hard drives, a special utility called Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, developed specifically for WD hard drives, is perfect.

Interestingly, some utilities even come in portable versions and take up only a few megabytes of space.

All utilities of this type have a fairly simple interface that is understandable to any user, in which you just need to select required disk and set several scanning and error correction options. In principle, the same Disc Doctor of “grandfather” Norton allows you to specify a disk or partition, as well as use parameters for checking the hard drive for bad sectors and automatically correcting errors. Separately, in the advanced settings, you can set the Surface of the HDD).

Checking the HDD for physical damage

Unfortunately, physical damage the surface of an HDD or removable hard drive is very common problem. This may be due to dust, overheating, short circuit electrical diagrams etc.

Checking the physical condition of the hard drive is quite simple. You just need to seek help from the appropriate programs and applications, which will detect problems, if any, within a few minutes.

Principles of correcting HDD errors in physically damaged sectors

In principle, testing the surface of disks can be done by some standard HDD utility or diagnostic program external hard disk. That's not the point. The main thing is that such utilities can rewrite information (checksums) from damaged sectors to spare areas of the disk. Thus, it is achieved interesting effect. In fact, the logical address of the sector does not change, although in fact the physical location on the hard drive is completely different. In general, almost all applications of this type use this principle. In addition, most of them are designed for completely different file systems and partition table formats.

Victoria: hard drive diagnostic program

It is worth mentioning the Victoria program, which is unique in its kind. It truly has the most powerful capabilities in its field. True, some experts recommend using the version that runs on DOS. Well, in some cases this is a justifiable step.

The application itself was developed by the Belarusian programmer S. O. Kazantsev and has established itself in the computer world at a very high level. It is not surprising that in the West it is now used very often. It must be said that this utility is a multifunctional package that combines the ability to monitor and test hard drives of any type and any manufacturer, the ability to automatically correct errors and restore data even in the event of very significant damage to hard drives.

Although for an uninitiated user this software package may seem somewhat overloaded with capabilities and settings, professionals appreciate it. Perhaps nothing better has been created today, since the program itself can be classified as All-In-One (“all-in-one”).

Data recovery from damaged HDDs

Of course, you can restore data using the Victoria utility, but few ordinary users will understand it. In this case, something simpler should be recommended.

For example, the best hard drive data recovery programs include many powerful utilities. You can use applications like HDD Regenerator.

As the developers of this package themselves state, they have found a unique way of using certain signal sequence algorithms that make it possible to literally restore physically damaged sectors of hard drives, not simply by copying information to other sections, but using the magnetization reversal technique for this. This achieves the effect when information from the damaged area does not disappear anywhere, but is read after restoration.

Naturally, if the read heads or spindle on the hard drive have failed, even the most modern programs will not help. However, in most cases, software and, as we see, even physical problems can be fixed.

Advanced BIOS Settings

Concerning additional settings, many programs for diagnosing hard drives can sometimes produce errors during the analysis of the hard drive or simply not see it.

In this case, you need to change the SATA controller parameter in the BIOS, most often just change from AHCI to IDE. This should help.

The most common myths and misconceptions

Very often, inexperienced users using diagnostic programs or viewing the parameters of a hard drive or fan in the BIOS for the first time panic, saying that the temperature is too high (for example, 40 degrees), the hard drive will “fly” in this operating mode. Nothing like this! For almost all hard drives, the optimal operating temperature range is from 35 to 45 degrees Celsius. Even a value of 50 degrees is not critical for many hard drives. It's worse when the temperature drops below 25 degrees, which is when the probability of hard drive failure is much higher. However, this is extremely rare, except when working in the cold (I think hardly anyone is smart enough to do this).

Hard drive diagnostics. Which program is better?

So, although briefly, we looked at the question of what hard drive diagnostics are. The program (which is better is up to the user) designed for analysis, testing and error correction, in principle, can be anything. What to use - a specialized or highly targeted product? The answer to this question depends on what exactly the application needs to be able to do. Some people prefer separate programs, while others tend to use packages that combine all the features for working with HDDs.

For inexperienced users, simple free utilities are suitable, especially since even portable versions do not “weigh” that much and have “smart” S.M.A.R.T scanning functions. without damage to the system. But for professionals, the best in its field, of course, is the Victoria program. This is not discussed.

Conclusion

In general, if you understand testing hard drives and monitoring their condition, you can finally add only one thing: in order to prevent catastrophic situations from occurring, at least some kind of hard drive diagnostic program should be used regularly. In some cases, even simply removing dust using a regular vacuum cleaner will help (of course, without fanaticism). As statistics show, those who check their hard drive at least once a month and monitor general condition computer or laptop, the percentage of HDD failure is much lower than that of users who never think about it, but try to correct the situation when everything goes almost to the extreme.