Hard Drive Diagnostic Tools: A Review of the Best

The processes of diagnosing hard disks (HDD) or removable hard drives are almost the most important for ensuring the operability of the entire computer system and proper storage of information without losing data in unforeseen situations. Monitoring of the HDD should be done regularly. Let's consider, what programs for diagnostics of a hard disk today exist and on what they are capable.

What is the diagnosis of hard disks

To begin with, let us dwell on some of the most important aspects. Control and diagnostics of the hard disk include several basic processes. The most significant here are the following: preliminary collection of information about the status of the hard drive (monitoring), hard drive verification (scanning), error correction and data recovery (if the program fails to fix errors programmatically).

In principle, the utility programs for diagnosing the hard disk must be divided into their direct functions (informers, scanners, "doctors" and rehabilitators). More about them will be told a little later, although today there are many software packages combining all these functions.

The most common problems in the operation of HDD

In considering the question of what are the best programs for diagnosing a hard disk, it is worthwhile to dwell on the most common problems and errors that they can correct.

First of all, the most common mistakes are system errors that can occur when the operating system itself crashes, incorrect application termination, incorrect copying or moving to other areas of HDD files and folders, sudden power outage, etc. In principle, the majority Such problems are detected and eliminated by programs for diagnosing the hard disk.

Another thing is 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. Software can transfer information to another area and the partition is sometimes possible, but the damaged areas are, alas, not subject to recovery. If they are very many, in the worst case you will have to change the hard drive. Of course, you can try to restore some information yourself, but in particularly difficult cases, say, after the temperature jump, when the Winchester has melted, such a procedure without the intervention of specialists will simply be impossible.

Preview information

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 are utilities such as Everest, CPU-Z, CrystalDiscInfo, etc.

Any program for diagnosing hard disks of this orientation allows you to view the full report, and it will indicate much more information than in standard Windows reports, although with the use of such tools you can still see something.

Incidentally, it is incorrect to believe that monitoring applications fix some errors or malfunctions. They were originally created only in order to view all the parameters of the equipment, and certainly not to affect their configuration. In this respect, you can manage some parameters of the HDD only using the CrystalDiscInfo utility.

However, some parameters can be viewed and adjusted even when accessing the BIOS before starting the system directly. But even there the information is far from complete, and the change of parameters will concern, say, a fan or something else. But here some adjustments of controllers of hard drives sometimes it is necessary to apply.

HDD check by means of Windows OS

As for the "operating system" of the Windows family, there is a minimal set for checking the hard drive for errors, as well as for fixing them. But this only applies to system errors.

In the monitoring plan, information can be viewed by calling the "Properties" menu from the context menu when right clicking on the "My Computer" icon. More complete information is contained in the DirectX dialog box, which is called from the command line or the "Run" menu by typing the dxdiag command. In any case, the information contained in these reports is in no way comparable to the fact that free utilities are offered.

In Windows, the "native" program for diagnosing hard disks is called very simply. To do this, in the standard "Explorer" on the disk or partition, the right click is made, and the "Properties" line is again selected from the drop-down menu. On the "General" tab (or "Service") there is a special button "Execute check".

In the appeared menu it is possible to put a tick opposite to a line of automatic correction of errors. If this is not done, the system will simply display a message stating that errors have been detected and that they need to be corrected. In some cases, even problems with automatic error correction can not be eliminated, and with each subsequent loading of the "operating system" there will be an obsessive message that one of the disks requires verification. Agree, it is quite inconvenient, especially since even a given test of the hard drive surface takes a lot of time. It is better to use special programs for diagnosing a hard disk with advanced features. By the way, the effect of their application will affect immediately. Any user can see the result even with an inexperienced look, so to speak.

Hard Drive Diagnostics: Programs for testing HDD on broken sectors

Naturally, among the software for monitoring the work or basic parameters of any type of hard drive, you can find a lot of paid, shareware or absolutely free utilities. What is most interesting, as practice shows, free applications are often not inferior to licensed software and cope with the functions assigned to them quite effectively.

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

Interestingly, some utilities are delivered even in the form of portable versions and only take a few megabytes.

All utilities of this type have an interface that is simple enough for any user, in which you just need to select the desired disk and set several parameters for scanning and fixing errors. In principle, the same Disc Doctor "grandfather" Norton allows you to specify the disk or partition, as well as use the parameters of checking the hard drive for broken sectors and automatic error correction. Separately in the advanced settings, you can set the Surface Test (HDD Surface Test).

HDD check for physical damage

Unfortunately, physical damage to the HDD surface or a removable hard drive is a very common problem. It can be connected with dust, overheating, short circuit in electrical circuits, etc.

Check the physical condition of the hard drive is quite simple. You just need to turn to the appropriate programs and applications for help, which in a few minutes will detect problems, if any.

The principles of correcting HDD errors in physically damaged sectors

In principle, the testing of the surface of disks can produce some standard utility for HDD or an external hard disk diagnostic program. This is not the point. The main thing is that such utilities can overwrite the information (checksums) from the damaged sectors in the spare areas of the disk. Thus, an interesting effect is achieved. 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: program for diagnosing the hard disk

Separately it is worthwhile to dwell on the unique program of Victoria. It has truly the most powerful capabilities in its field. However, some experts recommend using a version that works on the basis of DOS. Well, in some cases this is a justified step.

The application itself was developed by the Belarusian programmer SO Kazantsev and proved itself in the computer world at a very high level. It is no wonder that in the West it is being used very often. I must say that this utility is a multifunctional package that combines the capabilities of monitoring and testing of any type of hard drives and any manufacturer, the ability to automatically correct errors and restore data even with very significant damage to hard drives.

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

Recovery of damaged HDD data

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

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

As the developers of this package say themselves, they have found a unique way of using certain algorithms of signal sequences that, in a literal sense, can restore the physically damaged sectors of hard disks not simply rewriting the information in other sections, but using the method of magnetization reversal. This also achieves the effect when information from the damaged area does not disappear anywhere, but is read after recovery.

Naturally, if the reading head or spindle are flying on the hard drive, no even the most modern programs will help. However, in most cases, software and, as you can see, even physical problems can be fixed.

Advanced BIOS settings

As for the advanced settings, many programs for diagnosing hard disks sometimes fail to 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 who use diagnostic programs or first look at the parameters of the hard drive or fan in the BIOS, panic, they say, the temperature is too high (for example, 40 degrees), the hard drive will "fly" in this mode of operation. Nothing like this! For almost all hard drives, the optimum operating temperature range is between 35 and 45 degrees Celsius. Even the value of 50 degrees for many hard drives is not critical. Worse, when the temperature drops below 25 degrees, then the probability of hard disk failure is much higher. However, this is extremely rare, except when working in the cold (I think, it's unlikely that someone will have the mind to do this).

Diagnosis of the hard disk. Which program is better?

So, although in short, we have considered the question, what is hard disk diagnostics? The program (which is better - to solve the user), designed for analysis, test and error correction, in principle, can be any. What to use - a specialized or narrowly focused product? The answer to this question depends on what exactly this or that application should be able to do. Some prefer separate programs, some are inclined to use packages that combine all the possibilities for working with HDD.

For inexperienced users, unpretentious free utilities are suitable, especially since even portable versions do not weigh a lot and have the functions of smart SMART scanning without damage to the system. But for professionals the best in their field, of course, is the Victoria program. This is not discussed.

Conclusion

In general, if you deal with testing hard drives and monitoring their condition, in the end, you can add only one thing: in order to prevent the emergence of catastrophic situations, you should regularly use at least some program to diagnose hard disks. In some cases, even a simple cleaning of the computer from dust with a conventional vacuum cleaner (of course, without fanaticism) will help. As the statistics show, those who at least once a month conducts a hard drive check and monitor the overall condition of a computer or laptop, the percentage of HDD outage is much lower than that of users who never think about it, but try to correct the situation when All will reach almost to the extreme.