Forewarned is forearmed! This rule comes in handy when working with hard drives. If you know in advance that such and such HDD is likely to fail - then the risk of data loss will be minimal.
Of course, no one will give a 100% guarantee, but with a high degree of probability, some programs can analyze S.M.A.R.T. readings. (a set of software and hardware that monitors state of hard disk) and draw conclusions on how long it will last.
In general, to implement such hard checks There are dozens of programs on the disk, but in this article I wanted to focus on some of the most visual and easy to use. So...
How to find out the status hard drive
(By the way, in addition to HDD, it also supports SSD drives)
One of best programs for continuous monitoring of the hard drive condition. It will help you recognize the threat in time and replace the hard drive. Most of all, it captivates with its clarity: after launching and analysis, HDDlife presents the report in a very convenient form: you are shown the percentage of the “health” of the disk and its performance (the best indicator, of course, is 100%).
If your performance is above 70%, this indicates the good condition of your disks. For example, after a couple of years of work (quite active by the way), the program analyzed and concluded: that this hard drive is about 92% healthy (which means that it should last, unless force majeure occurs, at least the same amount) .
After launch, the program minimizes to the tray next to the clock and you can always monitor the status of your hard drive. If any problem is detected (for example, the disk temperature is high, or there is too little space left on the hard drive), the program will notify you with a pop-up window. Example below.
HDDLIFE alerts you when your hard drive is running out of space. Windows 8.1.
If the program analyzes and gives you a window like the one in the screenshot below, I advise you not to delay making a backup copy (and replacing the HDD).
HDDLIFE - the data on your hard drive is in danger, the faster you copy it to other media, the better!
Hard Disk Sentinel
This utility can compete with HDDlife - it monitors the disk status just as well. What captivates us most about this program is how informative it is and how easy it is to work with. Those. it will be useful for both a novice user and an already experienced one.
After launching Hard Disk Sentinel and analyzing the system, you will see the main window of the program: on the left you will see hard disks(including external HDDs), and their status will be displayed in the right window.
By the way, quite interesting feature, by predicting the performance of the disk, by how long it will serve you: for example, in the screenshot below, the forecast is more than 1000 days (that’s about 3 years!).
The condition of the hard drive is EXCELLENT. No problematic or weak sectors were found. No speed or data transmission errors were detected.
No action needs to be taken.
By the way, the program implements enough useful feature: you can set the critical threshold yourself hard temperature disk, upon reaching which, Hard Disk Sentinel will notify you of exceeding!
Hard Disk Sentinel: disk temperature (including the maximum for the entire time the disk was used).
An excellent utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. The monitor built into the program allows you to find out in advance about the first problems with the disk (by the way, the program can notify you about this even by e-mail).
Also, in addition to the main functions, a number of auxiliary ones are built into the program:
Disk Defragmenter;
Testing;
Cleaning the disk from garbage and temporary files (always relevant);
Deleting the history of visiting sites on the Internet (useful if you are not alone at the computer and do not want anyone to know what you are doing);
There are also built-in utilities for reducing disk noise, adjusting power, etc.
Screenshot of the Ashampoo HDD Control 2 window: from hard drive everything is in order, condition 99%, performance 100%, temperature 41 degrees. (it is desirable that the temperature be less than 40 degrees, but the program considers that everything is in order for this disk model).
By the way, the program is completely in Russian, intuitively thought out - even a novice PC user can figure it out. Pay special attention to the temperature and status indicators in the main program window. If the program produces errors or the condition is assessed as extremely low (+ in addition there is a grinding or noise coming from the HDD), I recommend that you first copy all the data to other media, and then start dealing with the disk.
Hard Drive Inspector
A distinctive feature of this program is:
1. Minimalism and simplicity: there is nothing superfluous in the program. It gives three indicators in percentage terms: reliability, performance and absence of errors;
Hard Drive Inspector - monitoring the condition of the hard drive.
A simple but reliable utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. Moreover, it works even in cases where many other utilities refuse, crashing with errors.
The program supports several languages, does not have many settings, and is designed in a minimalist style. At the same time, it has quite rare functions, for example, reducing the noise level of the disk, temperature control, etc.
What is also very convenient is a graphical display of the situation:
Blue color (as in the screenshot below): everything is ok;
Yellow: anxiety, measures need to be taken;
Red: you need to take immediate action (if you still have time);
Gray: the program was unable to determine the readings.
CrystalDiskInfo 2.7.0 - screenshot of the main program window.
This program will be useful to more experienced users: who, in addition to a graphical display of the “health” of the disk, also need high-quality disk tests, in which they can familiarize themselves in detail with all the characteristics and parameters. It should also be noted that the program, in addition to HDD, also supports new-fangled SSD drives.
HD Tune offers a rather interesting feature to quickly check a disk for errors: a 500 GB disk is checked in about 2-3 minutes!
HD TUNE: quick search disk errors. Red "squares" are not allowed on a new disk.
In general, there are at least as many similar utilities that can be cited. I think that these will be more than enough for most...
And lastly: do not forget to make backup copies, even if the disk condition is rated as 100% excellent (at least the most important and valuable data)!
CrystalDiskInfo is free program for servicing computer HDDs and SSDs with ATA (PATA, SATA), USB and IEEE1394 connection interfaces. If something strange happens to your hard drive, don’t be lazy and download CrystalDiskInfo for free in Russian for your computer using the link from the site https://site without registration and SMS. The advantages of the utility include: displaying detailed, reliable information about the status, powerful monitoring and verification tools, as well as effective tools for changing hard drive settings. If problems are detected, Crystal Disk Info displays a warning and sends an email to the user.
Before a large number of bad sectors appear, read and write errors, unpleasant noise, temperatures rise, performance decreases, it makes sense useful program CrystalDiskInfo free download for a computer with an operating system Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 (32-bit and 64-bit). The utility is quickly installed on your computer and uninstalled correctly, without being tracked in the system registry. When you start the program, it checks the status of the hard drive of your computer or laptop; this takes some time.
Checking, monitoring, analysis, graphs and changing settings
When checking, the utility displays detailed information, including external HDD USB and IEEE1394. Displayed: firmware version, AAM*/APM** data, interface type, spindle speed, buffer size, operating life, number of bad sectors, temperature and even a graph of temperature dynamics over time, as well as others specifications. S.M.A.R.T*** parameters are monitored, including: number of read errors, overall performance, start-stops and other data. CrystalDiskInfo dynamically tracks changes in a large amount of data from drives in the system, keeps a log and allows you to beautifully display this in the form of graphs. This format allows you to clearly see the overall health picture of the computer’s disk subsystem.
There will be people who want to download CrystalDiskInfo for free without registration and SMS, without leaving the https://site, also because the utility allows you not only to diagnose the hard drive, but also to take care of its health. Changing the AAM and APM settings allows you to control performance parameters and the corresponding amount of acoustic noise produced, as well as power consumption parameters. If necessary, it is possible to reset the bad sector counters. In the "Tools" menu there is a link to the system "Disk Management", where all the necessary transformations are done with them: create a partition, expand or shrink partitions, etc.
Interface and functionality of CrystalDiskInfo
Nice modern interface supports many localizations, as well as themes (skins), three of which are available immediately after launch. Positive reviews and comments from users are caused by an intuitive display of the status in color: blue (or green) - good, yellow - warning, red - problems/alarm, gray - no information.
This one is small free utility with open source code, is being developed by Japanese programmer Noriyuki Miyazaki (known as Hiyohiyo), so in Europe and America many people find the menus and settings confusing. The Japanese do not share this opinion. Unfortunately, there are no hints or explanations about the importance of parameters unfamiliar to the average computer user, and to figure it out, sometimes you have to refer to the help section.
Rich functionality allow CrystalDiskInfo to compete not only with free, but also with paid programs. According to reviews and comments from many users around the world, it is definitely worth downloading CrystalDiskInfo for Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP (32-bit and 64-bit) for free in Russian. Among the competitors it is worth noting paid programs HDDlife Professional and Hard Drive Inspector and free Active@ Hard Disk Monitor with Russian language support, as well as paid HD Tune Pro on English language. As for the functionality of Crystal Disk Info, you definitely need to know about the following advantages of this utility:
- high data reliability,
- correct interaction with S.M.A.R.T technology,
- monitoring of more than 25 parameters,
- data on current operating modes in real time,
- temperature and S.M.A.R.T data control,
- displaying disk temperatures in the system tray,
- prompt e-mail notification of problems,
- ability to change AAM/APM settings,
- control of speed and amount of acoustic noise,
- settings to save energy consumption,
- no conflicts with latest versions SSD drives,
- work with external HDDs with USB and IEEE 1394 interfaces,
- compatible with a wide range of equipment****.
reference Information
* Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) - control of the track search time parameter, and the faster the block moves magnetic heads along the radius when searching, the more noise.
**Advanced Power Management (APM) - energy management.
*** Self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (S.M.A.R.T.) - an internal system of self-diagnosis and self-monitoring using equipment built into the disk with the ability to generate reports and predict the breakdown period.
**** A comprehensive list of compatible equipment is located on the official crystalmark website in the info domain.
Download the latest version of CrystalDiskInfo in Russian
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Reliability of hard and SSD drives are far from ideal - sooner or later they fail, which can lead to serious problems, up to the complete loss of the data stored on them. Of course, in most cases the information (in whole or in part) is apparently “dead” hard drives can be restored, but you will have to turn to professionals (since you need special equipment and appropriate technical training), and solving this problem will cost a very large sum. Therefore, it is better to try to prevent such situations from occurring.
In this regard, the most reliable thing is to regularly back up information. However, even with a scrupulous approach to the backup task, you may not have time to copy important information, because disk failure “according to the law of meanness” always occurs unexpectedly. At the same time, you can avoid the danger of data loss if you monitor the status of your hard drive using a specialized S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utility. We will look at several such programs in this article.
S.M.A.R.T. monitoring in a nutshell
Today, all modern HDDs and even solid-state drives (SSDs) support disk self-diagnosis technology - S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), which was specially designed for timely detection of impending drive failure. This technology is based on continuous monitoring of readings from special sensors. These sensors display the current values of S.M.A.R.T. parameters, each of which shows the state of a certain vital part of the hard drive (number of read or write errors, temperature, disk operating time, performance, information retrieval speed, etc.). Parameter values during normal disk operation may vary in certain intervals. Moreover, for any parameter, the manufacturer has defined a certain threshold value - the minimum safe value that cannot be exceeded under normal operating conditions.
S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utilities regularly scan hard drives, extract S.M.A.R.T. information from sensors and thermal sensors (temperature sensors that all modern hard drives are equipped with), analyze it and monitor changes in the state of all attributes. When critical changes are detected that indicate a significant drop in disk reliability, the programs inform the user that storing data on the hard disk has become unsafe. According to a number of developers, this happens no later than a day or two before the hard drive fails, which provides the user with some reserve time during which they can make copies of all information, and maybe even replace the hard drive. It is worth noting that all S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utilities work in background, require a minimum of hardware resources, and therefore their operation will not be burdensome for the user and will in no way interfere with the main workflow.
Unfortunately, the use of such monitoring utilities is not a panacea, since they cannot always predict drive failure. The reason for this state of affairs lies in the fact that hard drives are made up of electronic and mechanical components. Wear of mechanical parts occurs gradually, and this is a controlled process, thanks to which utilities, as a rule, successfully predict disk failure due to the fault of “mechanics”. Failure of electronic components most often occurs completely unexpectedly and is therefore practically unpredictable. However, according to Seagate statistics, about 60% of hard drive failures are due to the fault of the mechanical components of the drive. This means that you should never ignore the S.M.A.R.T. disk diagnostic system.
S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring programs
There are quite a large number of utilities on the market that provide disk monitoring by monitoring S.M.A.R.T. parameters. and temperature. Some utilities are limited to reading and displaying them, others interpret the received values and issue their own verdict on the state of the disk in the form of a certain conditional percentage of its health, sometimes also with recommendations to the user on what should be done in a given situation.
All known S.M.A.R.T. monitoring programs, as a rule, recognize and scan internal hard drives without problems. With external drives the situation is more complicated - not all utilities can fully work with such devices (even with support for this type of drive officially declared by the developer) - see table. Moreover, most developers are generally silent about which specific external drives are supported in their products (including paid ones). In addition, even if the selected utility recognizes a specific external drive, it is not at all a fact that the program will be able to determine the “health” state of the disk, since not all USB hard drive controllers support S.M.A.R.T commands. As for SSD drives, their recognition coupled with diagnostics, as a rule, does not cause any special problems - however, provided that the utility you like supports solid state drives.
Hard Disk Sentinel 4.0
Developer: H.D.S. Hungary
Distribution size: 12.3 MB
Work under control: Windows (all versions)
Distribution method: http://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php)
Price: Standard - $23; Professional - $35
Hard Disk Sentinel is a recognized solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of the health of hard drives (internal and external) and solid-state drives. The program is presented in several commercial editions; For a wide range of users, the basic Standard and extended Professional editions, as well as the portable Portable edition for laptops, are of interest. The main difference between the professional edition and the Standard edition is the presence of functionality for backing up data (periodically or in case of problems with the disk). There is also a free DOS edition that allows you to control temperature and S.M.A.R.T. attributes. IDE/SATA hard drives connected directly or through external controllers.
The program monitors S.M.A.R.T attributes. and temperature by scanning hard drives in automatic mode after a specified number of minutes and on demand, and displays on the “Overview” tab the level of performance and “health” of the selected disk with a description of its current state and a listing of problems that arose during operation (Fig. 1). Additionally, this tab shows the total operating time of the disk and an approximate estimate of its remaining life, as well as the temperature of all monitored disks, their capacity and the amount of free space. You can also get more detailed information about temperatures (Temperature tab), for example, see the dynamics of changes in average and maximum temperatures. In addition, a short verdict on the status of the disk is displayed in the system tray (Fig. 2) and on the disk icons in Explorer.
Rice. 1. Review of disks in Hard Disk Sentinel
Rice. 2. Brief information
about the disk status in the tray
(Hard Disk Sentinel)
As for the values of S.M.A.R.T. parameters, comprehensive information is also provided on them (the “S.M.A.R.T.” tab) - this makes it easy to track changes that have taken place (Fig. 3). If you wish, you can even do an online comparison of S.M.A.R.T values. selected disk with the values of disks of the same model. All information obtained during monitoring can be easily saved in the form of a text or HTML report and, if necessary, sent to the specified email address. If a problem is detected or the temperature is exceeded, the program can warn the user with a sound signal or message and immediately (with appropriate settings) start the data backup process.
Rice. 3. Monitoring S.M.A.R.T. parameters in Hard Disk Sentinel
Additionally, the utility shows detailed information about hard drives (manufacturer, model, serial number etc.) and measures the data transfer rate in real time. In addition, it can be used to test the disk for performance (disk head connection test, disk surface test, etc.).
Hard Drive Inspector 3.96
Developer: AltrixSoft
Distribution size: 2.64 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
Distribution method: http://www.altrixsoft.com/ru/download/)
Price: 600 rub.
Hard Drive Inspector is a convenient solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of external and internal hard drives, as well as SSDs. The program is presented in several editions: the Professional edition is positioned as a tool for monitoring hard drives, and the SSD edition is designed to work with solid-state drives. The program supports two operating modes - simplified and advanced. In simplified mode, which is aimed at beginners, only the most important information about the current state of the disks. The advanced mode provides access to a wide range of technical data, after analyzing which professionals can get a more detailed understanding of the condition of the disks.
S.M.A.R.T. attributes are checked automatically at specified intervals. During the analysis of all vital parameters of the disk, the values of conditional indicators of its condition are calculated: “reliability”, “performance” and “no errors”, which are displayed on the “Basic Information” tab along with the numerical value of the temperature and the temperature diagram (Fig. 4) . This information is accompanied by technical data about the drive model, capacity, total free space and operating time in hours (days). In the advanced mode, comprehensive information about disk parameters is additionally provided (buffer size, firmware name, list of supported data transfer modes, etc.), and the values of S.M.A.R.T. parameters with flags are displayed (Fig. 5). In case of critical changes in S.M.A.R.T. parameters, the program can (after appropriate settings) inform the user about this in the most different ways- by displaying a message on the screen, giving sound signal by sending a message to the specified email address etc. It is even possible to launch some third party program, which allows you to take urgent actions to save data immediately after detecting a danger (for example, start a data backup procedure).
Rice. 4. Basic information about the current disk status in Hard Drive Inspector
Rice. 5. S.M.A.R.T. attributes “detailed” in Hard Drive Inspector
In addition, the utility can be used to automatically control the noise produced by hard drives (allows you to reduce noise levels at the expense of a slight drop in performance), and improved power management (reduces the power consumption of the hard drive - also at the cost of a slight drop in performance).
ActiveSMART 2.92
Developer: Ariolic Software, Ltd
Distribution size: 5.12 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Server 2008/Vista/7
Distribution method: shareware (30-day demo version - http://www.ariolic.com/ru/download.html)
Price:$24.95, for Russian users - 650 rubles.
Active SMART is a program for monitoring hard drives by monitoring S.M.A.R.T. parameters. and temperature. The utility automatically checks the disk status when the system boots, carries out continuous monitoring at a specified time interval, and can quickly scan disks on demand (relevant on low-power PCs). The status of the monitored disk is shown in the tray, and the data obtained during the analysis is displayed in the form of a summary table (Fig. 6) and detailed reports for each of the monitored S.M.A.R.T. parameters (indicating values, threshold, T.E.C. date and a graph of attribute value changes) - Fig. . 7. To analyze the situation, a real-time graph of disk temperature changes and an event log are also provided, which records the entire history of S.M.A.R.T. events on the disk. Support provided various types notifications (pop-up message, sound signal, letter to a specified email address and network message) when critical events occur on controlled devices (including individual S.M.A.R.T. attributes).
Rice. 6. Summary of disk status in Active SMART
Rice. 7. Values of S.M.A.R.T. attributes
with a graph of changes in the selected attribute (Active SMART)
Additionally, the program provides general information about the hard drive (model, capacity, serial number, list of all available disk partitions indicating the remaining free space on each of them, supported and enabled disk modes transfers, etc.) and allows you to find out what types of data the disk is filled with.
HDDlife 4.0
Developer: BinarySense Ltd
Distribution size: 6.68 MB
Work under control: Windows 2K/XP/2003/Vista/7
Distribution method: shareware (14-day demo version - http://hddlife.com/files/v4/HDDlifeRus%204.0.183.msi)
Price: HDDLife - free; HDDLife Pro - 20 euros (for Russian users - 300 rubles)
HDDLife is an easy-to-use utility designed to monitor the status of hard drives and SSDs (from version 4.0) in an intuitive way. The program continuously monitors S.M.A.R.T. parameters. for all disks installed in the system and, based on the analysis results, issues its own conclusion about the condition of the disk in the form of a certain conditional percentage of its health (Fig. 8). This approach is ideal for beginners, for whom specific S.M.A.R.T. values will most likely not mean anything, but the percentage of “health” will allow them to navigate the situation. There are several ways to get an idea of the health of your disks. Yes, already by appearance indicator in the system tray and disk icons in Explorer, you can immediately see how “healthy” the controlled disk is. In addition, more detailed data on the device status is available through the main window of the utility. In case of critical situations (decrease in the level of “health” to critical, reaching a critical temperature, etc.), an alert system is provided. Such an alert can be a hint message in the system tray, a sound signal, or a text message sent via computer network or by email.
Rice. 8. Verdict on the state of the “health” of the disk,
issued by HDDlife Pro
Additionally, the utility displays the level of performance of the hard drive, and also shows data on the operating temperature of the device, its capacity, the amount of free space and the time spent by the disk.
CrystalDiskInfo 4.3.0
Developer: Hiyohiyo
Distribution size: 1.42 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7
Distribution method: freeware (http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html)
Price: for free
CrystalDiskInfo is a simple tool for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring the health of hard drives (including many external HDDs) and SSDs. The program is different compact distribution, is free and has all the necessary functionality to organize disk control.
Disks are scanned automatically after a specified number of minutes or on demand. The temperatures of monitored devices are displayed in the notification area (the corresponding option must be enabled), and detailed information about the drives installed in the computer, including the values of basic S.M.A.R.T. parameters, temperature and the program’s verdict on the state of the devices, is in the main window of the utility (Fig. 9). In addition, on the graph you can see how certain parameter values have changed over time. Some parameters have functionality for setting threshold values and sending email notifications if the parameter exceeds the set threshold.
Rice. 9. Disk monitoring in CrystalDiskInfo
Additionally, the program includes tools for automatic disk noise management (AAM) and advanced power management (APM).
Acronis Drive Monitor 1.0
Developer: Acronis, Inc.
Distribution size: 18 MB
Work under control: Windows XP(SP2+)/Vista/7/2003(SP2)/Server 2008
Distribution method: freeware (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/drive-monitor/)
Price: for free
Acronis Drive Monitor is a utility for monitoring the “health status” and temperatures of hard drives (including external drives) and SSDs through the S.M.A.R.T self-diagnosis system. The program is free, has minimal functionality for organizing disk monitoring and is able to integrate with Acronis backup products, but it has a very cumbersome distribution and does not have Russian localization.
The utility scans disks independently according to a schedule preset by the developers (monitoring of individual disks can be canceled) and displays the resulting information on the Disks tab (Fig. 10). The minimum data is the level of “health” of the disk in percentage (Health), an indicator of the number of days of operation (Power On Time) and temperature (Disc temperature; critical temperature values are specified in the settings). Theoretically, data about the situation is also displayed in the system tray, but their information content is very doubtful (there is no list of disks, data on their temperatures and “health” level). Information regarding S.M.A.R.T. parameter values presented in traditional text form, no graphs (in particular, temperature graphs) are provided. For monitored disks, a log of critical events is kept and recorded in the log. When problems are detected, the utility informs the user about this (by issuing text message on the screen or send it by email) and can automatically create a data backup job. The latter is implemented only if the computer has one of the corresponding Acronis products (Acronis True Image Home 2012, Acronis Backup and Security 2011).
Rice. 10. Resulting information about disks in Acronis Drive Monitor
Conclusion
Any user wants to know in advance about the upcoming failure of a hard drive or solid-state drive. This is quite realistic if you entrust the monitoring of device data to one of the utilities discussed in the article, which will allow you to obtain information about possible failure disk and will provide some time limit to prevent data loss. Which utility to choose is a matter of taste, however, in our opinion, free solutions CrystalDiskInfo stands out, and among the commercial tools reviewed, Hard Disk Sentinel is the most impressive.
The choice of solution should be made taking into account which drives are supposed to be monitored, since not all utilities support SSDs and not all cope with monitoring external drives. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the features of the presentation of accumulated data in utilities. In most decisions, the user is presented with an impressive set of values for S.M.A.R.T. parameters, which are not very clear to the general user, but can tell professionals a lot. At the same time, there are also products on the market with a different approach to displaying S.M.A.R.T. parameters - instead of “incomprehensible” abstract numbers, they provide a certain conventional value that reflects the general condition of the disk as a percentage (for example, the “health” of the disk in HDDlife), which will allow you to correctly evaluate the situation with the disk even for a beginner.
Hello admin! I read several articles on your website about the Victoria program and a question arose. What, the latest operating system from Microsoft - Windows 10 - is so flawed and does not have a built-in hard drive diagnostic tool? Is it really not possible for it to determine the state of the hard drive on which it is installed and is it necessary to download third-party programs? I have new laptop with Windows 10 and if such a tool exists, then please tell us about it in your articles. I also wanted to ask. In one of your comments, you said that it is useless to run the hard drive status check utility built into Windows 10 - CHKDSK to find and fix bad sectors (bad blocks). Why? After all, on all sites like yours it is written that chkdsk, launched with the /R parameter, can fix bad blocks!
How to find out the status of your hard drive using built-in tools in Windows 10
Hello friends! There are about a dozen articles on this topic on our website, but what’s interesting is that I didn’t tell you about this method, but it nevertheless exists.
In fact, you can find out the status of the hard drive in Windows 10 using built-in tools, but these tools will simply tell you: “Yes, the condition of the disk is good” or “The condition of the disk is bad,” but how bad is it and is it worth urgently copying data from HDD and replace it, or you can wait at least until tomorrow, that’s what they won’t tell you. Why?
In simple words, the operating system simply reads the self-diagnosis readings of the hard drive (S.M.A.R.T.) and if it is GOOD (good), then the system tells us so - “The disk is working fine.” If the S.M.A.R.T status of the hard drive is BAD (bad), then the system will indicate that the disk is faulty. But in life everything is relative and very often the HDD is on the verge of failure, and Windows still shows us that the disk is working fine.
In short, if you want to accurately diagnose a hard drive, then you can’t do without special programs and even chkdsk won't help you. I will try to prove this to you in today's article.
To find out the status of your hard drive in Windows 10 using built-in tools, you need to go to« Control Panel»
"Security and Service Center"
"Service"
As you can see, Windows 10 evaluates the condition of the hard drive as normal: All drives are working fine. OK.
But in fact, if you now run special program for diagnostics hard drives, then you will see that the status of the hard drive is C (Alarm!) and it is full of unstable sectors that the built-in firmware of the hard drive could not correct.
The Victoria program will say the same thing.
How else can you find out the status of your hard drive using the built-in tools of Windows 10 or how to use the disk check utility (chkdsk). Running disk check from the GUI
Windows 10 has a disk check utility called chkdsk and you can run it directly in graphical interface or by using command line. After checking, the utility will issue a full report on the state of the file system of your operating system installed.
Note: On many sites you may read that the chkdsk utility, run with the /R parameter, can fix bad sectors (bad blocks), but in fact this is not the case. Bad sectors can be reassigned to good sectors from backup tracks only by the technical control firmware built into the hard drive. disk status. What the chkdsk utility does is fix file errors. NTFS systems or FAT32 and it is best to use the utilitychkdsk to fix file system errors, not to diagnose the condition of the hard drive. Let me explain a little.
You all know that the minimum unit of information on a hard disk is a sector, the volume available to the user is 512 bytes. When formatting a hard drive in file system all sectors are combined into clusters (one cluster is located on several sectors); accordingly, a cluster is a minimal area of the file system. So here it is, utility chkdsk does not work with hard disk sectors, but at a higher level - with clusters. In turn, the Victoria and MHDD programs are used to check hard disk sectors, not clusters; therefore, they do not treat the file system.
Go to the Computer window and right-click on the drive (C:), select “Properties”
Go to the “Service” tab and click on the “Check” button
"Check disk"
The disk is being checked for errors.
The disk has been successfully verified. No errors found.
Sooner or later (it’s better, of course, if early) any user asks himself the question of how long the device installed on his computer will last. computer hard disk and is it time to look for a replacement? There is nothing surprising in this, since hard drives, by virtue of their design features are the least reliable among computer components. At the same time, it is on the HDD that most users store the lion's share of a wide variety of information: documents, pictures, various software, etc., as a result of which an unexpected failure of the disk is always a tragedy. Of course, it is often possible to restore information on apparently “dead” hard drives, but it is possible that this operation will cost you a pretty penny, and will cost you a lot of nerves. Therefore, it is much more effective to try to prevent data loss.
How? It’s very simple... First of all, don’t forget about regular backup data, and secondly, monitor the status of disks using specialized utilities. We will consider several programs of this kind from the perspective of the tasks being solved in this article.
Control of SMART parameters and temperature
All modern HDDs and even solid state drives (SSDs) support S.M.A.R.T technology. ( from English Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology), which was developed by major hard drive manufacturers to increase the reliability of their products. This technology is based on continuous monitoring and assessment of the condition of the hard drive using built-in self-diagnosis equipment (special sensors), and its main purpose is the timely detection of possible failure of the drive.
Real-time HDD status monitoring
A number of information and diagnostic solutions for diagnosing and testing hardware, as well as special monitoring utilities, use S.M.A.R.T technology. to monitor the current status of various vital parameters that describe the reliability and performance of hard drives. They read the relevant parameters directly from the sensors and thermal sensors that all modern hard drives are equipped with, analyze the received data and display them in the form of a short tabular report with a list of attributes. At the same time, some utilities (Hard Drive Inspector, HDDlife, Crystal Disk Info, etc.) are not limited to displaying a table of attributes (the meanings of which are incomprehensible to untrained users) and additionally display brief information about the state of the disk in a more understandable form.
Diagnosing the status of your hard drive using this kind of utility is as easy as shelling pears - just read the brief basic information about installed HDDs: with basic data about disks in Hard Drive Inspector, a certain conditional percentage hard health disk in HDDlife, the “Technical Status” indicator in Crystal Disk Info (Fig. 1), etc. Any of these programs provides the minimum necessary information about each of the HDDs installed on the computer: data about the hard drive model, its volume, operating temperature, operating time, as well as the level of reliability and performance. This information makes it possible to draw certain conclusions about the performance of the media.
Rice. 1. Brief information about the “health” of the working HDD
You should configure the monitoring utility to launch simultaneously with the start of the operating system, adjust the time interval between checks of S.M.A.R.T. attributes, and also enable the display of the temperature and “health level” of hard drives in the system tray. After this, to monitor the status of the disks, the user will only need to glance from time to time at the indicator in the system tray, where brief information about the state of the drives available in the system will be displayed: their “health” level and temperature (Fig. 2). By the way, the operating temperature is no less important indicator than a conditional indicator of HDD health, because hard drives can suddenly fail due to simple overheating. Therefore, if the hard drive heats up above 50 °C, then it would be wiser to provide it with additional cooling.
Rice. 2.Display HDD Status
in the system tray with the HDDlife program
It is worth noting that a number of such utilities provide integration with Windows Explorer, due to which a green icon is displayed on the icons of local disks if they are working properly, and if problems arise, the icon turns red. So you are unlikely to forget about the health of your hard drives. With such constant monitoring, you will not be able to miss the moment when some problems begin to arise with the disk, because if the utility detects critical changes in S.M.A.R.T. attributes. and/or temperature, it will carefully notify the user about this (with a message on the screen, a sound message, etc. - Fig. 3). Thanks to this, it will be possible to copy data from the dangerous media in advance.
Rice. 3. Example of a message about the need to immediately replace the disk
Using S.M.A.R.T. monitoring solutions in practice to monitor the status of hard drives is completely easy, because all such utilities work in the background and require a minimum of hardware resources, so their functioning will in no way interfere with the main workflow.
Control of S.M.A.R.T. attributes
Advanced users, of course, are unlikely to limit themselves to assessing the condition of hard drives by viewing a brief verdict from one of the utilities presented above. This is understandable, because according to the decoding of the S.M.A.R.T. attributes. You can identify the cause of failures and, if necessary, take precautionary measures. True, to independently control S.M.A.R.T. attributes, you will need to at least briefly become familiar with S.M.A.R.T technology.
Hard drives that support this technology include intelligent self-diagnostic procedures so they can “report” their current status. This diagnostic information is provided as a collection of attributes, that is, specific characteristics of the hard drive used to analyze its performance and reliability.
B O Most of the important attributes have the same meaning for drives from all manufacturers. The values of these attributes during normal disk operation may vary within certain intervals. For any parameter, the manufacturer has determined a certain minimum safe value that cannot be exceeded under normal operating conditions. Unambiguously determine critically important and critically unimportant S.M.A.R.T parameters for diagnostics. problematic. Each of the attributes has its own information value and indicates one or another aspect of the work of the medium. However, first of all you should pay attention to the following attributes:
- Raw Read Error Rate - the frequency of errors in reading data from the disk caused by the fault of the equipment;
- Spin Up Time - average spin-up time of the disk spindle;
- Reallocated Sector Count - number of sector reassignment operations;
- Seek Error Rate - frequency of occurrence of positioning errors;
- Spin Retry Count - the number of repeated attempts to spin up disks to operating speed if the first attempt fails;
- Current Pending Sector Count - the number of unstable sectors (that is, sectors awaiting the reassignment procedure);
- Offline Scan Uncorrectable Count - the total number of uncorrected errors during sector read/write operations.
Typically S.M.A.R.T. attributes are displayed in tabular form indicating the attribute name (Attribute), its identifier (ID) and three values: current (Value), minimum threshold (Threshold) and the lowest attribute value for the entire operating time of the drive (Worst), as well as the absolute value of the attribute (Raw). Each attribute has a current value, which can be any number from 1 to 100, 200, or 253 (there are no general standards for upper bounds on attribute values). The Value and Worst values for a completely new hard drive are the same (Fig. 4).
Rice. 4. Attributes of S.M.A.R.T. with a new HDD
Shown in Fig. 4 information allows us to conclude that for a theoretically serviceable hard drive, the current (Value) and worst (Worst) values should be as close as possible to each other, and the Raw value for most parameters (with the exception of the parameters: Power-On Time, HDA Temperature and some others ) should approach zero. The current value may change over time, which in most cases reflects deterioration of the hard drive parameters described by the attribute. This can be seen in Fig. 5, which presents fragments of the S.M.A.R.T attribute table. for the same disk - data were obtained with an interval of six months. As you can see, in the more recent version of S.M.A.R.T. the frequency of errors when reading data from the disk (Raw Read Error Rate), the origin of which is determined by the hardware of the disk, and the frequency of errors when positioning the magnetic head unit (Seek Error Rate) have increased, which may indicate overheating of the hard drive and its unstable position in the basket . If the current value of any attribute approaches or becomes less than the threshold value, then the hard drive is considered unreliable and should be replaced urgently. For example, a drop in the value of the Spin-Up Time attribute (average spin-up time of the disk spindle) below a critical value, as a rule, indicates complete wear of the mechanics, as a result of which the disk is no longer able to maintain the rotation speed specified by the manufacturer. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the condition of the HDD and periodically (for example, once every 2-3 months) carry out S.M.A.R.T diagnostics. and save the received information in text file. In the future, these data can be compared with current ones and certain conclusions can be drawn about the development of the situation.
Rice. 5. S.M.A.R.T. attribute tables obtained at six-month intervals
(more latest version S.M.A.R.T. at the bottom)
When viewing S.M.A.R.T. attributes, you should first of all pay attention to critical parameters, as well as parameters highlighted by indicators other than the base color (usually blue or green). Depending on the current state of the attribute in the S.M.A.R.T. utility output. in the table it is usually marked in one color or another, which makes it easier to understand the situation. In particular, in the Hard Drive Inspector program, the color indicator can have green, yellow-green, yellow, orange or red - green and yellow-green colors indicate that everything is normal (the attribute value has not changed or changed insignificantly), and yellow, orange and red colors signal danger (the worst color is red, which indicates that the attribute value has reached its critical value). If any of the critical parameters are marked with a red icon, then you need to urgently replace the hard drive.
In the Hard Drive Inspector program, let's look at the table of S.M.A.R.T. attributes of the same drive, which we briefly assessed using monitoring utilities earlier. From Fig. 6 it can be seen that the values of all attributes are normal and all parameters are marked in green. The HDDlife and Crystal Disk Info utilities will show a similar picture. True, more professional solutions for analysis and diagnostics, HDDs are not so loyal and often mark S.M.A.R.T. attributes more meticulously. For example, such well-known utilities as HD Tune Pro and HDD Scan, in our case, were suspicious of the UltraDMA CRC Errors attribute, which displays the number of errors that occur when transmitting information via external interface(Fig. 7). The cause of such errors is usually associated with a twisted and poor-quality SATA cable, which may need to be replaced.
Rice. 6. Table of S.M.A.R.T. attributes obtained in the Hard Drive Inspector program
Rice. 7. Results of assessing the state of S.M.A.R.T. attributes
HD Tune Pro and HDD Scan utilities
For comparison, let’s take a look at the S.M.A.R.T. attributes of a very ancient, but still working HDD with periodically arising problems. It did not inspire confidence in the Crystal Disk Info program - in the “Technical Condition” indicator, the disk condition was rated as alarming, and the Reallocated Sector Count attribute was highlighted in yellow (Fig. 8). This is a very important attribute from the point of view of the “health” of the disk, indicating the number of sectors reassigned when the disk detects a read/write error; during this operation, data from the damaged sector is transferred to the reserve area. The yellow color of the indicator for the parameter indicates that there are few remaining spare sectors with which to replace the bad ones, and soon there will be nothing to reassign the newly appearing bad sectors. Let's also check how more serious solutions assess the condition of the disk, for example, the HDDScan utility widely used by professionals - but here we see exactly the same result (Fig. 9).
Rice. 8. Assessing a problematic hard drive in CrystalDiskInfo
Rice. 9. Results of S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics of HDD in HDDScan
This means that it’s clearly not worth delaying replacing such a hard drive, although it may still serve for some time, though operating system Of course, you cannot install it on this hard drive. It is worth noting that if there are a large number of reassigned sectors, the read/write speed drops (due to the unnecessary movements that the magnetic head has to make), and the disk begins to noticeably slow down.
Scanning the surface for bad sectors
Unfortunately, in practice, monitoring SMART parameters and temperature alone is not enough. If the slightest evidence appears that something is wrong with the disk (in the case of periodic program freezes, for example, when saving results, reading error messages appear, etc.), it is necessary to scan the disk surface for the presence of unreadable sectors. To carry out such a media check, you can use, for example, the HD Tune Pro and HDDScan utilities or diagnostic utilities from hard drive manufacturers, however, these utilities only work with their own hard drive models, and therefore we will not consider them.
When using such solutions, there is a risk of damaging data on the scanned disk. On the one hand, if the drive really turns out to be faulty, anything can happen to the information on the disk during scanning. On the other hand, we cannot exclude incorrect actions on the part of the user who mistakenly starts scanning in write mode, during which data from the hard drive is erased sector by sector with a certain signature, and based on the speed of this process, a conclusion is drawn about the state of the hard drive. Therefore, compliance with certain precautionary rules is absolutely necessary: before starting the utility, you need to create backup copy information and during the inspection act strictly according to the instructions of the developer of the relevant software. To obtain more accurate results, before scanning, it is better to close all active applications and unload possible background processes. In addition, you should keep in mind that if you need to test the system HDD, you need to boot from a flash drive and start the scanning process from it, or completely remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer from which you can start testing the disk.
As an example, using HD Tune Pro, we will check the surface of the HDD for bad sectors, which did not inspire confidence in the Crystal Disk Info utility above. In this program, to start the scanning process, just select required disk, activate tab Error Scan and click on the button Start. After this, the utility will begin sequential scanning of the disk, reading sector by sector and marking sectors on the disk map with multi-colored squares. The color of the squares, depending on the situation, can be green (normal sectors) or red (bad blocks) or will have some shade intermediate between these colors. As we see from Fig. 10, in our case the utility did not find full-fledged bad blocks, but nevertheless there is a significant number of sectors with one or another read delay (judging by their color). In addition to this, in the middle part of the disk there is a small block of sectors, the color of which is close to red - these sectors have not yet been recognized as bad by the utility, but they are already close to this and will move into the bad category in the very near future.
Rice. 10. Scanning the surface for bad sectors in HD Tune Pro
Testing a media for bad sectors in the HDDScan program is more difficult and even more dangerous, since if the mode is incorrectly selected, the information on the disk will be irretrievably lost. The first step to start scanning is to create a new task by clicking on the button New Task and selecting the command from the list Suface Tests. Then you need to make sure that the mode is selected Read- this mode is installed by default and when used, the hard disk surface is tested by reading (that is, without deleting data). After this press the button Add Test(Fig. 11) and double-click on the created task RD-Read. Now in the window that opens you can observe the disk scanning process on a graph (Graph) or on a map (Map) - fig. 12. Upon completion of the process, we will get approximately the same results as those demonstrated above by the HD Tune Pro utility, but with a clearer interpretation: there are no bad sectors (they are marked in blue), but there are three sectors with a response time of more than 500 ms (marked in red color), which pose a real danger. As for the six orange sectors (response time from 150 to 500 ms), this can be considered within normal limits, since such a response delay is often caused by temporary interference in the form, for example, of running background programs.
Rice. 11. Running disk testing in HDDScan program
Rice. 12. Results of disk scanning in Read mode using HDDScan
In addition, it should be noted that if there are a small number of bad blocks, you can try to improve the condition of the hard drive by removing bad sectors by scanning the disk surface in linear recording mode (Erase) using the HDDScan program. After such an operation, the disk can still be used for some time, but, of course, not as a system disk. However, you should not hope for a miracle, since the HDD has already begun to crumble, and there are no guarantees that in the near future the number of defects will not increase and the drive will not completely fail.
Programs for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and HDD testing
HD Tune Pro 5.00 and HD Tune 2.55
Developer: EFD Software
Distribution size: HD Tune Pro - 1.5 MB; HD Tune - 628 KB
Work under control: Windows XP/Server 2003/Vista/7
Distribution method: HD Tune Pro - shareware (15-day demo version); HD Tune - freeware (http://www.hdtune.com/download.html)
Price: HD Tune Pro - $34.95; HD Tune - free (for non-commercial use only)
HD Tune is a convenient utility for diagnosing and testing HDD/SSD (see table), as well as memory cards, USB drives and a number of other data storage devices. The program displays detailed information about the drive (firmware version, serial number, disk capacity, buffer size and data transfer mode) and allows you to set the device status using S.M.A.R.T data. and temperature monitoring. In addition, it can be used to test the disk surface for errors and evaluate the device's performance by running a series of tests (sequential and random data read/write speed tests, file performance test, cache test and a number of Extra tests). The utility can also be used to configure AAM and safe removal data. The program is presented in two editions: commercial HD Tune Pro and free lightweight HD Tune. In the HD Tune edition, you can only view detailed information about the disk and the S.M.A.R.T. attribute table, as well as scan the disk for errors and test for speed in read mode (Low level benchmark - read).
The Health tab is responsible for monitoring S.M.A.R.T. attributes in the program - data from sensors is read after a set period of time, the results are displayed in a table. For any attribute, you can view the history of its changes in numerical form and on a graph. Monitoring data is automatically recorded in the log, but no user notifications are provided for critical changes in parameters.
As for scanning the disk surface for bad sectors, the tab is responsible for this operation Error Scan. Scanning can be quick (Quick scan) and deep - with a quick scan, not the entire disk is scanned, but only some part of it (the scanning area is determined through the Start and End fields). Damaged sectors are displayed on the disk map as red blocks.
HDDScan 3.3
Developer: Artem Rubtsov
Distribution size: 3.64 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000(SP4)/XP(SP2/SP3)/Server 2003/Vista/7
Distribution method: freeware (http://hddscan.com/download/HDDScan-3.3.zip)
Price: for free
HDDScan is a utility for low-level diagnostics hard drives, solid state drives and USB flash drives. The main purpose of this program is to test disks for the presence of bad blocks and bad sectors. The utility can also be used to view the contents of S.M.A.R.T., monitor temperature and change some hard drive settings: noise management (AAM), power management (APM), forced start/stop of the drive spindle, etc. The program works without installation and can be launched from portable media, for example flash drives.
HDDScan displays S.M.A.R.T. attributes and temperature monitoring on demand. S.M.A.R.T report contains information about the performance and “health” of the drive in the form of a standard attribute table; the temperature of the drive is displayed in the system tray and in a special information window. Reports can be printed or saved as an MHT file. S.M.A.R.T. tests are possible.
The disk surface is checked in one of four modes: Verify (linear verification mode), Read (linear reading), Erase (linear writing) and Butterfly Read (Butterfly reading mode). To check a disk for the presence of bad blocks, a test in Read mode is usually used, which tests the surface without deleting data (the conclusion about the condition of the drive is made based on the speed of sector-by-sector data reading). When testing in linear recording mode (Erase), the information on the disk is overwritten, but this test can somewhat heal the disk, ridding it of bad sectors. In any of the modes, you can test the entire disk or a specific fragment of it (the scanning area is determined by indicating the initial and final logical sectors - Start LBA and End LBA, respectively). Test results are presented in the form of a report (Report tab) and displayed on a Graph and a disk map (Map), indicating, among other things, the number of bad sectors (Bads) and sectors whose response time during testing took more than 500 ms (marked in red ).
Hard Drive Inspector 4.13
Developer: AltrixSoft
Distribution size: 2.64 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/7
Distribution method: shareware (14-day demo version - http://www.altrixsoft.com/ru/download/)
Price: Hard Drive Inspector Professional - 600 rub.; Hard Drive Inspector for Notebooks - 800 rub.
Hard Drive Inspector is a convenient solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of external and internal HDDs. IN this moment the program is offered on the market in two editions: the basic Hard Drive Inspector Professional and the portable Hard Drive Inspector for Notebooks; the latter includes all the functionality of the Professional version, and at the same time takes into account the specifics of monitoring laptop hard drives. Theoretically, there is also an SSD version, but it is distributed only in OEM supplies.
The program provides automatic checking of S.M.A.R.T. attributes at specified intervals and upon completion issues its verdict on the condition of the drive, displaying the values of certain conditional indicators: “reliability”, “performance” and “no errors” along with a numerical temperature value and a temperature diagram. Technical data about the disk model, its capacity, total free space and operating time in hours (days) is also provided. In advanced mode, you can view information about disk parameters (buffer size, firmware name, etc.) and the S.M.A.R.T attribute table. There are various options for informing the user in the event of critical changes on the disk. Additionally, the utility can be used to reduce the noise level produced by hard drives and reduce HDD power consumption.
HDDlife 4.0
Developer: BinarySense Ltd
Distribution size: 8.45 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8
Distribution method: shareware (15-day demo version - http://hddlife.ru/rus/downloads.html)
Price: HDDLife - free; HDDLife Pro - 300 rub.; HDDlife for Notebooks - 500 rub.
HDDLife is a simple utility designed to monitor the status of hard drives and SSDs (from version 4.0). The program is presented in three editions: free HDDLife and two commercial ones - basic HDDLife Pro and portable HDDlife for Notebooks.
The utility monitors S.M.A.R.T. attributes and temperature at specified intervals and, based on the analysis results, issues a compact report on the condition of the disk indicating technical data about the disk model and its capacity, operating time, temperature, and also displays the conditional percentage of its health and performance, which allows Even beginners can navigate the situation. More experienced users can additionally look at the table of S.M.A.R.T. attributes. In case of problems with the hard drive, it is possible to configure notifications; you can configure the program so that when in good condition disk scan results were not displayed. It is possible to control the HDD noise level and power consumption.
CrystalDiskInfo 5.4.2
Developer: Hiyohiyo
Distribution size: 1.79 MB
Work under control: Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/2012
Distribution method: freeware (http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html)
Price: for free
CrystalDiskInfo is a simple utility for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring the status of hard drives (including many external HDDs) and SSDs. Despite being free, the program has all the necessary functionality to monitor the status of disks.
Disk monitoring is performed automatically after a specified number of minutes or on demand. At the end of the test, the temperature of the monitored devices is displayed in the system tray; detailed information about the HDD indicating the values of S.M.A.R.T. parameters, temperature and the program’s verdict on the state of the devices is available in the main window of the utility. There is functionality for setting threshold values for some parameters and automatically notifying the user if they are exceeded. Noise level management (AAM) and power management (APM) are possible.
Unfortunately, a considerable part of modern HDDs work normally for a little more than a year, then various kinds of problems begin, which over time can lead to data loss. This prospect can be completely avoided if you carefully monitor the condition of the hard drive, for example, using the utilities discussed in the article. However, you should also not forget about regular backup of valuable data, since monitoring utilities, as a rule, successfully predict disk failure due to mechanical faults (according to Seagate statistics, about 60% of HDDs fail due to mechanical components), but they are not able to predict the death of a drive due to problems with the electronic components of the disk.
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