Computers & Electronics

Good hard drive diagnostic program?

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  • Mar 15th, 2014 2:31 pm
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Deal Fanatic
Dec 11, 2008
7467 posts
4051 upvotes
Montreal

Good hard drive diagnostic program?

To check your hard drive's health... I tried installing Seatools, but it kept getting stuck midway during installation.
Any recommendations?
11 replies
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
Gee wrote: Try Spinrite.
I've always wondered if this was snake oil or not.
It has never actually done anything for me.
Deal Expert
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Mar 25, 2003
17147 posts
5655 upvotes
Markham
hard disk sentinel
48TB Node 304 / i5-3570 / Server 2016 Essentials
12TB HP Mediasmart EX 495 (E8400, 3.0GHZ, 4GB Mushkin), with Server 2016 Essentials
16TB Qnap TS-459 Pro
Penalty Box
User avatar
Apr 25, 2013
7398 posts
1338 upvotes
HD Tune.
Newer HDDs no longer have SMART built in !
Deal Fanatic
Dec 11, 2008
7467 posts
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Montreal
oh uh, i have a problem I think lol
Im running win 8.1, and I tried installing hd sentinel and hd tune. Once installed, none are able to be opened.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
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Madevilz wrote: Im running win 8.1
You shouldn't be running HDD Diagnostics inside windows.
Run from a bootable device.
Deal Fanatic
Dec 11, 2008
7467 posts
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Montreal
death_hawk wrote: You shouldn't be running HDD Diagnostics inside windows.
Run from a bootable device.
sorry im a total noob, how do I do that?
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Mar 20, 2009
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Vancouver
Unless the HDD diagnostic utility can access the drive's internal records (for example using SMART), it's useless. Modern hard drives conceal errors from the operating system, silently substituting spare sectors for failing ones, until they are on the verge of total failure.

At that point running an HDD diagnostic utility that exercises the drive is a really bad idea, because you should be treating it as gently as possible while you immediately do a backup from a separately-booted drive to rescue whatever you can.

So the three lessons you should take from this are:
1. Turn on SMART reporting. It's useful.
2. Do frequent backups.
3. Don't run HDD diagnostics until after you have just completed a backup.
Deal Addict
Jul 23, 2013
3038 posts
1059 upvotes
A small town north o…
death_hawk wrote: I've always wondered if this was snake oil or not.
It has never actually done anything for me.
In the good old days it was a lifesaver. Back when HDDs were measured in megabytes, not terabytes.
Deal Addict
Jan 13, 2009
1567 posts
192 upvotes
Oakville
Madevilz wrote: im a total noob, how do I do that?
Then I suggest you forget about hdd diagnostics programs. Without experience you will not be able to interpret results correctly.
You can use some basic programs, like crystaldiskinfo, which will give you the green, yellow or red light based on pre-programmed settings...
Deal Addict
User avatar
Feb 23, 2004
4206 posts
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Calgary
EdT586 wrote: HD Tune.
Newer HDDs no longer have SMART built in !
why / which hdd "Newer HDDs no longer have SMART built in"
6b 6f 63 6f 6d 61 6e 20 6f 66 20 63 64 6d 61 2d 64 65 76 2d 74 65 61 6d

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