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Checking your computer's hard drive. Checking the hard drive for bad sectors

For check hard drives There are many free tools that can help you determine what's going on with your hard drive when there is a suspicion that there is some problem with it.

An operating system like Windows already includes tools such as checking the disk for errors and the command chkdsk, but there are other tools below that are available for free from hard drive manufacturers and other developers.

Important: depending on the problem found, it may need to be replaced HDD, if it fails any of the given tests for hard drive. To do this, you need to follow the tips given in the program.

Seagate SeaTools is a free hard drive testing program available to users in one of two options:

SeaTools for DOS Supports Seagate or Maxtor drives and works regardless of your operating system, running directly from a CD or USB drive, making this program very reliable.
SeaTools for Windows is a program that needs to be installed in operating system Windows. With its help, you can perform basic and advanced testing of any drives from any manufacturers - both internal and external.

Those users who access SeaTools Desktop, SeaTools Online, or PowerMax from Maxtor should note that the above program replaces all three of these programs. Today, Seagate is the owner of the Maxtor trademark.

SeaTools from Seagate are the best in their segment. They are used to check hard drives in professional computer services, but any user can easily use them.

The Windows version of SeaTools runs on operating systems from Windows 10 to Windows XP.

HDDScan program is free program to check all types of disks, regardless of their manufacturer.

HDDScan includes several tools, including SMART testing and surface inspection.

The program is very easy to use, does not require installation, supports almost all drive interfaces, and seems to be updated regularly.

HDDScan can be used on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP, as well as Windows Server 2003.

DiskCheckup is a free hard drive checker that works with most drives.

The program displays SMART information such as the number of read errors, the time it takes for the wafer pack to spin up from rest to operating speed, the frequency of errors when positioning the magnetic head unit, and temperature. In addition, it can perform a quick and advanced disk scan.

You can configure the program so that SMART section information is sent by email or displayed when the disk parameters exceed the threshold values recommended by the manufacturer.

Hard drives that have a SCSI connection or implement hardware RAID are not supported by DiskCheckup.

DiskCheckup runs on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2008/2003 operating systems.

GSmartControl can perform a variety of hard drive tests, providing detailed results and an overall assessment of the drive's health.

GSmartControl can perform three self-tests to troubleshoot a drive:

Quick check: takes about 2 minutes and is used to identify a seriously damaged hard drive.
Extended check: Takes about 70 minutes and will scan the entire surface of the hard drive to detect failures.
Transportation check: This test takes 5 minutes and is designed to look for damage that may have occurred while the drive was in transit.

GSmartControl can be downloaded for Windows either as a portable version or as an installable program. It works on system versions from Windows 10 to Windows XP. You can also get a version of the program for operating rooms Linux systems and Mac and programs in LiveCD/LiveUSB format.

Windows Drive Fitness Test is a free hard drive diagnostic software that can work on most drives available today.

Unfortunately, when Windows help Drive Fitness Test can only be checked USB drives and other internal drives.

WinDFT can be installed on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP operating systems.

Samsung HUTIL program is free utility for diagnosing Samsung hard drives. Sometimes HUTIL is called ES-Tool.

The Samsung HUTIL program is available as an ISO image for subsequent recording on a CD or USB flash drive. This approach makes HUTIL independent of the operating system and, in general, more convenient means for testing than programs developed for the Windows operating system. You can also run HUTIL from a boot diskette.

Comment: The HUTIL program will only check hard disks Samsung. It will boot and find non-Samsung discs, but no diagnostics can be performed on such discs.

Because the Samsung program HUTIL works from a boot disk, so for it to work you will need a functioning hard drive and an operating system to burn it to a CD or USB flash drive.

Free program Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic (DLGDIAG) is designed to test only Western Digital branded hard drives.

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic can be downloaded as a portable version for Windows or as an ISO file with an image to burn to a bootable disk, and performs a number of tests on the hard drive. Detailed instructions Installation instructions from Western Digital can be found at the link below.

Comment: The DOS version of DLGDIAG diagnoses only Western Digital drives, while the Windows version of this program also works with drives from other manufacturers.

The Windows version of the program works on operating systems from Windows 10 to Windows XP

Bart's Stuff Test

Bart's Stuff Test is a free program for Windows that performs stress tests on hard drives.

The program does not provide as many opportunities, and does not carry out such thorough hard testing disk, like other programs in this list.

All things considered, Bart's Stuff Test is a good addition to your disk testing arsenal, especially if you have difficulty testing with ISO image-based tools and want to take advantage of something other than the default tools provided Windows.

Bart's Stuff Test, as stated, only works on operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 95. However, we tested its performance on the most latest versions systems (Windows 10 and Windows 8) and did not find any problems.

Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool is a free hard drive diagnostic tool designed specifically for Fujitsu hard drives.

The Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool (FJDT) is available in a Windows version and a DOS version using a boot diskette. Unfortunately, the DOS version is focused on using floppy disks - images that will run from CD or USB are not available.

Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool provides two tests: a “quick test” (lasting about 3 minutes) and an “all third party test”, the execution time of which will depend on the size of the hard drive).

Comment: Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool performs hard drive testing only for drives manufactured by Fujitsu. If you have a disk from another manufacturer, then you should try to use the manufacturer-independent programs listed at the beginning of the list.

Version for Windows programs Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool should work on all operating systems, from Windows 10 to Windows 2000.

The HD Tune program performs hard drive checks while running under Windows control. It can work with any internal or external drives, SSD drives or memory cards.

With HD Tune you can perform a performance test, check the health of the drive using Self-Monitoring Analysis mode and Drive Activity Reporting Technology (SMART). In addition, the program can scan the disk for errors.

It supports Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000, although HD Tune has been tested to work correctly on Windows 10 and Windows 8.

The Free EASIS Drive Check program, designed to check hard drives, has two built-in checking utilities - checking sectors and reading SMART attribute values.

Checking SMART attributes allows you to create a list containing more than 40 parameters describing work hard drive and sector check will check the media surface for read errors.

A report on the execution of any of these tests can be seen directly in the program after its completion. In addition, you can configure the program so that the report is sent to email or printed.

According to the description, EASIS Drive Check works on operating systems from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, but its performance has also been tested on Windows 8 and 10.

The error checking program is sometimes called the scandisk program. This is a hard drive test tool included with the operating system. Windows systems, and allows you to search for various errors on your hard drive.

This tool may also try to fix a number of hard drive-related problems.

Macrorit Disk Scanner is very simple program, which checks for bad sectors on the hard drive. It is easy to use, installs quickly, and is also available in a portable version.

The main part of its window is used to visually represent the scanning process and clearly indicate the location of damage.

Especially well implemented in Macrorit Disk Scanner is the visual display of how much time is left until the end of the scan, because Some hard drive checking programs do not show this. Alternatively, you can select the option automatic shutdown computer upon completion of the scan.

Operating systems that Macrorit Disk Scanner can run on are: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, Windows Home Server, and Windows Server 2012/2008/2003.

Ariolic Disk Scanner is very similar to Macrorit Disk Scanner in that it uses read-only to find bad disk sectors. This program has a minimal interface with a single button, and using it, it is easy to understand which parts of the disk contain “bad” sectors.

The program has only a portable version, and its size is slightly more than 1 MB.

The only thing that distinguishes this program from Macrorit Disk Scanner is that Ariolic Disk Scanner shows files that have read errors.

We only tested Ariolic Disk Scanner on Windows 10 and XP, but it should also work on other versions of Windows.

Frequent errors in the system or even reboots with a “screen of death” force a thorough analysis of all computer components. In this article we will talk about the easiest way to check bad sectors on the hard drive, and also assess its condition without calling expensive specialists.

All further actions will be carried out using a special software. You don’t have to use each software one by one, because it will be enough to choose only one option. First, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with all the presented methods in order to ultimately choose the ideal solution for yourself.

Method 1: HDD Health

The simplest and fastest program that can quickly check a hard drive for serviceability is HDD Health. The local interface is very friendly, and the built-in monitoring system will not let you miss serious problems with the memory device, even on a laptop. Both HDD and SSD drives are supported. The process of use itself is as follows:

Unfortunately, the program, other than for informational purposes, does not in any way assist the user in correcting errors. It is suitable for one-time assessment and monitoring, but to correct detected problems, you will need to contact Method 2 or other programs.

Method 2: Victoria

Victoria is rightfully considered one of best programs for testing and repairing hard drives that have bad sectors. It does not require installation, because the developers immediately created a portable version that runs from the archive. The process of checking the drive here is as follows:

Download the archive from the official Victoria website, open it and run the executable file.

Move to the tab "Standard".

Click the button here "Passport" to view the hard drive information, and then select the device you want to check.

Drive information is also displayed in the status bar at the bottom.

In the tab "SMART" you can get basic information about disk health. To do this, click on the button "Get SMART".

The output of information will not take much time. However, after that you will receive a table with values and status marks. Check it out to be a little aware of the health of your device.

Then go to the main tab "Tests".

Leave all settings at default for now, just run the scan.

Blocks will begin to be created in the window different color. The range up to green is considered normal, then blocks are considered unstable, and blue marks mean the presence of errors (most often these are bad sectors). Latency information is displayed in the section on the right.

Upon completion of scanning, you should separately familiarize yourself with the number of red and blue blocks. If it is large enough, then the disk is considered unstable.

Recovery occurs due to the reassignment of bad sectors; during the scan they are simply hidden. This is done through testing with the attribute set "Remap". You will learn more detailed information about restoration a little later.

Additionally, we would like to point out that some users may experience problems running tests in Victoria due to the AHCI mode being installed. To avoid difficulties, it is recommended to select IDE (Compatibility) mode in the BIOS. Find all the necessary information on this topic in the materials listed below.

If during analysis you find a large number of bad sectors and want to restore the drive using the same software, we recommend that you read the instructions provided in our other article at the following link. There, the author described this process in as much detail as possible, explaining each action that is necessary to complete.

Method 3: HDDScan

Another program similar to Victoria, but with a more modern interface is called HDDScan. We recommend using it in the case when some difficulties arise with Victoria or you are not satisfied with it for certain reasons. The testing process is not much different here.

To get started, you can get basic information about the health of your drive by selecting it and clicking on "SMART".

The information here is displayed at approximately the same level as was shown in Victoria.

Next, return to the main menu and run one of the types of tests. You will learn more about them below.

Leave the analysis settings unchanged.

To display detailed information, double-click the left mouse button on the task line.

As you can see, the scanning map is almost the same as in the version discussed earlier, only the color marks are slightly different in delay.

Upon completion of the analysis, you can familiarize yourself with a detailed report, where in the form of a graph and additional information The status of the drive is indicated.

Now let's take a closer look at each testing option, because it is important to choose the right methodology to get accurate information:

Verify— scanning sectors without reading data on them;
Read— checking sectors with reading data (accordingly, it will take much longer);
Butterfly— reading blocks in pairs, one from the beginning and one from the end;
Erase— recording blocks filled with sector numbers (delete all user data).

The program, like the first one, only diagnoses problems. Above we have already provided links to articles through which identified failures can be eliminated.

Conclusion

Nowadays, various developers have created a fairly large number of programs that allow you to check your hard drive for errors. They work on approximately the same principle, so there is little point in disassembling them. Instead, we recommend that you read the separate material on our website, which contains reviews of the most popular detailed solutions.

If you suddenly discover that the drive you are using is not working at all, repairs are a must. However, only specialists can not always help with this. Certain actions are quite doable manually. Read more about this further.

If the hard drive is not visible in the system at all, refer to the following material:

Today you were introduced to using software methods checking the hard drive for functionality. As you can see, there is nothing complicated about this; you just need to select one of the proposed software to start testing.

– one of the most unreliable computer components. With active use, modern hard drives last an average of 3 years. Therefore, in order not to lose your data, it is very important to regularly check the status of the drive (and do not forget to backups). In this article we will look at several ways to check your hard drive for functionality.

Checking the health of the hard drive using S.M.A.R.T.

If you want to check your hard drive for performance, then you should start with data from the S.M.A.R.T. system, which can be viewed in the CrystalDiskInfo program. This program is completely free and you can .

The CrystalDiskInfo program receives hard drive data from the S.M.A.R.T. system and provides an assessment of its technical condition. If the hard drive is in good condition, you will see a rating of " Good condition e". If there are any problems with the device, you will receive a rating of " Anxiety ". Well, in case of serious problems you will receive an assessment technical condition"Bad."

If you wish, you can independently analyze the information from the “S.M.A.R.T.” system. To do this, examine the list of options that is located at the bottom of the CrystalDiskInfo window. As a cheat sheet on the parameters “S.M.A.R.T.” can be used .

Checking the performance of the hard drive under load

If "S.M.A.R.T." does not show any problems, then the hard drive needs to be checked under load. To do this, just try to copy a large number of small files (weighing 2-5 megabytes) to it. For example, you might try to save a large folder of photos to your hard drive. If it is faulty, the following symptoms should appear when copying files:

A sharp decrease in copying speed;
Intermittent copy speed;
The copying process freezes;
Computer or Windows Explorer freezes;
Unpleasant sounds (crackling, grinding, squeaking);
Disabling the drive;

If such a manual check does not reveal any obvious problems, then you can resort to more serious methods of testing the drive.

Checking your hard drive using HD Tune

The next option is to check the disk's performance using HD Tune. This program is free and you can use it. Just don’t confuse it with the paid HD Tune Pro, a link to which is on the same page.

Launch the HD Tune program on your computer and go to the “Error Scan” tab. On this tab, you need to start the test using the “Start” button and wait for it to finish.

If a large number of errors were found during the scanning process, this means that your hard drive is in poor condition. Perhaps it will fail soon.

Checking the hard drive in Victoria 3.5

For the most accurate check, you need to use the program, it can be downloaded as an iso file, for example, (here is version 3.5, it is optimal for checking the HDD outside the operating system). The resulting iso file must be written to a CD (or flash drive) and the computer booted from it. After loading from the CD, you will need to select one of the options for launching the Victoria program. If you have a desktop PC, then select “Victoria for Desktop”, for a laptop “Victoria for Notebook” is suitable, the remaining items launch DOS and the Volkov Commander program.

To run a scan of the entire HDD surface, press the F4 key. As a result, a menu will open in which you need to select “Ignore Bad Blocks” and "Linear Reading". Please note that you do not need to use the “Write (erase)”, “Write from file”, or “BB = Erase 256 sect” options, since they delete information from the drive.

In order for scanning to begin, you need to press the F4 key again. After this, you need to wait until the program finishes checking the hard drive. At the end of testing, if the HDD does not have any problems, then you will see this result.

If the drive has any problem areas, orange and red spots will appear in the scanning window. The more such spots, the worse the condition of the drive. If the number of red spots is especially large, then most likely the hard drive is inoperative and it’s time to throw it away. Detailed information about problems will be displayed in the “Defects” block on the right side of the window.

Checking the hard drive in Victoria 4.46 (for Windows)

You can also check the hard drive for functionality using the Victoria 4.46 program from the Windows operating system. In this case, you do not need to burn iso images and you do not need to boot from them. Everything is done right in the Windows environment.

You can download Victoria 4.46 for Windows OS, for example. The downloaded archive will need to be unpacked into any folder and run the program vcr446f.exe. After launch, the main Victoria program window will appear, which looks something like the screenshot below.

First, let's look at the "Standard" tab. Here on the right side of the window are all the drives that Victoria was able to identify, at the top left is information about the currently selected drive (if necessary, you can select another), and at the bottom is a record of all actions, errors and other information.

To test your hard drive, go to the “Tests” tab. Here you first need to click on the “ Passp” button (this will allow you to obtain information about the selected drive), after which you need to start the test using the “ Start” button.

During the scanning process, the program will detect faulty and problematic sectors, the number of which can be seen in the column on the right, as well as at the bottom of the screen.

Letter. A difficult question for the site administrator and please answer in simple language, so that it would be understandable to a simple user.

How to check your hard drive for functionality, and most importantly, is it possible to remove bad sectors from a hard drive, or what are they also called, bad blocks, which, as it turns out, come in several types:
– physical (crumbling magnetic layer of working plates, chips, etc.),
– logical (sector logic errors), logical bad blocks, can also be classified as software bads, that is, soft bads (file system errors).
Before writing to you, I looked into this issue for quite some time and realized that to the average user superficial and inaccurate information is known, namely: many people believe that all bad sectors or bad blocks are removed by regular formatting, but this is not so. It turns out that it is generally impossible to remove physical bads, and logical ones only with the help of special programs, and only software bad blocks or soft bads (file system errors) can be removed using ordinary using Windows, for example, using or regular formatting. What am I talking about?

Recently I had to contact a service center about strange behavior of my computer. Firstly, there were periodic freezes, lasting several seconds, and sometimes permanently; I had to restart the computer with the Reset button. Occasionally, strange clicks and creaks were heard from the hard drive. Strange folders with no names were found in the system. The simple process of copying a file from one hard drive partition to another took an terribly long time. Also, the operating system often checked the hard drive for errors when turning on the computer, and the last time it displayed BOOTMGR is missing on a black screen, this error restored using installation disk seven, but a day later when loading the computer it just showed a black screen, I thought enough was enough and contacted the service center.

IN service center Technical Specialist I checked my hard drive with the free HDDScan program.

Unfortunately, the master checking did not explain anything, he showed me only after checking the presence of 12 bad blocks (English: bad sector, bad block, bad sectors - damaged), marked by the program in blue. Another 90 sectors were marked in red; they were not yet bad blocks, but their response time was not good, more than 500 ms.

The wizard also showed me the S.M.A.R.T of my hard drive and recognized it as not very good, since the most important parameter is Reallocated Sector Count - indicating the number of reassigned sectors (when the disk detects a read/write error, the sector is marked “reassigned”, and the data from the damaged sector or in other words, the physical bad block is transferred to the backup area), is almost critical, it is responsible for physical defects of the hard drive that cannot be corrected.

Another parameter Current Pending Errors Count - responsible for the number of sectors, reading which is difficult and very different from reading a normal sector, was also marked yellow, which indicated his poor condition. The expert’s advice was: Transfer all important data from the hard drive and “fix” it in this HDDScan program, but since there are a lot of bad blocks, most likely it will not be possible to fix all of them and it will no longer be possible to install the operating system on it, in In the future, you need to use this hard drive as a file storage or, as they also say, a file trash bin, this is the only way it will survive for some time.

I listened to the technician and left the hard drive at the service center for “treatment” until the evening, and in the evening I was shown the result.

Not a single bad sector (bad block), but there were 12. The number of sectors with a response time of more than 500 ms has become smaller (it was 90, but now 23),

one of the critical S.M.A.R.T indicators is 197 Current Pending Errors Count-responsible, as I already said, for the number of sectors that are difficult to read, has become normal, the parameter 198 Uncorrectable Errors Count-the number of uncorrected errors when accessing a sector also became within the normal range, but the most important indicator, according to him, Reallocated Sector Count, did not change and remained unsatisfactory, so the conclusion is this: the operating system cannot be installed on this hard drive.

And now I have a question for you, please explain in detail, how to check hard drive for professional suitability on my own, how to determine how many bad sectors I have and what they are? How to use programs like HDDScan, and most importantly, how to get rid of bad blocks using it. What exactly does the program do with the hard drive, ridding it of bad blocks, and how long will such treatment of the hard drive help? Is it still possible to install an operating system on this hard drive or not? And the last question, the incorrigible parameter S.M.A.R.T - Reallocated Sector Count can still be corrected and are physical bads really incorrigible at all? Many forums on the Internet say that they are proprietary utilities hard drive manufacturers that can perform low-level formatting at home. Alexander Anatolyevich. Tomsk.

How to check your hard drive

Friends, let's keep it short - sister of talent, one of my friends, having read this question, answered it like this:- “You can’t cover up a scratch with anything, but a software problem can’t be cured.”

The topic is not simple, but relevant, the article is long, but I tried to make it understandable to the average user. To make everything easier to understand, I suggest, along the way, step by step, using the free HDDScan program, to check the MAXTOR STM3250310AS hard drive installed in the computer that was brought to our service center for repair. The operating system installed on the hard drive freezes from time to time, refuses to boot, displays various errors or just a black screen. The hard drive creaks and clicks (I’ll explain why below). Reinstalling Windows did not help the matter and the owners of the computer do not know what to do.

So how to check the status of a hard drive? This can be done using various tests in the HDDScan program. First, let’s check the S.M.A.R.T indicators of this hard drive, then we’ll test the surface of the hard drive, we’ll find no less than 63 bad sectors and our program will fix them all, how long will last is another question (read on).

But first very brief information about how a hard drive works, if this digression is not made, you simply will not understand the principle of operation of the HDDScan program and other similar programs, much less you will not understand what S.M.A.R.T is, as well as bad sectors (bad blocks) and why some of them cannot be corrected.

The hard drive is made of aluminum or glass plates coated with a layer of ferromagnetic material. A hard drive is primarily a device that operates on the principle of magnetic recording. Magnetic heads that read, write or erase information from a hard disk hover above its surface at a height of 10-12 nm and never touch the surface of the magnetic disk, which is easily damaged.

At the final stage of hard drive production, low level formatting, that is, tracks are applied to the working plates of the hard drive, each track is divided into sectors. Also, special magnetic servo marks are applied to the magnetic surface of the hard drive; they are needed to accurately place the magnetic head of the hard drive on the tracks of the hard drive. The minimum unit of information on a hard disk is a sector, a volume user accessible is 512 bytes of data. Low-level formatting in the life of a hard drive occurs only once, friends, and only on special and very expensive factory equipment - called Servowriter. Information recorded using this formatting will never be overwritten. Friends, such formatting cannot be done in any service. Therefore, my answer to the question whether it is possible to carry out low-level formatting using the operating system is the answer - no, it is not possible. Low-level formatting can only be done at the factory; it even destroys tracks, sectors and magnetic servo marks. For example, in the program Victoria erases all the information on the hard drive by filling all sectors with zeros, this cannot be called low-level formatting, but it cannot be called formatting either, it is something in between. After Write mode, all sectors of the hard disk are filled with zeros and do not contain any errors and it can be formatted in file system using Windows tools.
At the factory, only service information is recorded in sectors ( servo information servo service, for example, the physical address of the sector and the address marker that determines the beginning of the sector), this information can be called markings, it is needed for the normal operation of the hard drive, this is information about the numbers of tracks and sectors, necessary for the heads to accurately hit these tracks and sectors when reading information written in them.
After purchasing a hard drive, user data will also later be written to this area (for example, the first sector of the hard drive will contain the main boot entry MBR), but User data can be recorded and erased, in contrast to service information, which has much greater magnetization, which is why the read-write heads of the drive can't erase it.

All service information about track and sector numbers will be stored in a special table located in a closed service area, inaccessible to OS and BIOS tools, which is a mini-operating system; together with the Firmware, they control the operation of the hard drive. Sometimes they ask the question - Is it sometimes necessary to update the firmware of a hard drive, the answer is negative, modern hard drives do not need updating. Also in this service area the disk passport, SMART attribute values, as well as a defect table with information about unrecoverable or reassigned bad sectors (bad blocks) will be stored.
So we got to the physical, logical and software bad sectors.

The fact is, friends, that if the operating system has problems reading data from a sector, then the hard drive controller makes several additional attempts to read the data, if they are also unsuccessful, this sector is recognized as faulty, and then the information is written to the normal sector , located on the backup track, and the problematic sector is recognized as faulty and removed from circulation, this is called (Remapping, in common parlance remap).

Friends, whether to perform a remap or not is decided only by the hard drive controller during operation, and not by any programs for working with the hard drive (Victoria, MHDD). These programs can only hint with their tests (for example, Advanced REMAP in the Victoria program - an improved algorithm for hiding bad blocks) to the hard drive controller that a remap needs to be done.

The fact that a sector is recognized as faulty is entered into the defect table with information about unrecoverable or reassigned faulty sectors, located in the service area.

By the way, there are two tables of defects, one is the initial P-list (Primary-list), created after the final factory tests; any hard drive, friends, already has several reassigned bad blocks when it leaves the factory. Well, the growing table of defects G-list (Grown-list) is filled in by us as we use the hard drive.

What are bad sectors and how to fix them?

Physical bad sectors are mechanical defects in the magnetic coating of the hard drive surface (crumbling magnetic layer of working plates, chips, etc.). That is, the sector structure itself is physically faulty; undoubtedly, such a bad block must be reassigned as a normal sector from the backup track. Very often this happens due to an impact caused, for example, by dropping a hard drive on the floor. mechanical damage magnetic coating of the hard drive, damage to the magnetic heads, the same can happen due to overheating. Vibration of a hard drive is also dangerous if it is not securely fastened. A dusty room, smoking, despite the filter installed in the hard drive, also play a huge role in the formation of bad blocks; tobacco tar and dust stick to the surface of the hard drive and interfere with reading information.
Physical bad blocks are not possible cannot be corrected by any formatting, you can only reassign them as spare sectors from the reserve tracks; naturally, because of this, the performance will drop somewhat, since the magnetic head of the hard drive will have to make many additional movements, looking for information on the reassigned sectors from the reserve tracks.

Why does the hard drive squeak? and sometimes clicks when working

When the operating system encounters a bad sector, the hard drive controller makes several attempts to read information from it, while clicks and squeaks may be produced by the hard drive head positioner.

The following reason may also be the cause of clicks and squeaks of the hard drive. When reassigning a bad sector to a normal one from a backup track (which is not always nearby), the magnetic head naturally has to change direction, as many say jump from side to side.

The third reason is that, as I said above, during the manufacture of a hard drive, special markings are made on the magnetic surface of hard drives with special servo marks; these servo marks are used to accurately position the magnetic head on the tracks of the hard drive; it is with the help of servo marks that the magnetic head of the hard drive moves correctly. Sometimes servo tags are destroyed for the same reasons that physical bad blocks are formed and the magnetic head cannot take and hold the position it needs, and clicks and creaks are heard from the hard drive.

Logical bad blocks(sector logic errors), in turn divided into correctable and incorrigible. In which case logical bad block cannot be fixed? As I said above, each sector, in addition to user information, also contains service information (servo information, for example, the physical address of the sector and the address marker that determines the beginning of the sector), in simple words markings, with the help of which the magnetic head of the hard drive gets to the required sector tracks; such markings are applied by low-level formatting at the factory during the manufacture of the hard drive. This information It is almost impossible to remove since it is highly magnetized, but under certain circumstances, similar to the reasons for the appearance of physical bad blocks (impact, vibration, bearing play, etc.), this information is violated and can only be restored in the factory. Yes, there are special proprietary utilities that overwrite service information, but due to the complexity of their use, this issue is difficult even for specialized specialists and we will not consider it.
Logical bad blocksthat can be fixed. When writing user information to a sector, a piece of service information is additionally written, the so-called ECC sector checksum (Error Correction Code), this code allows you to restore data if it was read with an error. But sometimes this code is not written, and accordingly the sum of user data in the sector does not match the ECC checksum. One of simple examples Why this happens can be explained by a sudden shutdown of the computer due to electrical failures, because of this, information was written to the hard disk sector, but there was no checksum. The next time the operating system accesses this sector and tries to read data from it, but it will not match the ECC checksum, an attempt will be made to read the data again and again without success (so you get freezes and a bad block).
Software bad blocks(file system errors - for example, an incorrectly marked sector belonging to two files) can be removed using the operating system - more reliably by regular formatting.

You will say that all this is good and understandable, but how can you get rid of bad blocks, transfer data from the hard drive and format it in the operating system installation program?

When formatting using all the methods available to the operating system, the same attempt will occur to read information from the bad sector, then compare them with the ECC checksum, but it does not match, which means that the incorrect information will not be overwritten and the bad sector will remain bad even after formatting. So it turns out what do you need special program, for example МHDD or HDDScan, which will not read anything, but will simply force a rewrite, will usually fill the bad sector with zeros, but then it will read what was written down and compare the checksum, after which the sector will return to work.

For example, the HDDScan program has an Erase function - Test in linear recording mode (sector-by-sector erasing of data), carefully all your data will be deleted. Unfortunately, nothing will work without deleting the data, so before this test it must be transferred to another storage medium.

The best thing is to completely remove your hard drive and connect it to another computer that has the HDDScan program, then run the Erase test and check your entire hard drive. You don’t have to film anything, just write it down boot disks with the MHDD or Victoria programs, boot from them and run these programs with the Advanced remap function, but we will do this in other articles.

Now, friends, let's move on directly to working with the HDDScan program. With the help of this program, we will see the full picture of what is happening with our hard drive, namely, we will find out the S.M.A.R.T of our hard drive and decrypt it, we will also set the number of bad sectors and of course we will try to fix them.
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Experienced users are well aware that the health of a hard drive can be affected by even minor influences, for example, voltage surges, mechanical shocks and shocks, static voltage, etc. The hard drive mechanism itself can damage the surface of the drive where information is stored. Below is a guide on how to properly check your computer's hard drive for serviceability.

Main symptoms of a damaged hard drive

Already during the startup of the PC, it may buzz loudly or make cracking sounds. Such noise should immediately alert the computer owner and make him think about diagnosing the hard drive. It is recommended that before testing this important element of your PC, you copy all important and personal files to external media or another computer, since the test itself will place a significant load on the hard drive.

Before launching the test program, you must take care to ensure good cooling of the hard drive, for example, open the case cover system unit and clean the internal equipment from accumulated dust. The source of grinding noises during the operation of a hard drive is the contact of its read head with bad sectors. If measures are not taken, their number will gradually increase and may lead to the loss of HDD performance.

Verification procedure

Experts have developed many different special utilities to test the functionality of this important PC element. The procedure can also be carried out using built-in Windows tools.

Using Windows tools

The operating system allows you to analyze the hard drive. This method is not very reliable, but it is useful for the user to know how to use it. In addition to analyzing the surface of the hard drive, OS tools can, if possible, correct some errors.

The sequence of actions algorithm consists of the following stages:

Using Seagate SeaTools utility

This has already helped a significant number of PC owners solve the problem. convenient application. It is free, fully Russified and effectively copes with the diagnosis of hard drives from most manufacturers. It is available for download at seagate.com.

The application has an intuitive interface. Having opened the utility, you will immediately see a displayed list of hard drives with which you can perform all the necessary tests. As a result, the user will be presented with a report, and most importantly, the program can restore faulty sectors.

The application is also freely distributed, but only works for equipment from one specific manufacturer, Western Digital. However, since they are widespread in the Russian Federation, this program can help a significant number of users.

The functionality is similar to the program described above. You can install it from official resource"support.wd.com".

Allows you not only to check a broken HDD for free, but also to receive detailed information S.M.A.R.T., as well as carry out a large number of different equipment tests.

In addition, the utility works effectively with flash drives, RAID, SSD.

This program should be discussed in more detail, since it currently provides high accuracy of testing results. The utility is available for installation on the “softportal.com” page.

The following sequential steps must be taken:

Note: It is not recommended to check the “Erase” box, as this will erase all files.

Conclusion

Winchester is one of the weakest points modern computer. Its normal service life does not exceed five years, but clearly indicate exact time impossible.

Therefore, the only way out is to regularly check it and diagnose the condition.