I'm getting a new HDD delivered today. It's actually the same as I already have (HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB).
The last one I scanned for damaged blocks with HD Tune (yay, 6h for the slower but more accurate scan). Is there anything else I can do to make sure it's arrived okay? Is the quick scan sufficient enough or should I run the slower scan?
Well http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html This program will give you instant results and tell you if the CDI is good or not
I have it installed and only looked at the overall health status. Any advice on how to interpret the values below?
Google and wikipedia.
Many drive manufacturers have their own software utilities too.
I would just use CHKDSK.
Or fsck in *nix.
@VXAce Thanks, very helpful.
@Grog HGST doesn't seem to have any software for consumer drives.
@minorthreat55 can I leave CHKDSK running while gaming or should I avoid running any program at the same time?
I don't *think" CHKDSK can run while the disk is in use.
Best way to run it is to go into CMD and have it run @ reboot.
Running:
chkdsk /f should give you a prompt to allow you to run it @ reboot.
Hope this helps!
chkdsk can run in the background, chkdsk /f requires a reboot.
I boot to partition wizard to check the disc. http://www.partitionwizard.com/
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Looks like the /r switch might be useful as well for CHKDSK. It supposedly fixes bad sectors as well. (the /f switch apparently just checks for and fixes file system errors). Running the command by itself with no flags/switches will just check for issues but won't fix anything.
@HelloMrOwl @minorthreat55
It's a new HDD. I just wanted to check it for any damage before I actually use it.
chkdsk G: /f /r is running right now.
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Cool. I think that'll do ya just fine!
I was being serious. Also, chkdsk does not check if sectors on a drive are bad, it checks the windows file system for errors. So if there are files that are out of place, improperly indexed, or system files are missing, then it will find them. This can result in finding sectors in a drive that are bad, but is not the best way to do it.
I recommend a program like HDTune or speedfan which can run an actual error check on the sectors themselves. Crystaldiskinfo and SMART can tell you if there are logged errora, but can not tell you much else if it is not logged.
Download the software then. You can still perform a surface test with the partition wizard windows software.
Ah, thanks!
Is a quick scan enough with HDTune or should I perform the regular one? (quick scan showed no errors, regular scan will take ~6h....still remember it from my last HGST 3TB)
Should I let chkdsk finish (still ~4h to go) or can I cancel it and run HDTune's error scan instead?
I would cancel it, doesn't do much at this point.
I would run a full scan for initial scan, after that a quick can usually do.
Got it, thanks!
You're incorrect.
"On Windows NT operating systems, CHKDSK can also check the disk surface for bad sectors and mark them."
This is the point of the /r switch. "/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /F"
I don't mind differing opinions, but please check facts before you give someone bad advice.
Also - I would advise NOT to cancel a running scan of your hard drive. But do as you wish!
Oh, and for what it's worth, Spinrite is probably one of the best third-party tools for these types of checks. I used it at my first IT job and it works great.
Thanks, I'll check it out.