Data security is something most people don’t pay much attention to. However, an examination of the condition of data storage media should be done from time to time. How to check the condition of a disk? There are a number of simple tools that will be able to determine with high probability in a short time whether it classifies for replacement.
Sooner or later, the life of every disk will come to an end. But before that, we may observe various anomalies that would indicate the impending death of the disk. In the case of HDDs, for example, these will include increasingly strange and bizarre sounds. After all, they have a lot of moving parts and magnetic sectors that degrade naturally over time. When it comes to both platter and SSD drives, there will also be noticeable slowdowns, problems with system standing up, classic blue screens or corrupted files. Solid-state drives, the faster ones, use memory cells that also deteriorate slowly when writing data. Nonetheless, it is a good idea to regularly monitor the condition of your drives. It is also important to check such a drive in case you buy it from someone else as a used one. Below you will find the easiest and fastest ways to do this.
What are the easiest programs and ways to check the condition of our drive?
The first quickest and immediately accessible from Windows is to check by typing a command at the command line (CMD). Many modern drives have a S.M.A.R.T. function that allows them to monitor, analyze and report their status. Particularly useful is this function in the event of imminent disk death. The computer will then warn usage before data is lost, giving us time to create a copy of our files.
To check it, type “cmd” in the system search engine. The bar will search for the command line, which you need to enter. Then, in the window that appears, type the following command:
wmic diskdrive get model,status
If “OK” appears next to our drives, then everything should be in place. Otherwise, we get a different message, which means that most likely the drive is starting to fail.
Check the status of the disk in the CrystalDiskInfo application
A very useful application to check the condition of a disk is CrystalDiskInfo. With it we will check the speed of the disk, and accurate information such as the model, interface, serial number, disk hours worked, writes and reads made or interfaces and its partitions. The application also displays the status of our disk specified in percentage and its temperature. When it is presumably too high, it will be highlighted in red. You can then think about better cooling the disk, like pointing the fan in its direction or attaching additional heat sinks.
Download the CrystalDiskMark application.
Here, in turn, we can check the write and read speeds of our drive. The application consistently performs a test on our drive, displaying information about its speeds. When the values in usually the first line (top) are close to those declared by the manufacturer in the drive’s specifications, then there is no reason to worry that it has slowed down for some reason. Standard tests are best performed on such parameters, which are set as standard.
An alternative application for checking disk health is HD Tune.
To effectively check the condition of your drive, a good application is HD Tune. This application tests both the speeds of our drive and scans for any errors. This is displayed as green squares, which means all is well, or red which can mean, for example, bad sectors in the case of HDDs or other errors that cause the drive to malfunction. Here, the time to check the disk may take a long time. This is a more visual way to check the health of our computer’s data storage. Besides, in the “Benchmark” tab we can take a peek at its speeds, and the info tab displays all the most important information about the drive.
In short
Regular monitoring of the condition of drives can save a lot of time and nerves. The first signs of damage, or errors in the tests that have been mentioned, should light a red light. In such a case, it will be necessary to back up the data we care about, as further use of the drive in such a state may lead to their irreversible loss.
Już od najmłodszych lat zacząłem interesować się grami oraz komputerami. Z czasem postanowiłem przeistoczyć to w moje hobby. Idąc tą ścieżką, zacząłem udzielać się na forach i grupach komputerowych. Spowodowało to zwiększenie zakresu produktów, którymi się interesuję, przez co wgłębiłem się również w tematy peryferii komputerowych, działu RTV, telefonów oraz poniekąd AGD.
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