Best free hard drive diagnostic utility

Status
Not open for further replies.
Solution
Your hard drive manufacturer should have a downloadable application. Check their website. They are designed for this very thing. You can also go to start-->run-->chkdsk /r <--this will schedule a chkdsk for the next time you restart, scan for any errors, and try to repair any it finds.

aford10

Distinguished
Your hard drive manufacturer should have a downloadable application. Check their website. They are designed for this very thing. You can also go to start-->run-->chkdsk /r <--this will schedule a chkdsk for the next time you restart, scan for any errors, and try to repair any it finds.
 
Solution

coyote2

Distinguished
Oct 29, 2009
2
0
18,510
Better to first (download, burn and boot to a CD of, and) run the manufacturer's drive diagnostics, because in addition to repairing problems with the drive, CHKDSK /r will also perform it's proper and primary function, that of finding and fixing problems with the file system, which can cause very serious harm to one's data.

I know this firsthand; a number of times I've had drives pass drive diagnostics, but have file system errors, and after running CHKDSK most of the data has been lost. (Fortunately, in each case I knew to make a copy of the data before I ran CHKDSK.) CHKDSK can be so damaging that I know (otherwise) sophisticated users who refuse to use it even when it is appropriate to do so, because they never forget the major trauma it can inflict upon data.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.