are there any good hdd scanners/repair/diag tools?

[Qasar]

for mechanical hdds... seems i might have some hdds dieing on me, while i have been able to copy the data off the drives... i would like to scan/test the drives for errors and to see if they are any good still.. i have tried WDs data lifeguard diagnostic, as well as Mini tools partition wizard, but it seems i am still getting errors...

suggestions ??

 

[cfenton]

As far as I know, the big three are (1) HD Tune Pro, (2) Hard Disk Sentinel, and (3) Stablebit Scanner. They can call do scans and diagnostics. I haven't used any of them extensively, so I can't recommend one over the others, but it's worth checking each of them out to see if they do what you want.

 

[Shmee]

Parted magic is a great diagnostics and recovery suite. And it is a bootable Linux OS. Very useful for testing drives when windows won't boot, or for data recovery or partition management without windows permissions getting in the way. Newest version is like $10, and older ones can be had for free.

That said, within windows HD tune is good.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

WinDLG (surface scan, full zero fill), and look at the _raw_ SMART attributes (eg. pending reallocs, existing reallocs, etc.), which is not available in WinDLG.

Personally, I use a combination of WinDLG + CrystalDiskInfo.
This little lady tells me all about my drives

 

[bononos]

for mechanical hdds... seems i might have some hdds dieing on me, while i have been able to copy the data off the drives... i would like to scan/test the drives for errors and to see if they are any good still.. i have tried WDs data lifeguard diagnostic, as well as Mini tools partition wizard, but it seems i am still getting errors...

suggestions ??

Crystaldiskinfo for smart data. Do you have any smart errors?
HDDScan for scanning the disk. It takes a long time so I don't usually scan the entire disk but only 1 partition. Its better to look for signs of excessively slow sector reads instead of just the pass/fail that WD DLG give you. If you get a bunch of slow sectors in the green/orange/red range, its time to toss the drive or get a warranty replacement.

 

[Qasar]

hmm will have to look at some of these... no smart errors.. just.. drives vanishing.. but come back with a reboot... copying data from one drive to another.. doesnt always work... when i scan the whole drive with Mini tools partition wizard, it finds bad sectors...

Bononos.. i would scan the whole disk

ive been looking at some of the dates on the drives.. some go back as far as being made in 2009 hehehehe so using Mini tools partition wizard i have zero filled 6 of my drives so far... and in the process of zero filling 6 more... i have a lot of hdds.. used to use my comps as a PVR, and video editor of some of the things i would record

 

[smitbret]

For the average person that just wants an always on program to monitor temps and do regular automated surface scans and file system checks then StableBit Scanner is straightforward, easy and just works. I run this on my server and use Crystaldiskinfo to manage smart data and if I need any deeper information abotu the HDDs.

If you need more in depth info and like to micro manage your HDDs with the same type of automated monitoring and don't mind have to dig around and set things up then HD Sentinel is pretty strong. It does pretty much the same thing as StableBit + Crystaldiskinfo but the interface can be a little unwieldy and I have never really had the patience to really learn it.

HD Tune is good for running an occasional surface scan and checking smart data but it just doesn't seem as automated as the other two. Then again, I haven't used it in a few years.

 

[Qasar]

dont need to monitor temps or anything.. just need something to test the hdds, scan them and either say they are dead.. time to replace.. or they are still good...

 

[smitbret]

If you are looking at software to help you predict HDD failure and do so automatically, then StableBit and HD Sentinel Pro do this with the least amount of user intervention.

 

[ch33zw1z]

for mechanical hdds... seems i might have some hdds dieing on me, while i have been able to copy the data off the drives... i would like to scan/test the drives for errors and to see if they are any good still.. i have tried WDs data lifeguard diagnostic, as well as Mini tools partition wizard, but it seems i am still getting errors...

suggestions ??

What errors?

If you're drive is dying, then yea...you will keep getting errors from tools like WDC DLG

 

[Qasar]

the main one.. as i copy files.. the speed goes from what it is transferring to, any where from a few megs/sec to 70+/sec.. down to zero... and sits there for X amount of time, then the file copy fails, i hit skip.. and it moves on with the rest of the drive, and maybe does it again.. skip the file.. and it keeps going. sometimes it is more then one file.. sometimes.. only one...

i have been trying the above programs some of you guys have suggest in this thread. and have been running tests on these drives, for 2 or 3 weeks now, and some tests.. spit back bad sectors errors... where other tests, no errors at all.... sure takes time to do surface scans on these

 

[vailr]

SpinRite 6.0 from grc.com may do what you want, but the cost is ~$89.
Doesn't run in Windows: requires creating a bootable USB thumb drive or a bootable burned optical drive.
Can also be run in "pure DOS mode" inside a Windows virtual machine, which AFAIK, is the only currently usable method for checking USB drives. Future versions may be able to function without requiring a virtual machine to process USB drives.