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    Hard drive sounds "weird" - What's your HDD utility pick?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by garetjax, Apr 27, 2011.

  1. garetjax

    garetjax NBR Freelance Reviewer NBR Reviewer

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    I'm looking for a hard drive utility that will check a HDD for bad sectors, errors, and/or problems with the hard drive itself. I have a co-worker who says that their hard drive is making "weird" noises, so in between having them backup their hard drive immediately, I'd like to know what utility or method you guys recommend to check the hard drive to see if in fact it is failing.

    The OS is Windows XP, and the machine is about 5 years old. My co-worker does not know if the hard drive is SATA or ATA. They will be checking on that tonight.
     
    garetjax, Apr 27, 2011
    #1
  2. hakira

    hakira <3 xkcd

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    chkdisk is a start since it is built into windows, but if you want the SMART readings I'd go with speccy for now. HDtune also works.
     
    hakira, Apr 27, 2011
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  3. Gracy123

    Gracy123 Agrees to disagree

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    HD Tune would be my first choice to start with...
     
    Gracy123, Apr 27, 2011
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  4. garetjax

    garetjax NBR Freelance Reviewer NBR Reviewer

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    Thanks for the recommendations. + rep sent.

    I've used HD Tune in the past, mostly for benchmarking performance when performing my PC review work. Never thought of using it for anything else like checking a hard drive's integrity, lol! :eek:
     
    garetjax, Apr 27, 2011
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  5. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    If you have a seagate drive, their seatools (both windows and a dos-based bootable ISO) are pretty damed good at checking a drive out.

    Works on direct-connect and usb connect drives, seagate only.

    I believe that Hitachi makes a similar utility, WD and the others probably have their equivs as well.
     
    newsposter, Apr 27, 2011
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  6. KLF

    KLF NBR Super Modernator Super Moderator

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    Every major manufacturer has their own tool, Seagate's actually can test other brands as well (it'll do the basic short and long tests).

    Ultimate BootCD and Hiren's Boot CD have all those free tools bundled in one bootable CD or USB image.
     
    KLF, Apr 27, 2011
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  7. garetjax

    garetjax NBR Freelance Reviewer NBR Reviewer

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    Sweet! Thanks a bunch guys! :D
     
    garetjax, Apr 27, 2011
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