Good afternoon, dear readers and viewers of the channel site, probably each of you at least once in your life has encountered the problem of data loss, and now I’m not talking about accidental deletion, but about the failure of the device on which you had important information, in computers and laptops these are hard drives or solid-state ssds, and today I want to tell you how the check is done hard health disk in Windows 10 redstone.
Hard drive health
Let's first define what is included in the concept of health. hard drive> for every hard drive or solid state ssd disk, there are some parameters that are responsible for the functioning of a particular component, and they are calculated by threshold values, upon reaching which the device fails. These threshold values are called smart status, I talked about them in detail in one of the previous articles, when I raised the issue of status monitoring RAID arrays.
Most programs for determining the health of a hard drive use the indicators of s.m.a.r.t counters and, based on them, give you the result. I would like to note that, unlike solid state ssd disks and hdds may also have mechanical damage, for example damage to the head when the disk is dropped or shaken strongly, read the link on the left for more details about the design of the hdd disk.
I would like to note that ssd drives do not have the same mechanical problems as hdds, due to their architecture, and their smart performance may vary. I already wrote a post on this topic on how to increase the service life of an ssd by an order of magnitude, although it is already minimal. stated 5 years.
Let's move from theory to practice and consider software products, which will help you diagnose hdd and ssd media.
Programs for diagnosing health hdd
CrystalDiskInfo utility
The CrystalDiskInfo program, in my opinion, should be the first tool in diagnosing your hard drive. I think it won’t be difficult for you to download it on the Internet. I'm using the portable version.
When you run CrystalDiskInfo 6.7.5 it will start checking hard drive health, this procedure takes a couple of seconds, as a result of which you will get a table like this.
The first thing you need to pay attention to is the Technical Condition item; as you can see, this is an alarm, indicated in yellow. Below you will see smart meters, which they show you possible problems. Let's see what kind of information you get about your HDD and SSD:
- Your disk model and capacity
- Firmware number
- Connection interface
- Data transfer mode
- Logical letter
- Spindle speed
- Number of hdd starts
- Total operating time (useful if you bought a hdd from someone and they tell you that it is new)
Below is a table of smart hard drive indicators, showing the current values and threshold values, after which it can break down. As you can see, my Reassigned sectors parameter is starting to show that it is worth paying attention to, this parameter used as sectors that replace bad sectors, a kind of reserve reserve on the hard drive to replace bad sectors.
I would like to note that for ssd and hard drives its own set of smart indicators, since these are different technologies.
You can configure the CrystalDiskInfo program to autorun when you turn on the computer, and then at a certain interval it will check the health of the hard drive and report any changes if anything happens.
Click Tools > Autorun, now CrystalDiskInfo will always load.
I also advise you to install Launch Agent (in the Windows notification area), each individual disk will have its own icon that immediately displays the temperature.
You yourself can use CrystalDiskInfo to specify which method will be used to notify you of a problem with the health of your hard drive. You can choose between Sound notifications, event logging and email notifications.
In the schedule item, we can set what the interval between new check health hdd, the default is 10 minutes, but I think that once every 3 or 6 hours is enough.
If we summarize the CrystalDiskInfo utility, we can safely say that it is capable of diagnosing and promptly notifying the user about problems with the hard drive.
Hard Disk Sentinel utility
We continue to get acquainted with programs that check the health of the hdd, and next in line is Hard Disk Sentinel, I should immediately note that the utility is also paid, but it is easily found on the Internet with a key, a root tracker will help you.
We launch Hard Disk Sentinel, this utility is good, it shows in addition to the status of hdd and ssd, and also RAID arrays. You will also receive a list of your hdd or ssd storage devices. As you can see, one of them has 21 percent health, swearing at bad sectors that were replaced by reassignment sectors.
The next tab is the temperature, here you see both the current values and the maximum.
The most interesting thing is the S.M.A.R.T tab. in Hard Disk Sentinel, based on it you can understand the health of the hard drive, I remind you that hdd and ssd smarts are different.
And I think the Info tab is useful, here you can see all the summary data about the versions and firmware of the hard drive.
The Hard Disk Sentinel utility also allows you to conduct tests to diagnose the health of a hard drive, for example a new or old hard drive. To do this, click the Noise Control Configuration icon.
Here, which is cool, you can set the noise level, but you reduce the performance of the hdd. Click the Head Lead test.
Testing of the hdd head will begin.
But to look for broken sectors or bad sectors, we select the hdd surface test; with this test you can accurately understand the health of the hard drive.
Testing time depends on the size of the hard drive; the larger it is, the longer you will have to wait.
It is also possible to check s.m.a.r.t. through the Internet.
From the settings, I can recommend setting up mail in addition to sound alerts.
Victoria utility
Our next utility will be Victoria. It has a version for both Windows and an ISO for dos when you don't have operating system, but you need to find out the health of the hard drive.
Download Victoria:
- Windows version Victoria (https://yadi.sk/d/FFYm9bWVumJjX)
- Dos version (https://yadi.sk/d/XefKZqDuumJmm)
We launch the Windows version. On the standard tab you will see a list of your hard drives. Select the one you need and see summary information.
The SMART tab gives you the most important hard drive health counters. To do this, click the Get SMART button.
Go to the test tab, here we choose what to do with bad sectors, the default is ignore, that is, I advise you to install Remap, that is, try to reassign. Then click start.
After which the hdd health check will begin, you need to pay attention to sectors that require more than 600 milliseconds to access.
Let me remind you that the Victoria utility has a DOS version, which is useful when you do not have an operating system installed on your laptop or server, but you need to check the status of the hdd. Making a bootable USB flash drive using the WinSetupFromUSB utility
After loading into Victoria, select the version for a regular computer or for a laptop.
Press the F1 key to view the available functions; we will be primarily interested in the P key. Selecting a channel with the HDD being tested.
Select Primary Master.
Press F2 and testing begins, based on the results of which you can draw a conclusion about the health of the hard drive.
In fact, there are still a lot of utilities, but these have always been enough for me in my practice.
It is generally accepted that the speed of a computer depends on what equipment is installed on it. When talking about processor power or quantity random access memory, it's easy to lose sight of how the hard drive itself directly affects performance.
Checking the status of the hard drive
The speed of processing actions with files and even the performance of programs depends on how well the hard drive functions. It is also important to carry out regular checks of the hard drive to ensure the safety of all necessary information: having learned about problems in the system, you can immediately backups files while the disk is still running.
You can identify surface problems using Windows or using third party programs.
Checking the disk status through Explorer
The fastest and easy way check disk - via function Windows checks. To do this, take the following steps:
Alternatively, you can run the check via command line:
Such diagnostics will not only report on the condition of your hard drive, but if problems are detected, it will immediately try to fix them.
If the procedure does not start under the pretext that the hard drive is busy, you can select the check option the next time you restart the computer.
Why your hard drive may be slow
If the scan reveals no damage and your hard drive is still slow, the problem may be that you haven't defragmented for a long time. Disk defragmentation is carried out as follows:
These steps can significantly speed up the response of your hard drive, especially if it has a lot of files.
In addition, file indexing can slow down disk speed in Windows 10.
File indexing is necessary to use search, but it significantly slows down the speed of the hard drive and the system as a whole, since for each existing file a separate path is added to the indexing database. Therefore, it is advisable to disable indexing. The search will still work, it will just take longer to find the requested file.
To disable indexing:
How to disable automatic hard drive checking
If the hard drive check is performed automatically when the computer starts, then you can easily disable it. To do this, just activate a certain command.
Video: checking the status of the Windows 10 hard drive
Programs for checking your hard drive
There are many programs designed to check your hard drive. Let's look at a few popular applications.
Seagate SeaTools
This free program copes with its task optimally. It can conduct a full check of your hard drive for errors, detect and fix problems. A distinctive feature of Seagate SeaTools is the ability to use it up to Windows boot using a specially created boot disk. Thanks to this, you can bring back to life a system that has failed due to hard drive problems. The program is universal and works with many equipment models.
HDD Regenerator
This paid program is suitable for checking your hard drive for errors and then correcting them.
HDD Regenerator not only performs a high-quality analysis of most hard drives, but is also capable of isolating and then attempting to repair damaged areas of the drive. The analysis function is also available in a free trial version.
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic
This program only supports hard disks, published by Western Digital. In addition to high-quality and free analysis, it also has the ability to isolate damaged sectors.
This allows you to avoid re-writing files to these sectors in the future. Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic has a full format that cannot be restored deleted files, so be careful when working with this program.
CrystalDiskInfo
One of best programs to check the status of the hard drive. Regardless of whether you use an external hard drive, or it is connected to your computer using standard methods, this program can be useful to you. It conducts a detailed analysis of all connected drives and provides the result in the form of a detailed, informative summary. Thus, you can find out all the necessary information: from the disk firmware version to system errors encountered during diagnostics.
In addition, this program has the following useful features:
- temperature display - the ability to monitor the temperature of the hard drive in real time (data is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen);
- managing hard disk settings, regulating its volume and speed of interaction with the disk;
- resetting the counters of damaged disk segments to zero;
- Displays the lifespan of the disk and the number of times the computer has been started.
CrystalDiskInfo does not correct disk errors, but is suitable for detailed diagnostics.
Diagnosis of the condition of the hard drive can be carried out using both system methods and special programs. Keep an eye out for errors on your disks, and then you will never lose important files due to technical malfunctions.
If the Windows 10 platform displays disk errors, then the reasons can be very diverse, as well as the consequences for your computer. Damaged HDD, incorrect system files- all this can be the reason for the appearance.
If such a problem occurs, you should act immediately, otherwise there is a risk of losing all the information stored on your PC. There are several methods that allow check Windows 10 for errors and fix them.
Testing the hard drive for errors via the command line
To start testing your hard drive, you must activate the command line as an administrator. This can be done through “Start” or by holding down the WIN + X keys.
In the activated command line, enter the chkdsk command, as well as the disk name and scanning parameters.
It should be noted that this utility functions with directories formatted in or .
chkdsk C: /F /R is the correct version of the command, where:
- C is the disk being checked for errors,
- F - all detected problems are eliminated in automatic mode,
- R - testing problem partitions and data recovery.
If you plan to test a disk that is used by the system, you will be prompted to scan after restarting the PC. We write Y - if you agree and N - to refuse.
After confirming the operation, the scan will be instantly activated. Upon completion, a detailed report will be presented on the errors found and problem sectors.
In situations where testing finds errors on the hard drive or, but cannot eliminate them, it is explained by the fact that a functioning system or application is currently using the disk.
Run an offline scan
In such a situation, activating offline disk scanning will solve the problem. The scanned partition is disconnected from the system, tested, and then it is integrated back into the system. If shutdown is unacceptable, CHKDSK will be able to scan the next time you restart the PC.
To activate offline disk scanning, run the command line again as an administrator and enter chkdsk C: /f /offlinescanandfix.
If a notification appears that it is not possible to execute the command because the presented section is being used by another process, enter Y, turn off the command line and restart the PC. The disk will begin to be scanned automatically when Windows 10 starts.
If you need a detailed report on the scan, you can view it by holding Win+R and typing eventvwr.msc.
Testing the hard drive using Explorer
The easiest check disk for windows 10 errors- this is to use a conductor. It will require the following steps:
- select the required section, right-click on it,
- then “Properties”,
- go to the “Service” category,
- activate the check.
In Windows 10, a notification is usually immediately displayed that a disk check is not needed at this time. However, if necessary, you can forcefully activate it.
Testing the disk for errors using Windows PowerShell
Check for availability Windows errors 10 available not only through the command line, but also in Windows PowerShell.
To perform this action, activate Windows PowerShell as an administrator. To do this, go to “Start” and start typing PowerShell in the search. Next, click on the detected element and run it as an administrator.
The following commands are used in Windows PowerShell:
- Repair-Volume -DriveLetter - used to test the required drive,
- Repair-Volume -DriveLetter C -OfflineScanAndFix - entered to activate offline scanning.
If, as a result of the check, the NoErrorsFound alert is displayed, this indicates that no errors could be found on the disk.
Testing the disk with a third-party program
Sometimes certain errors occur after testing the hard drive due to the connection of peripherals. To find the problem you need to scan using special program. Be sure to keep all important information in a safe place before you begin your inspection.
The Victoria utility is one of the most popular. Hard drive testing is carried out comprehensively, which allows it to detect all damaged areas and errors.
The “Standard” section provides information about the required disk. Its volume, parameters, sectors and much more are described.
In the “Smart” category, the disk is tested using the smart system. To activate scanning, first hold down the “Get Smart” key. At the end of the test, the final result will be presented.
Checking for bad sectors is carried out in the “Test” item. Before starting the scan, you will need to check the box next to “Remap”. If problem sectors are detected, the program will try to fix them. During the procedure, the status of the sectors and the possibility of correcting them will be displayed.
Additional disk check methods
In addition to the methods already presented above, you can also use some additional utilities present in the system. In Windows 10, scanning, maintenance and defragmentation are carried out automatically according to a certain schedule, during the period of time when you are not working at the computer.
To view information about whether errors were detected, go to the “Control Panel”, and from there to the “Security and Service Center”. In the “disk status” section you will find the data obtained during the last scan.
Another tool that is available in Windows 10 is the Storage Diagnostic Tool. To use this tool, you will need to open a command prompt as an administrator, and then enter the command stordiag.exe -collectEtw -checkfsconsistency -out.
The verification process will take a certain amount of time, and it may seem like everything is stuck, but you should wait patiently for it to finish. All disks will be scanned and a report of the scan performed will be provided.
If all else fails
If hard error Windows 10 disk has not been fixed, then make backup copies of all necessary important files, data, etc. They can be dragged into work partitions, or better yet, everything can be transferred to removable media.
Once all important information has been stored in a safe and secure place, you can test the hard drive for continued performance. You can try to restore maximum performance using a full format. To do this, you need to right-click on the disk and select.
Important. The formatting process is very long, the final time depends on the size of the partition. You'll have to be patient.
All recommendations presented on how to check Windows 10 for errors should help solve the problem with possible errors disk. Additionally, you can reinstall the system. Usually this helps solve almost all problems and get rid of any errors that appear during the operation of Windows 10.
Checking the system disk for errors is the first thing you should do if there are any problems with the operating system. If you encounter read or write errors in Windows 10 or performance issues when performing any disk operations, you need to check system disk for errors.
Disk errors usually indicate that the file system is not working correctly. This can be caused by various reasons, ranging from improper shutdown to physical damage to the disk surface. To see if the disk has system errors, you need to check it.
First, you can check the information provided by Windows. If there are any problems with your disk, Windows 10 can detect them and report them. To check this information, follow these steps:
- Open Control Panel.
- Go to next applet: Control Panel\System and Security\Security and Maintenance
- In line " Disk State", you will see the current status of your disks.
In my case, Windows 10 shows that there are no problems:
To check a disk in Windows 10 for errors file system, you need to do the following:
- Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
- Enter the following commands at the command prompt:
- Replace the area X on Drive letter, which needs to be checked.
For example, the command will check for errors on drive C:
If the disk is not in use, the disk check will begin immediately. If your drive is in this moment is used, Chkdsk will prompt you to perform a disk check the next time the system boots.
Disk check schedule at next boot
You can check your system drive for errors in Windows 10 by running the following command:
You will see the following output:
After clicking Y to confirm the request, it will start the next time you restart Windows 10.
That's all. Once the disk check is completed, you can find the results by searching for "CHKDSK" in the Windows 10 event log.
Crashes in Windows work, emergency shutdown of computer power, experiments with control software disk space, the consequences of virus penetration - these and other problems can lead to automatic start regular Windows utilities Chkdsk, designed to fix hard drive file system errors. Incorrectly completed operation of the operating system with files leads to file system errors, and sometimes even damage to the file system. In case of emergency Chkdsk utility turns on itself before starting Windows, scans disk partitions and corrects errors. However, the fact that there are problems with the file system may not make itself felt during normal use of the computer and only become apparent when trying to manage disk space. So, for example, when trying to shrink a disk partition using standard Windows tools, we may receive the following notification: “It is possible that the volume selected for compression is damaged. Use Chkdsk to troubleshoot the problem, and then try shrinking the volume again."
In this case, disk check will not start automatically. How to run Chkdsk manually in Windows 7, 8.1 and 10? How can I use Chkdsk to fix disk errors if this problem is the reason the operating system is unable to boot?
Inside Windows, the Chkdsk utility can be launched in several ways.
1. Run Chkdsk using Windows GUI
To run Chkdsk, in the system explorer on drive C, right-click and open “Properties”.
In the disk partition properties window that opens, go to the “Services” tab, and in it click the “Check” button (or “Run check” for Windows 7).
In versions of Windows 8.1 and 10, if everything is in order with the disk file system, in the window that appears next, we will see a notification that checking is not required. But if you wish, you can start checking the disk with the Chkdsk utility by clicking “Check disk”.
If the system suspects file system errors, this window will contain a button to start scanning and repairing the disk.
For Chkdsk to work relative to drive C, you must restart the computer. You can do this immediately or delay running the scan until the next reboot.
After restarting the computer, we will be able to observe the operation of Chkdsk.
In Windows 7, launching Chkdsk is slightly different: to the preinstalled option of automatic error correction, you can add another possible option - scanning and repairing damaged sectors of hard disk. When activating this option, it is worth considering that in this case Chkdsk may take longer to run.
As with Windows 8.1 and 10, in version 7 the system drive C cannot be scanned within a running operating system. To start the scan, the computer must be restarted. Click “Schedule disk check”.
When checking a non-system partition of a disk, if it is used by some programs, the situation is simpler than with the system partition. In the window with a notification that the disk is currently in use, you just need to click the “Disconnect” button to, accordingly, disable this partition for the duration of the scan.
2. Run Chkdsk using the command line
To run Chkdsk using the command line, first, accordingly, launch the latter.
In the command line enter a command like this:
In this command, instead of drive C, we each time substitute the letter of the desired partition on which the scan is required. If Chkdsk should check system partition With, as when working with graphical interface, you will need to restart your computer. When a message appears in the command line about the impossibility of locking the specified drive, you need to enter “Y”, then restart the computer.
In addition to the /f parameter, which is responsible for correcting disk errors, Chkdsk can be run with the /r parameter, designed to search for bad sectors and restore data. As a result of Chkdsk running with this parameter, hard disk clusters with unreadable sectors will be listed as damaged (bad blocks) and their functions will be transferred to a new cluster. Therefore, it is recommended to run Chkdsk with the /r parameter only when the usual error correction - running the utility with the /f parameter - does not bring the necessary results. Using the same drive C as an example, the command would look like this:
3. Running Chkdsk on a non-booting Windows
If Windows freezes at a certain point in the boot process, one of the possible reasons This problem is file system errors. In this case, you need to run Chkdsk by booting from the rescue media. As such, you can use regular installation media with Windows versions 7, 8.1 or 10. With its help, we will launch the Chkdsk utility inside the command line. At the first stage of starting the system installation process, press the command line launch keys – Shift+F10.
In the command line that opens, before running the Chkdsk command, you need to clarify which letters define the disk partitions. This is easy to do using a notepad. I launch it with the command:
Click the notepad menu “File”, then “Open”.
In the explorer that opens, remember the new drive designations. As a rule, in Windows 8.1 and 10, the C drive partition (as it exists inside the running operating system) is listed as D, since the letter C is assigned to the first technical partition of the system. And all other sections are shifted by one letter of the alphabet.
Having decided on the letters of the disk partitions, close Notepad, then, returning to the command line, enter a command like this:
As with Chkdsk inside Windows, you must first try to fix disk errors by running the utility with the /f parameter. And only if the problem is not solved, only then run the command with the /r parameter, as indicated in the previous paragraph of the article.
In cases where Windows is unable to boot, you can pre-burn an emergency Live disk with a selection of various tools to restore the operating system. Among these, for example, is AdminPE based on WinPE. Its image for recording on a disk or flash drive can be downloaded from the official website of the project Adminpe.Ru. Using AdminPE, you can launch a command prompt and enter the Chkdsk launch commands discussed above. But in this Live disk, the Chkdsk utility has its own interface and is launched using a script. The shortcut to launch the utility is placed directly on the desktop.
In the drop-down list to check the disk, select the desired disk partition. Next, activate the checkboxes for restoring damaged sectors and forcibly disabling a partition (volume). Let's check the launches.
AdminPE's tools include a number of other utilities for working with hard drives, as well as the well-known programs Hard Disk Sentinel and Victoria.
Have a great day!