Hello admin! I read several articles about the Victoria program on your site and a question arose. But what, the latest operating system from Microsoft - Windows 10 is so flawed and does not have a built-in hard drive diagnostic tool? Can't she herself determine the state of the hard disk on which it is installed and it is necessary to download programs third party developers? I have new laptop with Windows 10, and if there is such a tool, then I ask you to tell about it in your articles. Also wanted to ask. In one of your comments, you said that it is useless to run the built-in Windows 10 hard disk health check utility - CHKDSK to find and fix bad sectors (bad blocks). Why? After all, on all sites like yours it is written that chkdsk, launched with the /R parameter, can fix bad blocks!

How to find out the status of a hard drive using the built-in tools in Windows 10

Hi friends! There are about a dozen articles on our site on this topic, but interestingly, I didn’t tell you about this method, but it nevertheless exists.

In fact, you can find out the status of the hard drive in Windows 10 using the built-in tools, but these tools will simply tell you: “Yes, the disk condition is good” or “The disk condition is bad”, but how bad it is and whether it is urgent to copy data from HDD and replace it, or you can still wait at least until tomorrow, that's what they won't tell you. Why?

In simple words, the operating system simply reads the hard disk self-diagnosis (S.M.A.R.T.) and if it is GOOD (good), then the system tells us so - “The disk is working fine.” If the S.M.A.R.T status of the hard drive is BAD (bad), then the system will indicate that the disk is faulty. But in life, everything is relative and very often the HDD is on the verge of failure, and Windows still shows us that the disk is working fine.

In short, if you want to make an accurate diagnosis of a hard drive, then you cannot do without special programs, and even chkdsk won't help you. I will try to prove it to you in today's article.

To find out the status of the hard drive in Windows 10 using the built-in tools, you need to go to« Control Panel»

"Center for Security and Service"

"Service"

As you can see, Windows 10 evaluates the status of the hard drive as normal: All drives are working fine. OK.

But in fact, if now run special program for diagnosing hard drives, you will see that the state of the hard drive is C grade (Alarm!) And it is full of unstable sectors that the firmware of the hard drive could not fix.

The Victoria program will say the same.

How else can you find out the status of the hard drive using the built-in tools of Windows 10 or how to use the disk check utility (chkdsk). Running Check Disk from the GUI

Windows 10 has a chkdsk disk check utility and you can run it directly in GUI or using the command line. After checking, the utility will issue a complete report on the state of the file system of the operating system you have installed.

Note: You may read on many sites that the chkdsk utility, run with the /R option, can fix bad sectors (bad blocks), but in fact this is not the case. Bad sectors can only reassign good sectors from spare tracks to the firmware control built into the hard drive. disk status. What the chkdsk utility does is fix file errors. NTFS systems or FAT32 and it is best to use the utilitychkdsk to fix file system errors, not to diagnose the hard disk condition. I'll explain a little.
You all know that the smallest unit of information on hard drive is a sector, volume available to the user is 512 bytes. When formatting a hard disk in file system all sectors are combined into clusters (one cluster is located on several sectors), respectively, the cluster is the minimum area of ​​the file system. So here, utility chkdsk does not work with hard disk sectors, but a level higher - with clusters. In turn, Victoria and MHDD programs are used to check hard disk sectors, not clusters, so they do not treat the file system.

Enter the Computer window and right-click on the drive (C:), select "Properties"

Go to the "Service" tab and click on the "Check" button

"Check disk"

The disk is being checked for errors.

The disk has been verified successfully. No errors found.

Click on "Show Details"

The Event Viewer window opens. You can view the test results on the "Details" tab or double-click on the "Details" link

Hello admin! I read several articles about the Victoria program on your site and a question arose. But what, the latest operating system from Microsoft - Windows 10 is so flawed and does not have a built-in hard drive diagnostic tool? Can't she herself determine the state of the hard disk on which it is installed and it is necessary to download third-party programs? I have a new laptop with Windows 10, and if there is such a tool, then I ask you to tell about it in your articles. Also wanted to ask. In one of your comments, you said that it is useless to run the built-in Windows 10 hard disk health check utility - CHKDSK to find and fix bad sectors (bad blocks). Why? After all, on all sites like yours it is written that chkdsk, launched with the /R parameter, can fix bad blocks!

How to find out the status of a hard drive using the built-in tools in Windows 10

Hi friends! There are about a dozen articles on this topic on our site, but interestingly, I didn’t tell you about this method, but it nevertheless exists.

In fact, you can find out the status of the hard drive in Windows 10 using the built-in tools, but these tools will simply tell you: “Yes, the disk condition is good” or “The disk condition is bad”, but how bad it is and whether it is urgent to copy data from HDD and replace it, or you can still wait at least until tomorrow, that's what they won't tell you. Why?

In simple words, the operating system simply reads the hard disk self-diagnosis (S.M.A.R.T.) and if it is GOOD (good), then the system tells us so - “The disk is working fine.” If the S.M.A.R.T status of the hard drive is BAD (bad), then the system will indicate that the disk is faulty. But in life, everything is relative and very often the HDD is on the verge of failure, and Windows still shows us that the disk is working fine.

In short, if you want to make an accurate diagnosis of a hard drive, then you cannot do without special programs, and even chkdsk won't help you. I will try to prove it to you in today's article.

To find out the status of the hard drive in Windows 10 using the built-in tools, you need to go to« Control Panel»

"Center for Security and Service"

"Service"

As you can see, Windows 10 evaluates the status of the hard drive as normal: All drives are working fine. OK.

But in fact, if you now run a special program for diagnosing hard drives, you will see that the state of the hard drive is C grade (Alarm!) And it is full of unstable sectors that the hard drive's built-in firmware could not fix.

The Victoria program will say the same.

How else can you find out the status of the hard drive using the built-in tools of Windows 10 or how to use the disk check utility (chkdsk). Running Check Disk from the GUI

Windows 10 has a chkdsk disk check utility and you can run it directly in the graphical interface or using the command line. After checking, the utility will issue a complete report on the state of the file system of the operating system you have installed.

Note: You may read on many sites that the chkdsk utility, run with the /R option, can fix bad sectors (bad blocks), but in fact this is not the case. Bad sectors can be reassigned to healthy sectors from backup tracks only by the tech control firmware built into the hard drive. disk status. What the chkdsk utility does is fix NTFS or FAT32 file system errors and it is best to use the utilitychkdsk to fix file system errors, not to diagnose the hard disk condition. I'll explain a little.
You all know that the minimum unit of information on a hard disk is a sector, the amount available to the user is 512 bytes. When formatting a hard disk into a file system, all sectors are combined into clusters (one cluster is located on several sectors), respectively, the cluster is the minimum area of ​​the file system. So here, utility chkdsk does not work with hard disk sectors, but a level higher - with clusters. In turn, Victoria and MHDD programs are used to check hard disk sectors, not clusters, so they do not treat the file system.

Enter the Computer window and right-click on the drive (C:), select "Properties"

Go to the "Service" tab and click on the "Check" button

"Check disk"

The disk is being checked for errors.

The disk has been verified successfully. No errors found.

Click on "Show Details"

The Event Viewer window opens. You can view the test results on the "Details" tab or double-click on the "Details" link

HDDScan

The program is designed to test hard drives and SSD to bad sectors, view S.M.A.R.T. attributes, changing special settings, such as: power management, spindle start/stop, acoustic mode adjustment, etc. Drive temperature value can be output to the taskbar.

Opportunities and Requirements

• HDD with ATA/SATA interface.
• HDD with SCSI interface.
• HDD with USB interface(See Appendix A).
• HDD with FireWire or IEEE 1394 interface (see Appendix A).
• RAID arrays with ATA/SATA/SCSI interface (only tests).
• Flash drives with USB interface (only tests).
• SSD with ATA/SATA interface.

• Test in linear verification mode.
• Test in linear reading mode.
• Test in linear recording mode.
• Butterfly reading mode test (artificial random reading test)

• Reading and analyzing S.M.A.R.T. parameters from ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire drives.
• Reading and analysis of log tables from disks with SCSI interface.
• Launching S.M.A.R.T. tests on drives with ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire interface.
• Temperature monitor on drives with ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire/SCSI interface.

• Reading and analysis of identification information from drives with ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire/SCSI interface.
• Changing AAM, APM, PM parameters on drives with ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire interface.
• View information about defects on a SCSI drive.
• Spindle start/stop on drives with ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire/SCSI interface.
• Save reports in MHT format.
• Print reports.
• Skins support.
• Command line support.
• Support for SSD drives.

• Operating system: Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10(NEW).
• The program must not be run from a drive that is in read-only mode.

User Interface

The main view of the program at startup

Rice. 1 Main view of the program

Main window controls:

• Select Drive is a dropdown list that contains all supported drives in the system. The drive model is displayed and serial number. Nearby is an icon that determines the expected type of drive.
• S.M.A.R.T button – allows you to get a drive status report based on S.M.A.R.T attributes.
• TESTS button - shows a pop-up menu with a choice of read and write tests (see Fig. 2).
• TOOLS Button - Shows a pop-up menu for selecting available dial controls and functions (see Figure 3).
• More button - shows a drop-down menu with program controls.

When you press the TESTS button, a pop-up menu will offer you one of the tests. If you select any test, the test dialog will open (see Figure 4).

Rice. 2 Test menu

When you press the TOOLS button, a pop-up menu will prompt you to select one of the following options:

Rice. 3 Function menu

• DRIVE ID - Generates an identification information report.
• FEATURES - opens a window additional features programs.
• S.M.A.R.T. TEST - opens the S.M.A.R.T. tests: Short, Extended, Conveyance.
• TEMP MON - starts the temperature monitoring task.
• COMMAND - opens the command line build window.

Test Dialog Box

Rice. 4 Test dialog box

Controls:

• The FIRST SECTOR field is the initial logical sector number for testing.
• The SIZE field is the number of logical sector numbers for testing.
• The BLOCK SIZE field is the block size in sectors for testing.
• Button Previous - returns to the main window of the program.
• Next button - adds the test to the task queue.

• Only one surface test can be run at a time. This is due to the fact that the author of the program has not yet been able to obtain stable qualitative results when running 2 or more tests simultaneously (on different drives).
• A test in Verify mode can have a block size limit of 256, 16384, or 65536 sectors. This is due to the peculiarities of Windows.
• Test in Verify mode may not work properly on USB/Flash drives.
• When testing in the Verify mode, the drive reads a block of data into the internal buffer and checks their integrity; no data is transmitted through the interface. The program measures the drive readiness time after performing this operation after each block and displays the results. Blocks are tested sequentially - from the minimum to the maximum.
• When testing in the Read mode, the drive reads data into the internal buffer, after which the data is transmitted through the interface and stored in the program's temporary buffer. The program measures the total drive readiness and data transfer time after each block and displays the results. Blocks are tested sequentially - from the minimum to the maximum.
• When testing in the Erase mode, the program prepares a data block filled with a special pattern with a sector number and transfers the data to the drive, the drive writes the received block ( information in the block is irretrievably lost!). The program measures the total time of transferring and writing a block and the readiness of the drive after each block and displays the results. Blocks are tested sequentially - from the minimum to the maximum.
• Testing in Butterfly Read mode is similar to testing in Read mode. The difference lies in the order in which the blocks are tested. Blocks are processed in pairs. The first block in the first pair will be Block 0. The second block in the first pair will be Block N, where N is the last block of the given section. The next pair will be Block 1, Block N-1, and so on. Testing ends in the middle of a given section. This test measures reading and positioning time.

Task management window

Rice. 5 Task Manager

This window contains the task queue. This includes all the tests that the program runs, as well as the temperature monitor. The manager allows you to remove tests from the queue. Some tasks can be paused or stopped.

Double clicking on an entry in the queue brings up a window with information about the current task.

Test Information Window

The window contains information about the test, allows you to pause or stop the test, and also generates a report.

Graph tab:

Contains information about the dependence of the testing speed on the block number, which is presented in the form of a graph.

Rice. 6 Graph tab

Map tab:

Contains information about the dependence of the testing time on the block number, which is presented as a map.

Rice. 7 Map tab

You can select "Block Processing Time" in milliseconds. Each tested block that took longer than the "Block Processing Time" will be logged in the "Report" tab.

Report tab:

Contains information about the test and all blocks whose testing time is greater than "Block Processing Time".

Rice. 8 Report tab

Identification information

The report contains information about the main physical and logical parameters of the drive.

The report can be printed and saved to an MHT file.

Rice. 9 Example of an identification information window

S.M.A.R.T. report

The report contains information about the performance and "health" of the drive in the form of attributes. If, according to the program, the attribute is normal, then next to it is a green icon. Yellow indicates attributes that you should pay special attention to, as a rule, they indicate some kind of drive malfunction. Red indicates attributes that are outside the norm.

Reports can be printed or saved to an MHT file.

Rice. 10 Sample S.M.A.R.T.

Temperature monitor

Allows you to estimate the temperature of the drive. Information is displayed in the taskbar, as well as in a special test information window. Rice. 11 contains readings for two drives.

Rice. 11 Temperature monitor in the taskbar

For ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire drives, the information window contains 2 values. The second value is displayed in the taskbar.

The first value is taken from the Airflow Temperature attribute, the second value is taken from the HDA Temperature attribute.

Rice. 12 Temperature monitor for ATA/SATA drive

For SCSI drives, the information window contains 2 values. The second value is displayed in the taskbar.

The first value contains the maximum allowable temperature for the drive, the second shows the current temperature.

Rice. 13 Temperature monitor for SCSI disk

S.M.A.R.T. tests

The program allows you to run three types of S.M.A.R.T. tests:

1. Short test - usually lasts 1-2 minutes. It checks the main components of the drive, and also scans a small area of ​​the drive surface and sectors in the Pending-List (sectors that may contain read errors). The test is recommended for a quick assessment of the condition of the drive.
2. Extended test - usually lasts from 0.5 to 60 hours. Checks the main components of the drive, and also completely scans the surface of the drive.
3. Conveyance test - usually lasts a few minutes. Checks drive nodes and logs that may indicate that the drive has been stored or shipped incorrectly.

A SMART test can be selected from the SMART Tests dialog, accessed by pressing the SMART TESTS button.

Rice. 14 SMART Tests dialog box

Once selected, the test will be added to the Tasks queue. Information window S.M.A.R.T. test can display the progress and completion status of a task.

Rice. 15 Information window S.M.A.R.T. test

Additional features

For ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire drives, the program allows you to change some parameters.

1. AAM - the function controls the noise of the drive. Enabling this feature allows you to reduce the noise of the drive due to smoother positioning of the heads. In this case, the drive loses a little in performance during random access.
2. APM - the function allows you to save drive power by temporarily reducing the speed of rotation (or completely stopping) of the drive spindle during idle time.
3. PM - the function allows you to set the spindle stop timer for a specific time. When this time is reached, the spindle will be stopped provided that the drive is idle. Accessing the drive by any program causes the spindle to be forced to spin up and the timer to reset to zero.
4. The program also allows you to stop or start the drive spindle forcibly. Access to the drive by any program causes forced spinning of the spindle.

Rice. 16 Information window for additional features of the ATA/SATA drive

For SCSI drives, the program allows you to view defect lists and start/stop the spindle.

Rice. 17 SCSI drive advanced features information window

Using the command line

The program can build command line to control some drive settings and save this string to a .bat or .cmd file. When such a file is run, the program is called in background, changes the drive settings according to the settings and closes automatically.

Rice. 18 Command line build window

Appendix A: USB/FireWire Drives

If the drive is supported by the program, then tests are available for it, S.M.A.R.T. features and additional features.

If the drive is not supported by the program, then only tests are available for it.

USB/FireWire drives supported by the program:

USB / FireWire drives that the program may support:

USB / FireWire drives that the program does not support:

Appendix B: SSD Drives

Support for a particular drive largely depends on the controller installed on it.

SSD drives supported by the program:

SSD drives that the program may support:

Additional Information

HDDScan version 3.3 can be downloaded version 2.8

Many PC users hardly think about checking the status of their HDD. Checking the hard drive, first of all, is needed for early detection of errors.
If you manage to identify problems with the hard drive in advance, then you can save all important information stored on it until its final failure.
In this article, we will describe concrete examples the procedure for checking the status of the HDD, as well as tell you what to do in a situation if your hard drive is faulty.

How to check the status of a hard drive

Check hard state you can use various utilities that read the status of your hard drive from its self-diagnosis system SMART. SMART technology is now installed on every manufactured hard drive. SMART technology was developed back in 1992 and is still being improved to this day. The main task of SMART is logging of the hard drive aging process. That is, information such as the number of HDD activations, the number of spindle rotations and many others is being collected. More SMART looking for errors"screws", both software and mechanical, and as far as possible corrects them. During the monitoring process, SMART performs various tests such as short and long to identify those same faults. In this article, we will consider such programs that can read information from SMART:

• Ashampoo HDD Control 3;
• Defraggler;
• HD Life;
• Victoria.

Each program from the list, in addition to reading SMART readings, offers a number of functions, tests, which in one way or another extend the life of the hard drive. But the most interesting is the program Victoria. The Victoria program, in addition to determining the state of the HDD, also knows how to produce REMAP bad sectors . That is, she can hide bad sectors by replacing them with spare ones if they exist. In essence, the REMAP procedure can restore hard drive. It is also worth noting the possibility of correcting hard drive thanks to the console application " chkdsk". The console program "chkdsk" can fix file system errors, which will allow you not to reinstall Windows.

Ashampoo HDD Control 3

We will first look at the program Ashampoo HDD Control 3. Let's run this utility on the computer under Windows control 10.

The Ashampoo HDD Control 3 window shows the message " ✓ OK", as well as the inscription " This hard drive has no problems". This information means that the hard drive in question is in perfect order. If you see the message " Mistake", as well as the inscription " This hard drive has a problem”, then this means that it has bad sectors or overheats. To view full information about the health of the "screw" taken from smart, you need to click on the footnote "" located in the central block.

In addition to viewing information from smart, Ashampoo HDD Control 3 can run self-test test S.M.A.R.T. and surface check test. You can test these tests in the "" block.

By performing these tests, you can also identify problems with the HDD. In addition to taking readings from smart and tests, Ashampoo HDD Control 3 can:

• Perform defragmentation;
• Clean up the system of debris;
• Find and remove duplicate files;
• Securely overwrite files from the HDD, without the possibility of recovery.

The presence of such Ashampoo HDD Control 3 functionality in monitoring the health of the screw and additional features puts utility first.

Defraggler

Utility Defraggler primarily intended for defragmentation, but besides that, she can read SMART readings. The utility is free and any user can download it from www.piriform.com. After starting the utility, you need to go to the tab " State».

The window shows that the utility displays a message about the state of the screw, as " GOOD' means he's fine. If you see the message " Mistake” in the status, this will mean that there are bad sectors on the hard drive and it is time to change it. The utility is quite simple and is suitable, first of all, for novice PC users who want to monitor the health of the HDD and defragment it. I would also like to note that the utility supports all current operating systems, from Windows XP to Windows 10.

How to check your hard drive with HDDlife

Utility HDDlife has a nice interface and immediately gives us the information we need, which is responsible for the serviceability and breakage of the screw.

From the image above, you can see that in the block health is " OK!", which means that everything is in order with the HDD. To see the details of smart, you just need to click on the link " click to view S.M.A.R.T. attributes».

If you see a message in the health block " DANGER!”, then this means that your HDD will soon become unusable.

In this case, you need to replace the old hard drive with a new one. The HDDlife utility, first of all, is suitable for novice PC users, as its simplicity will make it easy to monitor the health of the “screw”. In addition to the standard utility, the developer also releases HDDlife for Notebooks which is designed for laptops. The laptop version has the same functionality as the standard version, but can also HDD noise control. It is also worth noting that the program supports all current operating systems, from Windows XP to Windows 10.

Victoria

Program Victoria is being developed under DOS and by Windows. For our example, we will use the Windows version of Victoria, which can be downloaded from http://hdd-911.com. On the this moment Victoria is available in version 4.47. By running the Victoria utility, we will get into such a window.

Victoria doesn't have beautiful interface, as in previous utilities and written in such old languages ​​as Delphi and assembler.

In the first tab of Victoria " standard» is all information about established hard drives into the computer.

Second tab " SMART» needed for smart reading. To display smart results, you must click the Get SMART button and the results will be displayed.

In the hard drive under consideration, Victoria found 1212 bad sectors. Such a number of BAD sectors is critical, so in this case it is necessary to carry out full backup all data from the HDD. To repair the hard drive with the REMAP test in Victoria, go to the tab " Tests» and select the mode « Remap". After these steps, you can start the reassignment procedure bad sectors to the backup button Start .

The REMAP test at Victoria can take a very long time. The test time depends on the number of bad sectors. This test of the Victoria utility does not always help, since there might not be any spare sectors left in the "screw".

Please note that using Victoria tests, you can damage the health of the HDD and the information on it.

How to check the disk for health using "chkdsk"

It may happen that by checking the S.M.A.R.T. using the utilities described above, you did not find any problems, but the system still behaves unstable. Instability may appear blue screens death, freezes in programs. Such behavior operating system Windows caused file system errors. In this case, it will help us console command « chkdsk". By running the "chkdsk" command, you can fully restore functionality Windows OS. For this example, we will take a computer with a new operating system. Windows system 10. First of all, let's open the console in Windows 10 as an administrator. This can be easily done by clicking right click mouse icon " Start” and selecting the item we need.

In the running console, execute the following command CHKDSK F: / F / R After checking using the “chkdsk” command application, the result of the check will be displayed in the console.

Now consider the command " CHKDSK F: /F /R» more. Immediately after the "chkdsk" command comes the letter " F"- this letter local disk where we correct errors. Keys " /F" and " /R» fix errors in the file system, as well as correct bad sectors . These keys are used almost always, unlike the others. You can view the rest of the keys with the chkdsk /?

It is also worth noting that in Windows 10, the capabilities of the “chkdsk” application have been significantly expanded thanks to new keys.

How to test a hard drive for health using DST

Abbreviation DST stands for Disk Self Test, i.e self-test disk. Manufacturers specifically build this method into the HDD, so that later, using special software, they can perform DST self-diagnosis, which will identify problems. By testing the “screw” using DST, you can get information about the likely failure of the hard drive. It is especially convenient to use DST on servers and enterprise computers where secure storage information plays a big role. Now consider the use of DST on the example of HP laptops. For new HP notebooks with support UEFI BIOS there is a special diagnostic menu " Startup Menu". This menu is launched with power key and key combinations ESC.

To run system tests, press the F2 button.

In the window that appears, DST is called Hard Disk Test. After selecting it, a self-test will start.

Other manufacturers also have a DST method, only running on a PC from other manufacturers is different from the above.

Checking a hard drive in Linux

For example, let's take a computer based on the operating Ubuntu systems 16.04. To do this, launch the terminal in Ubuntu. In the terminal, type the following command sudo apt-get install smartmontools This command should install

If you don't like working in console mode, you can install a graphical utility gnome-disk-utility. In it you can see everything you need about the HDD and its status.

Summing up

In this article, we described how you can monitor HDD status, as well as how to fix its sectors and file system, if possible. From the material it becomes clear that monitoring the status of hard drives is very important, as it allows predict HDD failure.

If you find that your hard drive is problematic, then do not postpone its replacement for later. A problematic "screw" can fail at any time, and you will lose all the information stored on your computer.

We hope that our material will be useful to our readers, and will fully help to solve the problem. hard checks disk.

Related videos

A hard drive is a storage medium that stores all of your computer's information. It is for this reason that it is important to monitor the condition of the HDD and conduct diagnostics regularly in order to troubleshoot in a timely manner. This is ideal, but before encountering problems with the drive, users often do not even think about how the hard drive is diagnosed, and why it is needed at all. If your computer and the information on it is of any importance to you, take the time to read the manual, which will help you learn how to check hard work disk using the software, without spending a lot of time on it.

We check the performance of the built-in Windows tools

If you do not have the time or skills to use the special software needed to diagnose the HDD, you can use what is built into Windows from the very beginning. Actions are simple:

Through the explorer or the "My Computer" shortcut, go to the HDD.

Right-click on the drive icon, then select "Properties" from the menu that opens.

On the page that appears, click on the "Service" tab located at the top. Click Check.

Wait for the built-in program to finish checking the health of your drive.

Unfortunately, this way is not as effective as diagnostics using special software - it can only point out some errors and push the user to more serious scanning of sectors. A more serious approach is needed to thoroughly scan and eliminate malfunctions and damage.

Scanning the HDD in third-party software

There are a lot of programs with which you can find out about the presence of hard drive errors, as well as deal with their removal, and parsing the instructions for using each of them is a very long and complicated matter. For this reason, below you can familiarize yourself with the method, which involves the use of popular program Victoria. Choosing another software, remember that the principle of operation of applications for diagnosing disks is practically the same from program to program. Here is the instruction for Victoria:

Run the application as an administrator by calling the menu with the right mouse button on the program shortcut.

In the application window that opens, at the top, find the Standard tab and click on it.

On the new page you will see a list of media detected by your system - they are listed on the top right side of the application. Select your HDD, then click the Passport button. If you've done everything right and the media is available for use, Victoria will let you know right away.

Click on the SMART tab, usually located next to the tab you previously opened. Here you need to select Get SMART and wait for approval from the application.

Go to the TEST section, then press the START button to start diagnosing your HDD.

During the verification process, Victoria will display the status of the HDD with a grid of squares. Gray squares indicate that all is well - for normal operation equipment should be either all or the vast majority of all sectors. Red squares are damaged sectors that hang like a dead weight and interfere with the operation of the drive.

If you have blue squares - unreadable sectors, they must be rescanned in Victoria with the Remap mode enabled.

Now you know how to check the media status.

Remember that over time, there are more and more unreadable sectors on the disk - they appear as a result of mechanical deformations, intensive memory use, and also for numerous other reasons. This is normal and can be compared to the wearer aging.

Share the article with your friends so that they also know about it, and also learn how to self-diagnose HDD errors. Don't forget to subscribe to our updates so you don't miss out on new exciting content!