Updated Article on Free Hard Drive Testing Programs

[Callahan]

I may or may not have a hard drive going bad ... makes a little noise at startup but then seems to be OK for hours. I have a couple of hard drive testing tools on the computer and they report everything is just fine. Have no idea how accurate they really are.

Searching around for more information I came across this article '13 Best Free Hard Drive Testing Programs' which was just updated on July 05, 2023. Most all these 'free test tools' are still listed as working with Windows XP and newer.

I downloaded everything for any future need should there be one and since they still have Windows XP support. I thought others might also be interested.

13 Best Free Hard Drive Testing Programs

An updated list of the best free hard drive test software programs
By Tim Fisher / Updated on July 5, 2023

https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-driv ... ms-2626183

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[solidpro]

If all of them report your hard drive as fine when it isn't, what good are they!? Did you find one which accurately diagnosed the issue?

[Callahan]

I have had three of these programs on my computer for maybe 10 years and they all indicate the hard drive is in good working order. I have been using a Samsung HD for over 10 years ... I think it's a fairly good drive and I hope it still has some life left.

They are still for sale on Amazon as of today.

Samsung HM160HC SpinPoint M5 160 GB 5400rpm ATA100 8 MB 2.5-Inch Notebook Hard Drive

So as I said earlier I am not sure about the drive ... it's a good drive and the tests say it's still healthy, so who knows for sure. I have backups and a new drive ready if that day should arrive.

With some of these additional testing programs that I now know about, I will give them a try also.
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[axur-delmeria]

With suspect HDDs, I do one of two things:

* full defect scan with sector remapping
* zero-fill (write zeroes) to the entire drive, or random data (this will destroy existing data).

Defect scan is done through ViVARD 0.4, which is included in the Ultimate Boot CD: https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html
IDE/Compatibility mode is required, so it won't work on newer laptops that are AHCI-only.

Many HDD diagnostics can do zero-fill, though if I'm lazy I just boot Linux and run dd:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb  bs=8M status=progress

I replace /dev/zero with //dev/urandom if I want to fill it with random data.

I check the SMART data for any errors and sector remap events before and after the zero-fill.

[Callahan]

axur-delmeria ... thanks for the input. I really don't know the state of the HD. It seems to be OK, I have no idea what the lifespan could be for a HD that has been used steady for around 10 years ... maybe another 10.

I've heard of Ultimate Boot CD but never worked with it. Thanks for the link.
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[axur-delmeria]

Many years ago, my brother had me replace the 1TB HDD in his laptop because he thinks he hears a screeching noise sometimes. That HDD ended up in one of my X61's which got used a lot. It's been retired, but the HDD still worked the last time I used it (copied a lot of files from it sometime last year).