Error checking software?

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Hey all,

I think I have a drive that is failing but Im not sure. I want to check if there are any bad sectors.

I have reformatted the drive and used the "check disk" function of XP and it didnt find anything. Im just curious to know if there are any other software programs out there that I could run on the drive with possibly more reliability (along the same vein that OO Defrag is "better" than the windows one). Im not sure if the "data lifeguard" tools from Western Digital are good or not.

Thanks again in advance.

LG

[poisondeathray]

HDTune is free and has a "health tab" which gives SMART data (like error rates, error counts, a dozen other parameters). It also has an error scan, but I don't know if it's any better than XP's. You can also monitor temps

What signs suggest that it is failing? It might be wise to back up all your important stuff ASAP.

[fritzi93]

I use HDTune also, and SpeedFan too. And WDdiag from time to time. I dunno how much reliance you can put on them.

If I get bad indications, I'll backup to a different drive, do a full format and check again. Sometimes the drive is good again, sometimes no. And sometimes you get little warning before a drive goes down the crapper.

I've used a number of defrag utilities, including payware. Now I just use PowerDefragmenter in conjunction with Contig. (Page file on separate drive, BTW). Seems to do as well as any of the others. IMHO.

[shititin]

would your suggestions help here?
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic345578.html

[scott20]

You may also get here, http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Disk_Management/Error_Checking_and_Repair/

[aedipuss]

i've had a few smart enabled drives fail, but the smart "warning" of impending doom has always come after it's too late..... last one froze a main bearing and the smart warning of a failing drive and to back up anything important came after the platters no longer turned at all.

if it sounds louder or it's "ticking" during reads/writes it's probably going.

diskcheckup.exe will give you the smart data to inspect. i guess if you did it frequently enough and paid attention to changes it might give you a little warning.... it's a little hard to find sometimes.
http://files.filefront.com/diskcheckupexe/;9051623;/fileinfo.html

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Soooooo, as it turns out, I was right. The drive is failing. I ran a couple of scans over it and came up with a bunch of bad sectors. Attempting to fix and format has proved ineffective.

I WAS able to remove all that contents (or what I believe to be all the contents) so thats always good.

Meh, no big deal. Its a 20gb WD that was built in 2002. I figure 6 years is a good shelf life