Best HDD Health/bad sector checker Software

[freak180]

I was using SeaTools for Windows until it stop working for me out of the blue ( Kept erroring out when executed) I'm using GSmartControl at the moment but I dont know how reliable it is. What do you guys recommend for checking  the health and bad sectors (possibly repairing as well) of a Hard drive?

[Praetor]

i always use HD Tune; in fact any tool that can read the SMART table and uses the directives the disk manufactors use for that model is good.

 

anyways, always use the tools the disk manufactures recommend.

[Draconian Guppy]

I used spinrite on a seagate disk (apparently OEM disks sometimes skip the bad sector marking) if it can't move/repair the bad sector it will mark it as unreadable for the OS.  

 

https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

[Circaflex]

the best tool will be provided by the MFG of your HDD.

 

Seagate = Seatools

Western Digital = WDDiags

Hitachi/Toshiba = Drive Fitness Test (DFT)

[Draconian Guppy]

the best tool will be provided by the MFG of your HDD.

 

Seagate = Seatools

Western Digital = WDDiags

Hitachi/Toshiba = Drive Fitness Test (DFT)

 

Hmm I disagree, I tried marking fixing bad sectors for both WD and seagate, none of their own software was able to diagnose their respectively HDDs, spinrite did it properly (Took around 12 hours for a 650gb and around 4 for a 320gb one), but this was around 2-3 years ago and based solely on my experience :P

[Praetor]

Hmm I disagree, I tried marking fixing bad sectors for both WD and seagate, none of their own software was able to diagnose their respectively HDDs, spinrite did it properly (Took around 12 hours for a 650gb and around 4 for a 320gb one), but this was around 2-3 years ago and based solely on my experience :p

 

errr... i thought that the error marking was automatic as soon as that sector was used, by the HDD firmware.

[Draconian Guppy]

errr... i thought that the error marking was automatic as soon as that sector was used, by the HDD firmware.

So did I, but i've bought several oem (non retail HDs) over the years and plenty have come with an amount of bad sectors, just cause they're not checked/marked. I don't have the emails anymore, but a seagate technical support explained that while the firmware marks bad sectors, it only does to those that were identified during initial scan and not all the time were second scans needed, hence HD with bad sectors get shipped :/ 

[Tidosho]

HD Sentinel, definitely the best by far, it allows you to zero drives, repair bad sectors, run tests on them, and constantly monitor them, it will even send emails if anything bad happens.

[Tidosho]

So did I, but i've bought several oem (non retail HDs) over the years and plenty have come with an amount of bad sectors, just cause they're not checked/marked. I don't have the emails anymore, but a seagate technical support explained that while the firmware marks bad sectors, it only does to those that were identified during initial scan and not all the time were second scans needed, hence HD with bad sectors get shipped :/

There's two defect list tables known as G-Lists and P-Lists. G-Lists are Grown defects, found over the lifetime of the drive, including when the drive is idle, it runs a self test known as an offline data collection test where it scans all its sectors, marking weak ones and bad ones. Weak sectors can be fixed by overwriting them, but bad sectors are often physically damaged, either because of a head crash or the magnetic coating is defective. All these are marked in the G-list.

The P-List (Primary List) table has all the known bad sectors found at production. Most HDD's have bad sectors from the factory, you just don't see them because the P-List is not accessible to application layer, only the firmware, the table is stored in ROM. When you get your new HDD all SMART attributes are 0, to prevent undue warranty claims. The G-List is populated from that point on, the P-list is never added to after the factory test.

It's a bit like TFT transistor defects, a certain amount are acceptable from the factory, and cannot be claimed for under warranty, over a certain amount and you can claim. I have an in-depth article on my blog on how remapping works, click HERE to read it

[Hussam Al-tayeb]

Smartmontools for windows http://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/files/smartmontools/6.3/

it will check drive health and bad sectors while the drive is online. Run a long test.

[GSDragoon]

chkdsk /r

[Draconian Guppy]

There's two defect list tables known as G-Lists and P-Lists. G-Lists are Grown defects, found over the lifetime of the drive, including when the drive is idle, it runs a self test known as an offline data collection test where it scans all its sectors, marking weak ones and bad ones. Weak sectors can be fixed by overwriting them, but bad sectors are often physically damaged, either because of a head crash or the magnetic coating is defective. All these are marked in the G-list.

The P-List (Primary List) table has all the known bad sectors found at production. Most HDD's have bad sectors from the factory, you just don't see them because the P-List is not accessible to application layer, only the firmware, the table is stored in ROM. When you get your new HDD all SMART attributes are 0, to prevent undue warranty claims. The G-List is populated from that point on, the P-list is never added to after the factory test.

It's a bit like TFT transistor defects, a certain amount are acceptable from the factory, and cannot be claimed for under warranty, over a certain amount and you can claim. I have an in-depth article on my blog on how remapping works, click HERE to read it

Very interesting read at the blog. So it is possible that some P-list sectors did not get listed?

[Tidosho]

Very interesting read at the blog. So it is possible that some P-list sectors did not get listed?

Possibly, although without being able to do a full in depth test of your drive, I can't speculate. It is possible that the test may not have been fully completed, wih the amount of HDD's that die young, they are either inherently faulty (were from manufacture), or transit damaged. They're very precise pieces of machinery that people take for granted. Look at a chip fabrication plant like Intel and how many scrap chips they have to bin. Manufacturing that is to the precise millimetre is NEVER perfect.

[Praetor]

Possibly, although without being able to do a full in depth test of your drive, I can't speculate. It is possible that the test may not have been fully completed, wih the amount of HDD's that die young, they are either inherently faulty (were from manufacture), or transit damaged. They're very precise pieces of machinery that people take for granted. Look at a chip fabrication plant like Intel and how many scrap chips they have to bin. Manufacturing that is to the precise millimetre is NEVER perfect.

 

damaged in transit has a much bigger toll then people know; once a SAN that was going to be replaced in one of my clients went back because it was damaged in transit: that SAN alone costs more then 200k and some jackass damaged it so much the box she was in was incredible in bad shape.

 

So imagine what happens to smartphones, HDD and other sensitive materials.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Praetor

[CougarDan]

For a quick check:  HDDGuardian https://hddguardian.codeplex.com/

[Praetor]

There's two defect list tables known as G-Lists and P-Lists. G-Lists are Grown defects, found over the lifetime of the drive, including when the drive is idle, it runs a self test known as an offline data collection test where it scans all its sectors, marking weak ones and bad ones. Weak sectors can be fixed by overwriting them, but bad sectors are often physically damaged, either because of a head crash or the magnetic coating is defective. All these are marked in the G-list.

The P-List (Primary List) table has all the known bad sectors found at production. Most HDD's have bad sectors from the factory, you just don't see them because the P-List is not accessible to application layer, only the firmware, the table is stored in ROM. When you get your new HDD all SMART attributes are 0, to prevent undue warranty claims. The G-List is populated from that point on, the P-list is never added to after the factory test.

It's a bit like TFT transistor defects, a certain amount are acceptable from the factory, and cannot be claimed for under warranty, over a certain amount and you can claim. I have an in-depth article on my blog on how remapping works, click HERE to read it

 

interesting read; also there is the fact that bad sectors usually develop into damaged or lost files, meaning that even if you have a backup, there is a good chance that those damaged files passed into your backup: so the rule of thumb is:

1) check with a good frequency the SMART table of your drives (or even better if you have an app that warns you of degradation of those drives).

2) backup your stuff, but more importantly test your backups! You don't have a backup if it's not tested.

[Tidosho]

interesting read; also there is the fact that bad sectors usually develop into damaged or lost files, meaning that even if you have a backup, there is a good chance that those damaged files passed into your backup: so the rule of thumb is:

1) check with a good frequency the SMART table of your drives (or even better if you have an app that warns you of degradation of those drives).

2) backup your stuff, but more importantly test your backups! You don't have a backup if it's not tested.

This is why I use HD Sentinel, it monitors the drive every second Windows is running. Weak (soft) sectors can normally be repaired without loss of data depending how severe read errors are on them. Physical bad sectors usually result in total lockups of the drive, and a BSOD as the drive controller gives up, disconnecting itself, effectively disconnecting the entire drive. UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME BSOD's are a result of damaged drives.

[Praetor]

This is why I use HD Sentinel, it monitors the drive every second Windows is running. Weak (soft) sectors can normally be repaired without loss of data depending how severe read errors are on them. Physical bad sectors usually result in total lockups of the drive, and a BSOD as the drive controller gives up, disconnecting itself, effectively disconnecting the entire drive. UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME BSOD's are a result of damaged drives.

 

well, the trade-off of that is the slight decrease of performance.