HDD Testing software - Free or Commercial - What's your fav?

[Kerrya]

I've been using the free Seatools for Windows, and it's OK but I'm looking for something with a bit more diagnostic data.

Seatools just gives a pass or fail.

Any thoughts?

 

[trevm999]

I used to use MHDD if I wanted something more than SMART, but I haven't used it in a long time.

 

[Diggs]

When I want to test a drive sector by sector and see which sectors have failed, have delays, etc. I still use HDD Regenerator. It's old but I don't have any tools that are better. I also use it to test drives before I use them with ddrescue. That way I'm pretty well assured the drive I'm cloning to is good.

 

[Markverhyden]

I haven't tested a drive in ages, at least for a customer repair. Drives are dirt cheap, even SSD's. Software tools can't produce statistically reliable conclusions. But I can see a special case where I'd be doing it. Say a customer has an old system that's used in a special situation. Same some kind of controller. Being old it's doubtful that new drives will be available so testing has value there.

That being said I usually use Crystal Disk for testing if I do test at all. partedmagic is also one I use a lot.

 

[NviGate Systems]

HD Sentinel. Works wonders, and if there is an issue with drive detection or results, you can email the dev and he is active in replying.

 

[SlickMinnow]

Second the HD Sentinel. Well worth the $30-40 for the portable version IMHO. If I see good health on the opening screen I'll usually run the surface repair test. Any red spots or an abundance of darker spots and the HDD gets replaced. And I have a pretty picture to show the customer.

 

[frase]

CDI HD SENT then SMART to clear anxiety.

 

[Rigo]

When I want to test a drive sector by sector and see which sectors have failed, have delays, etc. I still use HDD Regenerator. It's old but I don't have any tools that are better. I also use it to test drives before I use them with ddrescue. That way I'm pretty well assured the drive I'm cloning to is good.

Yes, it can find faults in misbehaving drives that passed manufacturers' diagnostics tools. Not always able to but definitely better

 

[sapphirescales]

I use several different tools:

CrystalDiskInfo
HDTune Professional
GSmartControl
Victoria

 

[lcoughey]

When I want to test a drive sector by sector and see which sectors have failed, have delays, etc. I still use HDD Regenerator. It's old but I don't have any tools that are better. I also use it to test drives before I use them with ddrescue. That way I'm pretty well assured the drive I'm cloning to is good.

Clients never notice the data missing from the remapped sectors? It scares me to think how much damage HDDregenerator and Spinrite would do to an SMR drive.

 

[timeshifter]

Victoria thanks to the recommendation of @lcoughey in this thread https://www.technibble.com/forums/t...rives-at-the-same-time-in-a-windows-pc.87886/

 

[Diggs]

Clients never notice the data missing from the remapped sectors? It scares me to think how much damage HDDregenerator and Spinrite would do to an SMR drive.

You misunderstood me as I see I unintentionally used the word "also". I use it to scan blank drives for use as destination drives for ddrescue. (I try to always use a drive of the same size and capacity as the original when cloning.) HDD Regen also has a scan function that generates a report of bad/delayed sectors without disturbing the data. The author claims it will never lose data in any mode but that's not something I trust.

In turn, some customers just will not pay for professional data reclamation and are happy with anything salvaged form their old drive. In my case, as I've stated before, I always work with the cloned drive from ddrescue and return the original.

 

[lcoughey]

@Diggs, thanks for the clarification. In my exploration, I took a closer look at SpinRite, while I believe @Joep looked more closely at HDDRegenerator, but I'm pretty sure that there is a point where sectors will get remapped, even if the data within was never read.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I use the tools provided by the manufacturer of the drive in question, if the mfg doesn't provide tools... the drive doesn't get tested it gets replaced.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I don't use anything but Crystal Disk or the Manufacturers tool. As stated above drives are cheap. If anything comes up bad, even just a bad feeling on my part I just replace the drive. Don't really care about details. If anything is off I replace it.

 

[MudRock]

@Diggs, thanks for the clarification. In my exploration, I took a closer look at SpinRite, while I believe @Joep looked more closely at HDDRegenerator, but I'm pretty sure that there is a point where sectors will get remapped, even if the data within was never read.

*shudder* I've seen a long time ago how bad SpinRite can be. Like... Multiple times... And that was before SMR...
Edit: I refused to use SpinRite, just know of someone who used to preach its praise and use it, even through multiple data-eating incidents.

 

[sapphirescales]

@lcoughey @MudRock Holy cow, I forgot all about SpinRite! I used to use that thing many, many years ago. This was before SATA hard drives. I specifically remember keeping a 40GB hard drive running far longer than it should have. The thing had so many bad sectors it was unreal. I never used it on a client computer but for my own stuff I figured why not? The drive was so screwed up that I eventually couldn't store more than 28GB on it. I eventually tossed it. It never did die on me.

 

[cypress]

Crystal Disk Info or Gsmartcontrol. I had never heard of Victoria up until now.

 

[labtech]

I've been using the free Seatools for Windows, and it's OK but I'm looking for something with a bit more diagnostic data.

Seatools just gives a pass or fail.

Any thoughts?

What exactly is your intent? Like what would you like to know about the drive upon testing, so that you could do what?

Asking because the intent matters in terms of what software to use for various purposes (e.g. system tune up, where data isn't important; degraded drive, so need to replace drive, but data isn't important; degraded drive and data needs to be recovered, but customer does not want to pay more than $400; etc)