Best HDD Diagnostic / Testing Utility?

[dopey117]

I have a new 2TB drive in the mail and I would like to be able to test it for errors when it gets here. I want something that will be able to run some simple tests to ensure there are no bad sectors or read/write errors, as well as check the SMART status. What software is popular for this today? Its been a long time since Ive had to run any HDD tests. Also, whatever software you recommend make sure its free because I'm kinda broke right now

 

[JackNaylorPE]

SpinRite is what I have always used tho I don't think I have needed to use it since 2006 or so....but it's not free.

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

Other than that, the manufacturers own free diagnostic tools (available on their web sites) should suffice.

http://www.seagate.com/www/http://support.wdc.com/product

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/

 

[Ubrales]

A couple of free ones:

1) Crystaldiskinfo - http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
2) HD Tune - http://www.hdtune.com/

 

[dopey117]

Best answer selected by dopey117.

 

[dopey117]

thanks to both of you, HD tune was what i have used in the past I just couldnt remember what it was called

 

[Ubrales]

Thank you!

 

[Juan Pulido]

Thank you for information, HD Tune is a good option. Cheers!

 

[naarada]

SpinRite is what I have always used tho I don't think I have needed to use it since 2006 or so....but it's not free.

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

Other than that, the manufacturers own free diagnostic tools (available on their web sites) should suffice.

[strike]http://www.seagate.com/www/www.wdc.com/support
[/strike]
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/

Hi,

Can you fix the seagate.com link with this one,

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

Thanks

 

[Ryad__]

What those diagnostic HDD testing tools overlook is the cable and connections in the USB port. I just replaced a USB 3 cable and the transfer speed is now stable around 70mb/s the faulty cable was causing speed drop put every 20 or so seconds down to 0kb/s and attempts to check disk for errors would have found nothing.

 

[bryanl]

The best is MHDD because it not only indicates 100% failed sectors but also sectors that require many retries to read successfully.