The hard disk drive (HDD) is one of the most basic components of modern computers, along with the motherboard and input and output devices. And at the same time, HDD is a very fragile and unreliable mechanism due to the fact that it has a significant number of moving parts. Timely diagnostics can help the user avoid such problems as physical destruction of the HDD, as well as data loss, the recovery of which is often impossible even for a specialist.
Necessary
Special software
Instructions
Step 1
Pay attention to the nature of the HDD. In some cases, visual changes are observed, which consist in the "thoughtfulness" of the hard disk, its periodic "freezes". At the same time, the computer fan works at full speed and practically does not turn off. Or, on the contrary, it is not heard at all. In this case, you need to check the HDD temperature using special software. There is a lot of suitable software, for example, you can use the services of Everest. It is not recommended to touch the part of the computer case and especially the laptop where the hard drive is located, as you can get burned.
Step 2
Install the program and monitor the HDD temperature, which should not exceed 45 degrees Celsius. If the value is higher, you need to inspect the fan and clean the fan grilles from dust in order to cool the HDD efficiently. It should be noted that overcooling the hard drive also leads to its malfunction, so installing an excessive number of coolers can damage and stop the HDD.
Step 3
After processing the temperature data, run the S. M. A. R. T. utility, which allows you to assess the health of your computer's hard drive. In the process of testing S. M. A. R. T. checks critical parameters for HDD operation, such as: Raw Read Error Rate, Spin-up time, Uncorrectable Sector Unit and many others. Found by S. M. A. R. T. low-quality sectors are presented to the user in the test report.
Step 4
After detecting bad sectors, download from the Internet and install on your computer one of the many publicly available HDD diagnostic utilities. Professionals recommend software such as HDDScan, HDD Health, or HD Tune. If checking with this software reveals a large number of bad sectors, then independent attempts to save data from the disk will only worsen the situation. In this case, it is strongly recommended to use the services of specialists.
Step 5
Try to copy the contents of the HDD before it stops working completely. Use special data recovery software. One of the best is EasyRecovery. There are other utilities, but they are less well known. It should be especially noted that data recovery work is possible only in conditions of a small number of affected HDD sectors. If there are a lot of them, then going to the service cannot be avoided.
