{"id":484,"date":"2023-03-03T19:32:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hdsentinel.com\/blog\/?p=484"},"modified":"2023-11-03T14:29:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T13:29:49","slug":"how-to-check-hard-drive-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hdsentinel.com\/blog\/how-to-check-hard-drive-health","title":{"rendered":"How to Check Hard Drive Health and Protect Your Data [2023]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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But hard drives don’t fail, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrong. Given enough time, every hard drive will fail. More importantly, the hard drive failure rate goes up dramatically<\/a> after five years. But even before five years, a failing hard drive could slow down your computer due to bad sectors and slowing performance. You can also experience data loss when parts of your drive stop working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember Smokey the Bear? He\u2019s an iconic US National Parks public service announcement character. His job was to convince people to prevent<\/em> forest fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Smokey<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Protecting your data is just like Smokey the Bear\u2019s message. You have to prevent the problem before it occurs. Once your hard drive starts giving you errors, it\u2019s probably too late.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution is to install effective hard disk monitoring software. You need the right data at the right time to know when a problem has occurred.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people may be familiar with a few Windows system tools. These are almost completely inadequate for protecting your data. We\u2019ll show you why in just a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you check your disk drives to see if they are about to fail? We’ll show you a fast and free way to check your hard drive health. Then, we\u2019ll show you why this isn\u2019t really good enough and introduce you to some tools from drive manufacturers to monitor your storage device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to get started?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard Drive Health Basics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before you can figure out how to fix your HDD, you need to know what hard drive health is. The majority of hard drives store their data on a spinning magnetic disc, and data is read off the disc as it rotates. This means that there are physical weak points that can cause problems when it is in use.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can use monitoring and reporting technology to check internal and external drives for the early signs of drive failure. A diagnostic tool will do more to identify drive errors and health status than a manufacturer’s tool. So, we’ll introduce you to a brilliant drive utility to get a full picture of what’s going on with your storage drives.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest and fastest way to tell if your device is broken is to look at its physical hard drive health. Your Windows operating system lets you do more in-depth checks. If you test your hard drive this way, you might find some problems, but all is not lost. In this guide, we’ll talk about the right steps to take when something is wrong with your machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of Storage Drives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are many different types and sizes of storage drives. Solid-state drives, or SSDs, are becoming more common, but a hard drive health check can still be done the same way. The size of the drive is important to know if you want to store data on it, but it is less important when talking about the health of the hard drive as a whole. Even m.2 or NVME drives, which are the newest type of technology, still use the same tools to find problems and fix them. Read our SSD vs HHD<\/a> article here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Signs of Hard Drive Failure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How does a drive that is failing look or sound? The main signs are longer times to start up after a full shutdown and the dreaded “blue screen of death” (where nothing shows up on your computer screen but a blue screen). Your PC shutting down randomly or giving you BIOS errors when you turn it on are two more signs.<\/mark> Click this link for ten hard drive failure signs<\/a>. If you hard drive has already failed, click this link for ways to repair hard drive failure<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n
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When your PC starts up again after being shut down, your disk check utility may run automatically. This will let you see what problems it has. If the program won’t launch by itself and you suspect a hard disk issue, you may eliminate that possibility by following the procedures below.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

\"Signs<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


How to Check Hard Drive Health<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you begin to see errors with your hard drive, then a complete failure could be coming within just a few weeks. The best solution is to back everything up and then replace the drive. <\/strong><\/mark>For most people, though, the first error they see is the worst because the drive is already damaged and unreadable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in the meantime, there are some ways to check the drive attributes to identify the problem clearly. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The methods we are about to show you do some things. But we think they don\u2019t do enough or show you enough information to protect your data. If you want to skip this section, just click here to jump to the best third party solutions<\/a> for protecting your data.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Use the BIOS to Check Hard Disk Health<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is possible to examine the disk’s health using the computer’s BIOS if you are familiar with its setup. The process consists of the following steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. You should restart your computer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Before the operating system logo shows, hit the F12 key as soon as the computer starts up. Please be aware that this key may vary depending on your device’s manufacturer. F2 or Delete may be necessary on certain computers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. From the current boot menu, you may enter the system’s BIOS and enable a disk check function. This is system-specific, so you may have to go around in your computer’s BIOS to locate it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Some people aren’t comfortable working from the BIOS or the command prompt, so we have some other ways to check your drive for physical damage or developing problems.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Use<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


    Check Your Drive’s S.M.A.R.T. Status<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Most current drives contain a function called S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology),<\/mark> which monitors various drive properties in an effort to identify a failing disk. As a result, you may replace the disk while it’s still operational and your computer will alert you before any data is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The S.M.A.R.T. status of your drives may be inspected manually in Windows through the Command Prompt. Using the search function, you may quickly access the command prompt. Open a new window and type:<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n

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    wmic diskdrive get model,status<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

    There are two responses normally<\/p>\n\n\n\n