[SOLVED] Best Hard Disk Health Checkers?

[MDD1963]

Looking at GsmartCntrl now within Windows, looks remarkably straightforward....thanks for the tips, and link!

 

[allanc]

Thanks. It looks like GSmartControl is the clear favorite with Crystal Disk being a second option. I like the idea of booting it so that you don't even run the HDD. Does anyone know if there is a way to boot it from a USB drive other than via Parted Magic? From what I've heard of Parted Magic I'm pretty sure I'll be getting it, but just trying to decide whether to get it now or later. And if Parted Magic is the one option or best option for booting GSmartControl does it make more sense to buy the 1 yr subscription for $49 or the 1 time download for $9? Are the updates throughout the year very significant?

Is Parted Magic a good all in one tool if say SMART scan returns cautions and I want to image the drive and then try to recover user data? As mentioned by Larry above. Or do you need separate tools to image drive and recover files in this instance?

I think that you should always have a plan 'B'.
I recently purchased a newer version of PM to replace my version from last summer.
It does not boot up on a Dell OptiPlex 960 and neither did last year's version.

 

[Krynn72]

I totally did not know GSmartControl had a windows version. This is great, thanks for letting me know!

 

[Rosco]

GsmartControl via Parted Magic boot disk. This way you don't even run the HDD in case its in a near-failure state. Run it on basically everything I touch, and has lots of other good tools as well, like temp monitors, stress tests, cloning functions with ddrescue, etc.

Its EFI bootable too, so no changing UEFI settings to boot from it, and it works the same on Macs.

This is the way to go. I love gsmartcontrol and parted magic. They are both a huge part of my diagnostic procedure.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

If you can't boot up older systems there is an old version from 2013 that I think is free but I don't think supports uefi.

 

[texson]

Another vote for PM and gsmart. To be honest, since I'm mobile (no shop), I stopped running HD checks, for the most part, a long time ago. It is time consuming with today's large drives to run a full surface scan. Given the low cost of HD's, if the customer has what appears to be a problem drive, lots of BSD's, taking forever to do things, running very hot, etc, etc I just tell them the most economical thing to do is image over to a new drive. This also, by definition, creates a complete backup of the system at the same time.

I agree.

 

[joemessman]

Looking for some advice on the best hard disk health checkers out there, either paid or freeware? I'm looking for a solid utility to run prior to performing PC tune-ups to ensure the hard disk isn't near failure.

Crystal Disk Info will tell you if the drive is bad, or marginal. But it may show a disk as healthy and that may not be so. It is like power supply testers. If they indicate bad you can bank on it. But sometimes they report healthy and the PSU may still be bad.