Hard disk drives are an important part of the computer. If their status is unknown, they cannot store valuable data. Not all of their failures happen by accident, so the user must take care of the backup until the system issues a complete failure. All modern drives are equipped with SMART monitoring technology, which constantly monitors a number of parameters, including the frequency of read, write and search errors, acceleration time, temperature, and much more.
To establish the moment when certain parameters deteriorate or reach their threshold, you need a program that can track these changes and signal them. It should check if the drive is able to safely store data so that the user can copy important files in advance and, if necessary, start searching for a replacement.
One program for assessing the state of a hard disk drive cannot fully show whether it is capable of maintaining file integrity. In addition, so that the drive does not deteriorate, and information is not lost, unreadable data blocks should be scanned at least once a month.
This article presents the best free tools for diagnosing, cloning, restoring and cleaning disks, among which everyone will find everything necessary to increase the life and reliability of a PC.
Testdisk
The program recovers data, deleted partitions and boot sectors, repairs damaged tables. The application supports several systems, including FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2. The program package includes the PhotoRec utility, which restores photos, videos and documents on different media, going beyond the file system, and searches for specific data blocks (clusters) belonging to the missing file.
At the first start of TestDisk, the user must decide if there is a need for logging. Then he is given a choice of a list of types of partitioning tables (this will allow him to use the correct signature when reading). The application displays a list of available sections and possible actions with them:
- analyzes the state of the hard drive (the program checks its structure and corrects it);
- Deletes all data from the partition table
- changes the geometry of the disk;
- restores boot sectors;
- displays a list of files and copies them;
- creates images of partitions;
- recovers deleted files.
Windirstat
This program for checking the status of the hard disk in Windows 7, 8, XP, 2000, NT4, ME, 98 SE and 95 and cleaning it allows you to visualize the distribution of data and their types, as well as determine which of them occupy most of the storage.
After selecting the analyzed disk, the screen displays a tree of files and folders contained on each disk, and a graphical representation of the files, thanks to which you can determine which ones take up more memory. By clicking on the field in the graph, you can find the corresponding file in the left panel.
EaseUS Partition Master Free
This is a partition manager that allows you to resize, merge, move and split them, restore after deletion or loss, check for errors, convert, transfer the OS to another hard drive or solid state drive, defragment, etc.
To perform actions on one or several sections, after starting the program, you need to select an operation from those listed in the left panel or in the top menu.
Clonezilla
This is a tool for creating images and cloning disks, included in Parted Magic, which is also available as two utilities. CloneZilla Live is a bootable Linux distribution that allows you to clone individual machines, and CloneZilla SE is a package that is installed and configured to simultaneously transfer disk images over a network to multiple clients.
HD tune
Another utility to monitor the status of the hard drive. The HD Tune program detects write and read performance, scans for errors, verifies operability, and displays drive information.
After starting the program, select the HDD from the drop-down list and go to the corresponding tab to view information about it or start scanning.
OSFMount
Using this utility, you can mount images in the form of virtual disks, and then view their data directly. OSFMount supports formats such as DD, ISO, BIN, as well as VMWare (VMDK) and Nero Burning ROM (NRG). The main feature of the program is its ability to create RAM disks, useful if you need to provide additional security (since the RAM is erased when the computer is turned off) or to store data that requires quick access (for example, browser cache, database files, etc.).
After starting the application, you must select the menu option "File - Mount a new virtual disk." To prevent the image from being modified, check the box “Read-only”.
Seagate SeaTools
The application requires the .NET Framework 2.0. Includes disk surface tests and SMART.
After starting Seagate SeaTools, you need to select the drive to be checked and one of the actions performed on it:
- correction of all errors;
- short self-test (within 2–90 s);
- obtaining information (including the number of reassigned sectors).
Defraggler
This is a lightweight but powerful tool that allows you to defragment entire disks or individual objects. It has an intuitive interface that helps you quickly visualize which areas of the drive are filled with fragmented files and what contributes to it.
After analyzing the diagram, you can see which files are fragmented. By moving the mouse over a specific square and clicking on it, you can display the objects associated with it.
USB Disk Storage Format Tool
The utility allows you to quickly and carefully format almost any flash drive for the exFAT, FAT, FAT3 or NTFS file system. The main features of the USB Disk Storage Format Tool are as follows:
- checking the disk for errors before formatting it;
- erasing all data that is not amenable to traditional methods of deletion;
- Creating FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB
- correction of disk partition errors;
- Create a volume label for the flash drive.
SSDLife
The application displays information about the SSD-drive, its health status and expected life. All this is useful to help you plan ahead and take action. SSDLife automatically detects the model of a solid state drive and reports this at boot.
Each SSD manufacturer should have its own software for monitoring the status of drives of this type, which would provide information similar to SSDLife. For example, the Intel SSD Toolbox can be used to display health, details about the device and its expected life.
DBAN
This is a bootable application that erases hard drives so as to prevent identity theft. The utility is useful for the disposal or decommissioning of servers or workstations.
Two main options for the program are interactive and automatic modes. The first allows you to choose which disks to delete, and which parameters to use. The second will destroy all detected disks without asking questions.
CrystalDiskInfo
Designed to monitor the hard drive. The application displays its data, temperature and controls SMART attributes. It can be configured to warn (write to the event log, send e-mail or sound an alarm) when a certain threshold is reached, so CrystalDiskInfo can be launched to actively monitor the hard drive and automatically notify the user.
The top line of the application window displays all active sections. If you click on one of them, you can read information about it. Health and temperature icons change color depending on the value. By default, a warning about critical heating of the hard drive is given at 50 ° C, but this setting can be changed. The health window displays the number of reassigned sectors, as well as pending and defective sectors.
Recuva
With just a few clicks, Recuva allows you to recover damaged or accidentally deleted files. The Quick Start Wizard will help with the recovery process by asking a few simple questions about what needs to be fixed and where, and then starts a quick scan. You can skip it and go directly to the application.
In the Recuva interface, from the list on the left you need to select the scanned disk, and on the right - the filter with the specified file type. To start the program, click the "Scan" button. Filters can be edited by adding or removing file extensions. The “Parameters” button allows you to enable deep scanning (instead of quick), change the viewing mode, as well as the method of safe rewriting (the number of re-recording of a data block).
GParted
This is an open source partition management application. Allows you to create, move, copy, modify and delete them. In addition, the program may try to recover data from lost partitions. Multiple file systems supported.
GParted comes in the form of a boot disk image with a Linux distribution. You must burn the ISO file to a CD or follow the instructions for installing it on a USB drive. After starting GParted, the user is given the opportunity to select a section from the list. Having done this, you should decide on the action being performed on it, click the icon on the taskbar or go to the option in the menu bar.
Treeseize
An alternative to WinDirStat is a lightweight application called TreeSize. By checking the status of the hard drive, the program quickly scans it and displays the folder sizes in descending order (default) to help determine which ones take up a lot of space. The NTFS compression flag can be enabled directly from it.
After installation, the application can be launched from the context menu by right-clicking on a disk or folder and selecting TreeSize Free. The program will open automatically and display information about the object on which it was called.
If Defraggler and Recuva are installed, their functions for a disk or folder can be initiated directly from TreeSize.
In the menu or on the taskbar, you can select sorting by size or name, size display unit (GB, MB or KB), for which disks to display parts, etc.
HDDScan
This is a program for checking the hard drive in Russian, used to detect errors, display SMART attributes, control the temperature of the drive and perform a read / write test. HDDScan is a great application, but you need to get used to its interface.
For bad sectors of the hard drive, the program displays a graph with response time, so you can see how many of them have come close to a critical line. There is also a test for damage to the drive during transportation. There are tools to control the power consumption and noise of the HDD.
After starting HDDScan, in the drop-down list on the left, select the disk that requires verification. Then click on the icon in the center.
Disk2vhd
Disk2vhd allows you to create a virtual hard disk for use with Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V. This is a great tool for simulating a real environment in a virtual environment for testing purposes or if you need to have a virtualized backup.
Using the tool is easy. You must select the name and location of the VHD file, which drives to include in it, and click "Create." Disk2vhd can also be run with options from the command line. This allows you to create virtual drives using scripts.
NTFSWalker
A utility for diagnosing a hard disk performs a low-level analysis of data (including deleted data) in the MFT table on an NTFS drive. The user can check the properties of each record and extract its contents to a file.
After starting NTFSWalker, select the drive to scan and confirm which partition you want to view. After that, the MFT records will be displayed in the left panel, and the details will appear on the right. On the right side, you can view the recording properties, as well as the file or its contents in raw format (Hex Data).
Victoria
The application is used to diagnose, verify and restore the hard drive. It allows you to view SMART-parameters of HDD and evaluate them. It supports 5 modes of testing the drive’s surface, displays unstable sectors on the screen, writes their addresses in a separate file and reassigns them. In addition, the program for the Victoria hard drive determines the performance of the drive and makes it possible to clean it.
Speedfan
Checking the status of a hard drive with SpeedFan includes monitoring its temperature and SMART attributes.
The main tabs used to obtain information about HDD are the “Indications” and “SMART” tabs. In the “Clock frequency” tab, you can compare the temperature, voltage and fan speed of two or more objects.
Mydefef
This is a utility for defragmenting and optimizing hard drives, which improves performance by defragmenting the system drive or flash memory. It allows you to create your own scripts. There is a version for the command line, so you can plan to launch the application at a given time.
Initially, the user is offered a series of scenarios. Each script performs a specific operation on the disks marked on the bottom panel. After selecting the desired drive and script to run the latter, you must click the "Run" button.