Your hard drive is the lifeblood of your PC, the place where all your most important data is stored. While most PC components can be replaced, the priceless data on your hard drive cannot be replaced if you haven't created a backup. For this reason, making sure your hard drive stays healthy is crucial . (Does anyone understand the boring pun related to the hard drive?)
There are several ways to check the health of your hard drive - from Windows built-in methods to your HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tools, this article explains the best methods.
Traditional SATA hard drives may have given way to much faster solid-state drives, but they are still very popular and are still an affordable way to store things like images, videos, and other non-strenuous types of files. SSDs work a little differently, and while they never need defragmentation (because fragmentation relates to where data is physically stored on the disk, which is not a factor in SSDs), they sometimes need optimization.
If you feel like your non-SSD hard drive is slowing down, you need to check how fragmented it is. You can do this using Windows 10's built-in defragmentation tool (type "defragment" in the Start menu. Then go to "Defragment and optimize drives"), then select the drive and click "Analyze". If fragmentation is detected, click "Optimize" (previously called "Defragment") for that drive.
In fact, we found that the free Defraggler app does a better job of detecting and reducing fragmentation, but not everyone wants to install additional apps when the functionality is built into the operating system.
You can also optimize your SSD in the Windows 10 Defragmentation and Optimization Tool, although Windows 10 should take care of the process automatically.
Most major hard drive manufacturers offer free and robust tools to monitor the health and performance of your hard drive. The first step in knowing which one to use is, of course, knowing the brand of your hard drive.
If you know the brand of your hard drive, you can skip this part. If it doesn't, hit the Ganar, type "device manager" and click it when it appears in the search results.
In Device Manager, unstack the "Drives" option and note the model number of your hard drive. Then type the model number into Google to bring up results that will show you the brand of the hard drive.
After that, go to the manufacturer's support page and search for your hard drive utility. To help you, here are the links to the relevant download pages for some of the major hard drive brands:
Each of these tools works a little differently, but more importantly, each has diagnostic features that allow you to test the health of your hard drive.
To use CHKDSK, right-click the drive you want to check for errors and select "Properties", click the "Tools" tab, then click the "Check Now" button.
This tool is very basic and focuses on finding system errors and bad sectors. It will let you know if there are any major problems and nothing else, so use it only as a basic hard drive check and repair tool.
To check a hard drive with WMIC, press the Ganar+ Rbuttons to open the Run dialog box. Type
cmdand click "OK" to open the Windows command prompt.
Type
wmic
diskdrive get status
The standard tool comes as a 4MB .exe file and its installer contains advertisements, so be sure to use the "Custom Installer" option and uncheck the side tool (advertisement). Once installed, all you need to do is launch the program and you will see all the information about your hard drive (s) on the main interface. The tool will also check the status of the hard drive every 10 minutes (by default) and alert you if there are any problems.
This article was first published in January 2016 and last updated in December 2021.
The above content published at Collaborative Research Group is for informational purposes only and has been developed by referring reliable sources and recommendations from the experts. If you are not able to fix the problem even after following the tutorial, please visit your nearby service center.
Luke is passionate about fostering student involvement and connection. He studied psychology for his major and likes learning about the past. Luke aims to specialize in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. .
