Test hdd health install#
Test hdd health full#
Test hdd health professional#
Test hdd health free#

It's not a matter of 'if' your hard drive will fail, it's a matter of 'when.' All hard drives fail eventually, and if you want to avoid losing all your important files, you absolutely have to back up your computer regularly-including when the drive is healthy. Prepare for Drive Failure NOW Time Machine on macOS But if you have priceless family photos on the drive, it may be worth it to you.

Test hdd health professional#

If your hard drive has already stopped working, things get a lot tougher, and you'll probably need a professional data recovery service like DriveSavers, which can cost $1,000 or more.

Test hdd health full#

Then, once you know those are safe, try doing a full drive clone with something like EaseUS Todo Backup Free (Windows) or Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac). Instead, plug in an external drive and copy your most important files onto it-family photos, work documents, and anything else that can't easily be replaced. However, now is not the time for a full backup you don't want to stress the drive with too many reads, or it could fail while you're backing up. But if you're getting warnings, it's time to back up your files before your drive kicks the bucket. They could chug along for a year or two, or be dead as a doornail in a week. If Your Drive Is Dead (or Almost Dead) EaseUS Todo Backup Freeĭrives with the Caution or Pred Fail status won't necessarily fail tomorrow. These tools can sometimes take into account certain technologies specific to their hard drives and SSDs. For example, Seagate has SeaTools for its drives, Western Digital has Western Digital Dashboard for its drives, and Samsung has Samsung Magician for its SSDs. If you want an even deeper, more accurate picture into your drive's health, check its manufacturer's website for a dedicated tool. So a Caution label is usually a good indicator that you should back up the drive and think about replacing it soon, even if you aren't having problems yet. But if even one of those bad sectors lands on a file you need, it can be rendered corrupt. These labels apply to hard drives and SSDs that are starting to wear down, but aren't necessarily on their deathbed (read more about how CrystalDiskInfo applies those labels here).įor example, your drive may have a few bad and reallocated sectors, and you still might not have run into any issues-probably because those bad sectors weren't housing any actual data at the time.

Instead of saying your drive is OK or Bad, like the built-in tools do, CrystalDiskInfo and DriveDx also have more intermediary labels, like Caution or Warning, respectively. information than your computer provides on its own.

Test hdd health free#

For a closer look, I recommend downloading CrystalDiskInfo for Windows (free), or DriveDx for macOS ($20 with a free trial), both of which will offer up more detailed S.M.A.R.T. IT only tells you if your drive is near death, but you can start to experience problems even if the basic S.M.A.R.T.

Test hdd health install#

Install Utility Programs for More Data CrystalDiskInfo The status should read either Verified, which means healthy, or Failing, which means there's a problem. Make sure the correct drive is selected (it's called Macintosh HD by default) and look for S.M.A.R.T. Click System Report and select Storage from the list. On a Mac, click the Apple icon at the top of the screen and choose About This Mac. It will return Pred Fail if your drive's death is imminent or OK if it thinks the drive is doing fine. Just type 'cmd' into the search bar and open the application. status of your drives from the Command Prompt. In Windows, you can manually check the S.M.A.R.T. That way, your computer will automatically notify you before data loss occurs and the drive can be replaced while it still remains functional. Most modern drives have a feature called S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology), which monitors different drive attributes in an attempt to detect a failing disk. That means even if your drive isn't making strange noises, you should keep an eye on its health once in a while, so you can prepare for death before it happens. Unless your drive experiences excessive heat or physical trauma, it'll probably fail gradually.