Checking the status of the hard drive. Checking the status of the hard drive

Forewarned is forearmed! This rule comes in very handy when working with hard drives. If you know in advance that such and such HDD most likely to fail, then the risk of data loss will be minimal.

Of course, no one will give a 100% guarantee, but with a high degree of probability, some programs can analyze the readings of S.M.A.R.T. (a set of software and hardware that monitor the status hard drive) and draw conclusions on how long it will last.

In general, there are dozens of programs for performing such a hard disk check, but in this article I wanted to focus on some of the most visual and easy to use. So…

How to check the status of a hard drive

Developer site: hddlife.ru/

(By the way, in addition to HDD, it also supports SSD drives)

One of the best programs to constantly monitor the status of the hard drive. It will help to recognize the threat in time and replace the hard drive. Most of all, it captivates with its clarity: after launch and analysis, HDDlife presents a report in a very convenient form: you are shown a percentage of the "health" of the disk and its performance (the best indicator, of course, is 100%).

If your readings are above 70%, this indicates the good condition of your disks. For example, after a couple of years of work (quite active, by the way), the program analyzed and concluded: that this hard drive is about 92% healthy (which means that it should last, if there is no force majeure, at least the same amount) .

After starting, the program minimizes to tray next to the clock and you can always control the status of your hard drive. If any problem is detected (for example, the disk temperature is high, or there is too little space left on the hard drive), the program will notify you with a pop-up window. An example is below.

If the program analyzes and gives you a window like in the screenshot below, I advise you not to hesitate with the backup (and replacing the HDD).

Hard Disk Sentinel

Developer website: www.hdsentinel.com/

This utility can compete with HDDlife - it monitors the disk status just as well. What is most captivating in this program is its informativeness, at the same time as its simplicity for work. Those. it will be useful for both a novice user and an already experienced enough one.

After starting Hard Disk Sentinel and analyzing the system, you will see the main program window: hard drives (including external HDDs) will be presented on the left, and their status will be displayed on the right in the window.

By the way, a rather interesting function is to predict the health of the disk, according to how long it will serve you: for example, in the screenshot below, the forecast is more than 1000 days (that's about 3 years!).

By the way, the program has a rather useful function: you can set the threshold for the critical temperature of the hard disk, upon reaching which, Hard Disk Sentinel will notify you of the excess!

Ashampoo HDD Control

Website: www.ashampoo.com/

An excellent utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. The monitor built into the program allows you to know in advance about the appearance of the first problems with the disk (by the way, the program can notify you about this even by e-mail).

Also, in addition to the main functions, a number of auxiliary ones are built into the program:

- Disk Defragmenter;

— testing;

- cleaning the disk from garbage and temporary files (always up to date);

- deleting the history of visiting sites on the Internet (useful if you are not alone at the computer and do not want anyone to know what you are doing);

- there are also built-in utilities for reducing disk noise, power settings, etc.

By the way, the program is completely in Russian, intuitively thought out - even a novice PC user will figure it out. Pay special attention to the temperature and status indicators in the main program window. If the program gives errors or the status is assessed as extremely low (+ besides, there is a rattle or noise from the HDD), I recommend that you first copy all the data to other media, and then start dealing with the disk.

Hard Drive Inspector

Program website: www.altrixsoft.com/

The salient features of this program are:

1. Minimalism and simplicity: there is nothing superfluous in the program. It gives three indicators in percentage terms: reliability, performance and absence of errors;

CrystalDiskInfo

Website: crystalmark.info/?lang=en

A simple but reliable utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. Moreover, it works even in cases where many other utilities fail, crashing with errors.

The program supports several languages, is not replete with settings, and is made in a minimalist style. At the same time, it has rather rare functions, for example, disk noise reduction, temperature control, etc.

What is also very convenient is a graphical display of the situation:

- blue color (as in the screenshot below): everything is in order;

- yellow color: alarm, you need to take action;

- red: you need to take immediate action (if you still have time);

- gray: the program was unable to determine the readings.

Official website: www.hdtune.com/

This program will be useful for more experienced users: in addition to graphical display of the "health" of the disk, they also need high-quality disk tests, in which you can get acquainted with all the characteristics and parameters in detail. It should also be noted that the program, in addition to HDD, also supports newfangled SSD drives.

HD Tune offers a rather interesting feature to quickly check the disk for errors: a 500 GB disk is checked in about 2-3 minutes!

Also very necessary information is a check of the speed of reading and writing a disk.

Well, it is impossible not to note the tab with detailed information about the HDD. This is useful when you need to know, for example, supported features, buffer/cluster size or disk rotation speed, etc.

The condition of which makes you suspicious, the first thing to do is to check the SMART technology data. This technology is designed to collect information about the state of the hard drive and conduct a self-diagnosis procedure. With SMART, you can quickly assess the state of the hard drive, whether there is a risk of data loss, and what needs to be done to further diagnose and repair your computer.

SMART (or S.M.A.R.T.) technology has been around in hard drives since 1992. Then the first drive with this system was a disk array from IBM. Since then, SMART has been widely used and is now used in absolutely all HDDs and most SSD drives.

The interface of the CrystalDiskInfo program is very simple and will be clear even to novice users. At the top of the window is a list of drives that are connected to the computer. After selecting a hard drive, all the information that is available for this HDD will appear at the bottom of the window.

A little lower is a block of basic information about the selected drive. Here you can find out the name of the disk, its firmware version, serial number, interface used, spindle speed, number of starts, total operating time, and other information.

In the block with basic information, the most important data is the "Number of inclusions" and "Total operating time". The higher these values, the worse the condition of the hard disk, as it inevitably degrades during operation. In desktop computers, modern drives usually work fine for 15-25 thousand hours, after which problems begin to appear. For laptops, this number is even lower, where drives usually withstand no more than 10-20 thousand hours.

Closer to the left side of the window, there are two more important options. This is an assessment of the technical condition of the hard drive and its temperature. The Hard Drive Health Score is an overall score that the software assigns based on SMART technology data. This score can take one of three values:

Good - everything is fine with the disk, no action is required.
Alarm - the disk has some problems, it is worth checking for backups, it is advisable to replace the disk.
Bad - the disk has a significant failure, the disk needs to be replaced.

It has nothing to do with his condition. The normal temperature for an HDD is between 20 and 45 degrees Celsius. If the temperature exceeds 45 degrees, then this indicates poor cooling of the computer case.

The most useful information about the status of the hard drive is located at the bottom of the program window. Here is a list of parameters that SMART technology monitors, as well as the values assigned to them. Using this information, you can quickly assess the status of the HDD and decide on further actions.

When examining the list of SMART parameters, you should look at the value of the "RAW-value" column. The data here is in HEX format.

The list of parameters monitored by SMART technology is quite large, but not all of them are critical to the condition of the hard drive. Below we will consider only the most important of them.

03 - Spin-Up Time- the time it takes to spin up the disk from the off state to the operating speed. This value increases when the mechanical part of the drive is worn out, and a long spin-up time may indicate a voltage drop when the drive is started.
05 - Reallocated Sectors Count– the number of sectors that were recognized as faulty and were reassigned to the spare area. The presence of remapped sectors indicates problems with the disk surface.
0A - Spin-Up Retry Count– the number of retries to spin up the disk. This value increases when the mechanical part of the drive wears out.
BB - Reported UNC Errors– the number of errors that could not be eliminated by the hardware of the drive.
BC - Command Timeout– the number of operations that were interrupted due to a timeout. An increase in this parameter may indicate problems with the drive's power or cables.
C4 - Attempts to reassign sectors (Reallocation Event Count)– number of attempts to perform the sector reassignment operation. Both successful and unsuccessful attempts to reassign sectors are taken into account. The presence of remapping attempts indicates problems with the disk surface.
C5 - Unstable sectors (Current Pending Sector Count)– the number of suspicious sectors that can be reassigned in the future. The presence of unstable sectors indicates problems with the disk surface.
C6 - Uncorrectable Sector Count- the number of sectors that cannot be repaired by means of the hard disk. The presence of unrecoverable errors indicates problems with the surface or mechanical part of the disc.

If the RAW values for all of the above parameters are zero, then this indicates that the hard drive is in excellent condition. SMART technology did not reveal any problems. If some parameters have a value greater than zero, then the condition of the HDD should be checked more carefully, perhaps such a disk will need to be replaced soon.

The most important SMART parameter is the Reallocated Sectors Count parameter. It indicates the number of bad sectors that have been remapped by the drive to the spare area. Usually, after the appearance of just a few remapped sectors, the surface of the disk begins to degrade quickly and the drive completely fails after a few days or weeks.

Therefore, when remapped sectors are detected, it is necessary to check for backups of all important data stored on such a disk. If there are no backups, then they need to be done urgently, otherwise you risk losing data.

To check hard drives, there are many free tools that can help determine what's going on with a hard drive when you suspect there's some kind of problem with it.

Windows-type operating systems already include tools such as checking the disk for errors and the command chkdsk, but there are other tools listed below that are available for free from hard drive manufacturers and other developers.

Important: Depending on the problem found, it may be necessary to replace the hard drive if it fails any of the hard drive tests listed. To do this, you need to follow the tips given in the program.

Seagate SeaTools is a free hard drive testing program available to users in one of two options:

SeaTools for DOS supports Seagate or Maxtor drives and works regardless of your operating system, running directly from a CD or USB drive, making this program very reliable.
SeaTools for Windows is a program that needs to be installed on the Windows operating system. With its help, you can perform basic and advanced testing of any drives from any manufacturer - both internal and external.

Those users who access SeaTools Desktop, SeaTools Online, or Maxtor's PowerMax software should note that the above program replaces all three of these programs. Today, Seagate is the owner of the Maxtor brand.

SeaTools software from Seagate is the best in its segment. They are used to check hard drives in professional computer services, but any user can easily use them.

The Windows version of SeaTools runs on operating systems from Windows 10 to Windows XP.

HDDScan is a free program for checking all types of disks, regardless of their manufacturer.

HDDScan includes several tools including SMART testing and surface inspection.

The program is very easy to use, does not require installation, supports almost all drive interfaces, and seems to be updated regularly.

HDDScan can be used on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP as well as on Windows Server 2003.

DiskCheckup is a free hard drive checker that works with most drives.

The program outputs SMART information such as the number of read errors, the time it takes for the plate pack to spin up from rest to operating speed, the error rate when positioning the magnetic head assembly, and the temperature. In addition, it can perform a quick and extended disk check.

You can set up the program so that SMART section information is sent by e-mail or displayed when the drive parameters exceed the thresholds recommended by the manufacturer.

Hard drives that have a SCSI connection or implement a hardware RAID mechanism are not supported by DiskCheckup.

DiskCheckup runs on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2008/2003 operating systems.

GSmartControl can perform various hard disk checks, providing detailed results and an overall assessment of the disk health.

To troubleshoot a drive, GSmartControl can perform three self-tests:

Quick check: takes about 2 minutes and is used to identify a seriously damaged hard drive.
Extended check: Takes about 70 minutes and checks the entire surface of the hard drive for failures.
Transport check: This test takes 5 minutes and is designed to look for damage that may have occurred during the drive's shipping.

GSmartControl can be downloaded for Windows both as a portable version and as an installable program. It works on system versions from Windows 10 to Windows XP. You can also get a version of the program for Linux and Mac operating systems and programs in LiveCD/LiveUSB format.

Windows Drive Fitness Test is a free hard drive diagnostic software capable of running on most drives available today.

Unfortunately, Windows Drive Fitness Test can only test USB drives and other internal drives.

WinDFT can be installed on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP operating systems.

The Samsung HUTIL program is free utility for diagnosing Samsung hard drives. Sometimes HUTIL is called ES-Tool.

Samsung HUTIL is available as an ISO image for later burning onto a CD or USB flash drive. This approach makes HUTIL independent of the operating system and, in general, a more convenient tool for testing than programs developed for the Windows operating system. You can also run HUTIL from a boot floppy.

Comment: HUTIL will only check Samsung hard drives. It will boot and find non-Samsung discs, but no diagnostics can be done on such discs.

Because Samsung HUTIL runs from a bootable disk, it requires a functioning hard drive and an operating system to burn it to a CD or USB stick.

The free Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic (DLGDIAG) is designed to test only Western Digital branded hard drives.

The Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic can be downloaded as a portable version for Windows, or as an ISO file with an image for writing to boot disk, and performs a series of checks on the hard drive. Detailed Instructions installation instructions from Western Digital can be found at the link below.

Comment: The DOS version of DLGDIAG only diagnoses Western Digital drives, while the Windows version of this program also works with drives from other manufacturers.

The Windows version of the program works on operating systems from Windows 10 to Windows XP

Bart's Stuff Test

Bart's Stuff Test program is free program for Windows that performs stress tests on hard drives.

The program does not provide as many features, and does not conduct such thorough tests of the hard drive, as other programs in this list.

All things considered, Bart's Stuff Test is a good addition to your disk testing arsenal, especially if you're having trouble checking with ISO-based tools and want to use something other than the default tools provided. Windows.

Bart's Stuff Test, as stated, only works on operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 95. However, we tested it on the latest versions of the system (Windows 10 and Windows 8) and did not find any problems.

The Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool is a free hard drive diagnostic tool designed specifically for Fujitsu hard drives.

The Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool (FJDT) is available as a Windows version and a DOS version using a boot floppy disk. Unfortunately, the DOS version is floppy-driven - images that will run from CD or USB are not available.

The Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool provides two tests: a "quick test" (approximately 3 minutes long) and an "all-round test", the execution time of which will depend on the size of the hard drive).

Comment: The Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool only checks hard drives for drives manufactured by Fujitsu. If you have a drive from another manufacturer, then you should try to use the manufacturer-independent programs listed at the top of the list.

Version for Windows programs Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool should work on all operating systems, from Windows 10 to Windows 2000.

HD Tune performs hard drive checks under Windows. It can work with any internal or external drives, SSD drives or memory cards.

With HD Tune, you can perform a performance test, check the status of the disk using the Self-Monitoring Analysis mode (monitoring analysis) and disk performance reporting technology (SMART). In addition, the program can scan the disk for errors.

Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000 are supported, although HD Tune has been tested to work correctly on Windows 10 and Windows 8 as well.

The Free EASIS Drive Check program, designed to check hard drives, has two built-in check utilities - checking sectors and reading SMART attribute values.

The SMART Attribute Check lets you compile a list of over 40 parameters that describe how your hard drive works, while the Sector Check checks the media surface for read errors.

A report on the execution of any of these tests can be seen directly in the program after its completion. In addition, you can configure the program so that the report is sent to e-mail or printed.

According to the description, EASIS Drive Check works on operating systems from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, but it has been tested to work on Windows 8 and 10 as well.

The error checking program is sometimes called the scandisk program. This is a hard drive checker included with the operating system. Windows systems, and allowing you to search for a variety of errors on your hard drive.

This tool may also attempt to resolve a number of hard drive-related issues.

Macrorit Disk Scanner is a very simple program that checks for bad sectors on a hard drive. It's easy to use, installs quickly, and is also available in a portable version.

The main part of its window is used for visual representation of the scanning process and clearly indicates the location of the damage.

Particularly well implemented in Macrorit Disk Scanner is a visual display of how much time is left until the end of the scan. some hard drive checkers don't show this. In addition, you can select the option to automatically turn off the computer when the scan is completed.

The operating systems that Macrorit Disk Scanner can run on are: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, Windows Home Server, and Windows Server 2012/2008/2003.

Ariolic Disk Scanner is very similar to Macrorit Disk Scanner in that it uses read-only to find bad sectors on a disk. This program has a minimal interface with a single button, and using it, it is easy to understand which parts of the disk contain bad sectors.

The program has only a portable version, and its size is slightly more than 1 MB.

The only thing that makes this program different from Macrorit Disk Scanner is that Ariolic Disk Scanner shows files that have read errors.

We only tested Ariolic Disk Scanner on Windows 10 and XP, but it should also work on other versions of Windows.

A modern hard drive is a unique component of a computer. It is unique in that it stores service information, by studying which, you can evaluate the "health" of the disk. This information contains the history of changes in many parameters monitored by the hard drive during operation. No other component of the system unit provides the owner with statistics of its work! Together with the fact that the HDD is one of the most unreliable computer components, such statistics can be very useful and help its owner avoid hassle and loss of money and time.

Information about the state of the disk is available thanks to a set of technologies called by the common name S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analisys and Reporting Technology, i.e. technology of self-monitoring, analysis and reporting). This complex is quite extensive, but we will talk about those aspects of it that allow you to look at the S.M.A.R.T. attributes displayed in any hard drive testing program and understand what is happening with the disk.

I note that the following applies to drives with SATA and PATA interfaces. SAS, SCSI, and other server drives also have S.M.A.R.T., but its representation is very different from SATA/PATA. Yes, and it is usually not a person who monitors server disks, but a RAID controller, so we will not talk about them.

So, if we open S.M.A.R.T. in any of the numerous programs, we will see approximately the following picture (the screenshot shows the S.M.A.R.T. of the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000. With HDS721010CLA332 in HDDScan 3.3):

Each line displays a separate S.M.A.R.T attribute. Attributes have more or less standardized names and a certain number, which do not depend on the model and manufacturer of the disk.

Each S.M.A.R.T. has multiple fields. Each field belongs to a specific class from the following: ID, Value, Worst, Threshold and RAW. Let's look at each of the classes.

ID(may also be called number) — identifier, attribute number in S.M.A.R.T. technology. The name of the same attribute can be given by programs in different ways, but the identifier always uniquely identifies the attribute. This is especially useful in the case of programs that translate the generally accepted attribute name from English into Russian. Sometimes it turns out such rubbish that you can understand what kind of parameter it is only by its identifier.
Value (Current)- the current value of the attribute in parrots (i.e., in values of unknown dimension). During the operation of the hard drive, it can decrease, increase and remain unchanged. By the Value indicator, one cannot judge the "health" of an attribute without comparing it with the Threshold value of the same attribute. As a rule, the smaller the Value, the worse the state of the attribute (initially, all value classes, except RAW, on the new disk have the maximum possible value, for example, 100).
Worst- the worst value that the Value value has reached in the entire life of the hard drive. It is also measured in "parrots". In the course of work, it can decrease or remain unchanged. It also cannot be used to unequivocally judge the health of an attribute, you need to compare it with Threshold.
Threshold- the value in "parrots" that the Value of the same attribute must reach in order for the attribute's state to be recognized as critical. Simply put, Threshold is a threshold: if Value is greater than Threshold, the attribute is fine; if less than or equal, with the problem attribute. It is by this criterion that utilities that read S.M.A.R.T. issue a report on the status of the disk or a separate attribute like “Good” or “Bad”. At the same time, they do not take into account that even with Value greater than Threshold, the disk can actually already be dying from the user’s point of view, or even walking dead, so when assessing the health of a disk, you should still look at a different attribute class, and namely RAW. However, it is the value of Value that falls below the Threshold that can become a legitimate reason for replacing the disk under warranty (for the guaranteeers themselves, of course) - who can speak more clearly about the health of the disk than he himself, demonstrating the current value of the attribute is worse than the critical threshold? That is, if the value of Value is greater than Threshold, the disk itself considers that the attribute is healthy, and if it is less or equal, it is sick. Obviously, if Threshold=0, the attribute state will never be recognized as critical. Threshold is a constant parameter hardcoded by the manufacturer in the disk.
RAW (Data)- the most interesting, important and necessary indicator for evaluation. In most cases, it does not contain "parrots", but real values expressed in various units of measurement, directly talking about the current state of the disk. Based on this indicator, the Value value is formed (but by what algorithm it is formed is already a secret of the manufacturer, covered in darkness). It is the ability to read and analyze the RAW field that makes it possible to objectively assess the state of the hard drive.

This is what we will do now - we will analyze all the most used S.M.A.R.T. attributes, see what they say and what to do if they are not in order.

Attributes of S.M.A.R.T.

Before describing the attributes and the valid values of their RAW field, let me clarify that attributes can have a RAW field of different types: current and accumulative. The current field contains the value of the attribute at the moment, it is characterized by a periodic change (for some attributes - occasionally, for others - many times per second; another thing is that such a quick change is not displayed in S.M.A.R.T. readers). Accumulating field - contains statistics, usually it contains the number of occurrences of a particular event since the first start of the disk.

The current type is typical for attributes for which it makes no sense to summarize their previous readings. For example, the disk temperature reading is current: its purpose is to show the current temperature, not the sum of all previous temperatures. The accumulative type is characteristic of attributes for which their entire meaning is to provide information for the entire period of the "life" of the hard drive. For example, the attribute that characterizes the time of disk operation is cumulative, i.e. it contains the number of units of time worked out by the drive during its entire history.

Let's start looking at attributes and their RAW fields.

Attribute: 01 Raw Read Error Rate

All Seagate, Samsung (starting with the SpinPoint F1 family (inclusive)) and Fujitsu 2.5″ drives have huge numbers in these fields.

For other Samsung drives and all WD drives, this field is 0.

For Hitachi disks, this field is characterized by 0 or a periodic change in the field in the range from 0 to several units.

Such differences are due to the fact that all Seagate hard drives, some Samsung and Fujitsu consider the values of these parameters differently than WD, Hitachi and other Samsung. During the operation of any hard drive, errors of this kind always occur, and it overcomes them on its own, this is normal, just on disks that contain 0 or a small number in this field, the manufacturer did not consider it necessary to indicate the true number of these errors.

Thus, a non-zero parameter on WD and Samsung drives up to SpinPoint F1 (not included) and a large value of the parameter on Hitachi drives may indicate hardware problems with the drive. Keep in mind that utilities can display multiple values contained in the RAW field of this attribute as one, and it will look quite large, although this will not be true (see below for details).

On Seagate, Samsung (SpinPoint F1 and newer) and Fujitsu drives, this attribute can be ignored.

Attribute: 02 Throughput Performance

The parameter does not give any information to the user and does not indicate any danger in any of its values.

Attribute: 03 Spin-Up Time

The acceleration time may vary for different disks (and for disks of the same manufacturer, too) depending on the spin-up current, mass of pancakes, nominal spindle speed, etc.

By the way, Fujitsu hard drives always have one in this field if there are no problems with spinning the spindle.

It says practically nothing about the health of the disk, so when assessing the state of the hard drive, you can ignore the parameter.

Attribute: 04 Number of Spin-Up Times (Start/Stop Count)

When assessing health, ignore the attribute.

Attribute: 05 Reallocated Sector Count

Let us explain what a “reassigned sector” is in general. When a disk encounters an unreadable/poorly readable/non-writable/poorly writable sector during operation, it may consider it irreparably damaged. Especially for such cases, the manufacturer provides on each disk (on some models - in the center (logical end) of the disk, on some - at the end of each track, etc.) a reserve area. In the presence of a damaged sector, the disk marks it as unreadable and uses a sector in the spare area instead, making the appropriate marks in a special list of surface defects - G-list. Such an operation to assign a new sector to the role of the old one is called remap (remap) or reassignment, and used instead of the damaged sector - reassigned. The new sector receives the LBA logical number of the old one, and now when software accesses the sector with this number (programs don't know about any reassignments!) the request will be redirected to the reserve area.

Thus, even though the sector is out of order, the volume of the disk does not change. It is clear that it does not change for the time being, because the volume of the reserve area is not infinite. However, the spare area may well contain several thousand sectors, and it would be very irresponsible to allow it to end - the disk will need to be replaced long before that.

By the way, repairmen say that Samsung drives very often do not want to perform sector reassignment in any way.

Opinions differ on this attribute. Personally, I think that if it reaches 10, the disk must be changed - after all, this means a progressive process of degradation of the state of the surface or pancakes, or heads, or something else hardware, and there is no way to stop this process. By the way, according to people close to Hitachi, Hitachi itself considers a disk to be replaced when it already has 5 reassigned sectors. Another question is whether this information is official, and whether service centers follow this opinion. Something tells me not :)

Another thing is that service center employees may refuse to recognize the disk as faulty if the proprietary utility of the disk manufacturer writes something like “S.M.A.R.T. Status: Good” or the Value or Worst values of the attribute will be greater than Threshold (in fact, the manufacturer’s utility itself can evaluate by this criterion). And formally they will be right. But who needs a drive with a constant deterioration of its hardware components, even if such deterioration is in the nature of the hard drive, and hard drive technology tries to minimize its consequences by allocating, for example, a spare area?

Attribute: 07 Seek Error Rate

The description of the formation of this attribute almost completely coincides with the description for attribute 01 Raw Read Error Rate, except that for Hitachi hard drives, the normal value of the RAW field is only 0.

Thus, ignore the attribute on Seagate, Samsung SpinPoint F1 and later and Fujitsu 2.5″ drives, on other Samsung models, as well as on all WD and Hitachi drives, a non-zero value indicates problems, for example, with a bearing, etc. .

Attribute: 08 Seek Time Performance

Does not give any information to the user and does not indicate any danger in any of its values.

Attribute: 09 Power On Hours Count (Power-on Time)

Says nothing about disk health.

Attribute: 10 (0A - Hexadecimal) Spin Retry Count

Most often, he does not talk about the health of the disk.

The main reasons for increasing the parameter are poor contact between the disk and the power supply unit or the inability of the power supply unit to supply the required current to the power supply line of the disk.

Ideally, it should be equal to 0. With an attribute value of 1-2, you can ignore it. If the value is greater, first of all, you should pay close attention to the condition of the power supply, its quality, the load on it, check the contact of the hard drive with the power cable, check the power cable itself.

Surely the disk may not start immediately due to problems with it, but this happens very rarely, and this possibility should be considered as a last resort.

Attribute: 11 (0B) Calibration Retry Count (Recalibration Retries)

A non-zero, and especially a growing value of the parameter may mean problems with the disk.

Attribute: 12 (0C) Power Cycle Count

Not related to disk state.

Attribute: 183 (B7) SATA Downshift Error Count

Doesn't say anything about the health of the drive.

Attribute: 184 (B8) End-to-End Error

A non-zero value indicates disk problems.

Attribute: 187 (BB) Reported Uncorrected Sector Count (UNC Error)

A non-zero attribute value clearly indicates that the disk is in an abnormal state (combined with a non-zero attribute value of 197) or that it was previously so (combined with a null value of 197).

Attribute: 188 (BC) Command Timeout

Such errors can occur due to the poor quality of cables, contacts, used adapters, extension cords, etc., as well as due to the incompatibility of the disk with a specific SATA / PATA controller on the motherboard (or discrete). Due to errors of this kind, BSODs are possible in Windows.

A non-zero value of the attribute indicates a potential "disease" of the disk.

Attribute: 189 (BD) High Fly Writes

In order to say why such cases occur, you need to be able to analyze S.M.A.R.T. logs, which contain information specific to each manufacturer, which is not currently implemented in open source software - therefore, you can ignore the attribute.

Attribute: 190 (BE) Airflow Temperature

Doesn't say anything about the status of the disk.

Attribute: 191 (BF) G-Sensor Shock Count (Mechanical Shock)

Relevant for mobile hard drives. On Samsung drives, you can often ignore it, because they can have a very sensitive sensor, which, figuratively speaking, reacts almost to the movement of air from the wings of a fly flying in the same room as the drive.

In general, the operation of the sensor is not a sign of an impact. It can grow even from the positioning of the BMG with the disc itself, especially if it is not fixed. The main purpose of the sensor is to stop the recording operation during vibrations in order to avoid errors.

Doesn't talk about disk health.

Attribute: 192 (C0) Power Off Retract Count (Emergency Retry Count)

It does not allow to judge the state of the disk.

Attribute: 193 (C1) Load/Unload Cycle Count

Doesn't talk about disk health.

Attribute: 194 (C2) Temperature (HDA Temperature, HDD Temperature)

The attribute does not tell about the state of the disk, but it allows you to control one of the most important parameters. My opinion: when working, try not to allow the temperature of the hard drive to rise above 50 degrees, although the manufacturer usually declares a maximum temperature limit of 55-60 degrees.

Attribute: 195 (C3) Hardware ECC Recovered

Features inherent in this attribute on different discs fully correspond to those of attributes 01 and 07.

Attribute: 196 (С4) Reallocated Event Count

Indirectly speaks about disk health. The higher the value, the worse. However, one cannot unequivocally judge the health of a disk by this parameter without considering other attributes.

This attribute is directly related to attribute 05. With growth of 196, 05 also most often grows. If attribute 05 does not grow with growth of attribute 196, it means that when trying to remap, the candidate for bad blocks turned out to be a soft bad (see details below), and the disk fixed it so that the sector was deemed healthy and no remapping was necessary.

If attribute 196 is less than attribute 05, it means that during some remapping operations several bad sectors were transferred at one time.

If attribute 196 is greater than attribute 05, it means that during some reassignment operations, later corrected soft-bads were found.

Attribute: 197 (С5) Current Pending Sector Count

If a disk stumbles upon a “bad” sector during operation (for example, the checksum of the sector does not match the data in it), the disk marks it as a candidate for remapping, enters it into a special internal list and increases parameter 197. It follows that the disk may have bad sectors, which he does not yet know about - after all, there may well be areas on the plates that the hard drive does not use for some time.

When attempting to write to a sector, the drive first checks to see if that sector is in the list of candidates. If the sector is not found there, the recording proceeds in the usual way. If it is found, this sector is tested by writing-reading. If all test operations pass normally, then the disk considers that the sector is healthy. (That is, there was a so-called “soft-bad” - an erroneous sector arose not due to the fault of the disk, but for other reasons: for example, at the time of recording information, the electricity went out, and the disk interrupted the recording, parking the BMG. As a result, the data in sector will be underwritten, and the sector checksum, which depends on the data in it, will remain old at all.There will be a discrepancy between it and the data in the sector.) In this case, the disk performs the originally requested write and removes the sector from the list of candidates. In this case, the attribute 197 decreases, it is also possible to increase the attribute 196.

If the test fails, the disk performs a remapping operation, decrementing attribute 197, incrementing 196 and 05, and making marks in the G-list.

So, a non-zero value of the parameter indicates problems (however, it cannot say whether the problem is in the disk itself).

If the value is non-zero, it is necessary to start sequential reading of the entire surface in the Victoria or MHDD programs with the option remap. Then, when scanning, the disk will definitely stumble upon a bad sector and try to write to it (in the case of Victoria 3.5 and the option advanced remap- the disk will try to write the sector up to 10 times). Thus, the program will provoke a “treatment” of the sector, and as a result, the sector will either be fixed or reassigned.

In case of reading failure, both with remap, so with advanced remap, you should try to start sequential recording in the same Victoria or MHDD. Keep in mind that the write operation erases data, so be sure to make a backup before using it!

Sometimes the following manipulations can help prevent a failure to perform a remap: remove the drive electronics board and clean the contacts of the hard drive HDA connecting it to the board - they can be oxidized. Be careful when performing this procedure - because of it, you can lose your warranty!

The impossibility of remapping may be due to another reason - the disk has exhausted the reserve area, and it simply has nowhere to remap sectors.

If the value of attribute 197 is not reduced to 0 by any manipulations, you should think about replacing the disk.

Attribute: 198 (C6) Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count (Uncorrectable Sector Count)

This parameter changes only under the influence of offline testing, no program scans affect it. During self-test operations, the behavior of the attribute is the same as that of attribute 197.

A non-zero value indicates problems on the disk (just like 197, without specifying who is to blame).

Attribute: 199 (C7) UltraDMA CRC Error Count

In the vast majority of cases, errors are caused by a poor-quality data transfer cable, overclocking of the computer's PCI / PCI-E buses, or poor contact in the SATA connector on the disk or on the motherboard / controller.

Errors during transmission over the interface and, as a result, the growing value of the attribute can lead to switching operating system the operating mode of the channel on which the drive is located, to PIO mode, which entails a sharp drop in read / write speed when working with it and processor load up to 100% (seen in the Windows Task Manager).

In the case of Hitachi hard drives of the Deskstar 7K3000 and 5K3000 series, the growing attribute may indicate incompatibility between the disk and the SATA controller. To remedy the situation, you need to forcibly switch such a drive to SATA 3 Gb / s mode.

My opinion: if there are errors, reconnect the cable from both ends; if their number grows and it is more than 10 - throw away the cable and put a new one in its place or remove the overclock.

Attribute: 200 (C8) Write Error Rate (MultiZone Error Rate)

Attribute: 202 (CA) Data Address Mark Error

Attribute: 203 (CB) Run Out Cancel

Health effects are unknown.

Attribute: 220 (DC) Disk Shift

Health effects are unknown.

Attribute: 240 (F0) Head Flying Hours

Health effects are unknown.

Attribute: 254 (FE) Free Fall Event Count

Health effects are unknown.

Let's summarize the description of the attributes. Non-zero values:

When analyzing attributes, keep in mind that some S.M.A.R.T. several values for this parameter can be stored: for example, for the penultimate run of the disk and for the last one. Such multi-byte parameters are logically composed of multiple values of fewer bytes - for example, a parameter that stores two values for the last two runs, each with 2 bytes, would be 4 bytes long. Programs that interpret S.M.A.R.T. are often unaware of this and show this parameter as a single number rather than two, which sometimes leads to confusion and excitement for the drive owner. For example, "Raw Read Error Rate", storing the penultimate value "1" and the last value "0", will look like 65536.

It should be noted that not all programs can correctly display such attributes. Many just translate an attribute with several values into the decimal number system as one huge number. It is correct to display such content - either with a breakdown by values (then the attribute will consist of several separate numbers), or in hexadecimal number system (then the attribute will look like a single number, but its components will be easily distinguishable at a glance), or both , and another at the same time. Examples of good programs are HDDScan, CrystalDiskInfo, Hard Disk Sentinel.

Let's demonstrate the differences in practice. This is what the instantaneous value of attribute 01 looks like on one of my Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 in Victoria 4.46b, which does not take into account the feature of this attribute:

And this is how it looks in the “correct” HDDScan 3.3:

The advantages of HDDScan in this context are obvious, aren't they?

If we analyze S.M.A.R.T. on different disks, you may notice that the same attributes may behave differently. For example, some S.M.A.R.T. Hitachi hard drives are reset to zero after a certain period of disk inactivity; parameter 01 has features on Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung and Fujitsu drives, 03 on Fujitsu. It is also known that after flashing a disk, some parameters may be set to 0 (for example, 199). However, such a forced reset of the attribute will by no means indicate that the problems with the disk have been resolved (if any). After all, a growing critical attribute is consequence trouble, not cause.

When analyzing multiple datasets, S.M.A.R.T. it becomes obvious that the set of attributes for disks from different manufacturers and even for different models of the same manufacturer may differ. This is due to the so-called vendor-specific attributes (i.e. attributes used by a certain manufacturer to monitor their drives) and should not be cause for concern. If the monitoring software can read such attributes (for example, Victoria 4.46b), then on disks for which they are not intended, they can have "terrible" (huge) values, and they simply do not need to be paid attention to. This is how, for example, Victoria 4.46b displays the RAW values of attributes that are not intended for monitoring in Hitachi HDS721010CLA332:

Often there is a problem when programs cannot read S.M.A.R.T. disk. In the case of a working hard drive, this can be caused by several factors. For example, S.M.A.R.T. is not displayed very often. when connecting a drive in AHCI mode. In such cases, it is worth trying different programs, in particular HDD Scan, which has the ability to work in this mode, although it does not always succeed, or it is worth temporarily switching the disk to IDE compatibility mode, if possible. Further, on many motherboards, the controllers to which the hard drives are connected are not built into the chipset or the south bridge, but are implemented by separate microcircuits. In this case, the DOS version of Victoria, for example, will not see the hard disk connected to the controller, and it will need to force it by pressing the [P] key and entering the channel number with the disk. Often not read S.M.A.R.T. from USB drives, which is explained by the fact that the USB controller simply does not skip commands for reading S.M.A.R.T. Almost never read S.M.A.R.T. for disks operating as part of a RAID array. Here, too, it makes sense to try different programs, but in the case of hardware RAID controllers, this is useless.

If, after purchasing and installing a new hard drive, any programs (HDD Life, Hard Drive Inspector and others like them) show that: the disk has 2 hours left to live; its productivity is 27%; health - 19.155% (choose to taste) - then you should not panic. Understand the following. First, you need to look at the S.M.A.R.T. indicators, and not at the numbers of health and productivity that come from nowhere (however, the principle of their calculation is clear: the worst indicator is taken). Secondly, any program when evaluating S.M.A.R.T. looks at the deviation of the values of various attributes from previous readings. At the first launch of a new disk, the parameters are unstable, it takes some time to stabilize them. The program that evaluates S.M.A.R.T. sees that the attributes are changing, makes calculations, it turns out that if they change at such a rate, the drive will soon fail, and it starts signaling: “Save the data!” Some time will pass (up to a couple of months), the attributes will stabilize (if everything is really in order with the disk), the utility will collect data for statistics, and the timing of the death of the disk as S.M.A.R.T stabilizes. will be carried farther and farther into the future. Evaluation of Seagate and Samsung disks by programs is a separate conversation altogether. Due to the peculiarities of attributes 1, 7, 195, even for an absolutely healthy disk, programs usually give the conclusion that it is wrapped in a sheet and crawling to the cemetery.

Note that the following situation is possible: all S.M.A.R.T. - normal, but in fact the disk has problems, although this is not noticeable for anything yet. This is explained by the fact that S.M.A.R.T. works only “after the fact”, i.e. attributes change only when the disk encounters problem areas during operation. And until he stumbled upon them, he does not know about them and, therefore, in S.M.A.R.T. he has nothing to record.

So S.M.A.R.T. is a useful technology, but it must be used wisely. Besides, even if S.M.A.R.T. your disk is perfect, and you are constantly checking the disk - do not rely on the fact that your disk will "live" for many more years. Winchesters tend to break down so quickly that S.M.A.R.T. it simply does not have time to display its changed state, and it also happens that there are obvious problems with the disk, but in S.M.A.R.T. - everything is fine. We can say that a good S.M.A.R.T. does not guarantee that everything is fine with the drive, but bad S.M.A.R.T. guaranteed to indicate problems. At the same time, even with a bad S.M.A.R.T. Utilities may indicate that the disk is "healthy" because critical attributes have not reached thresholds. Therefore, it is very important to analyze S.M.A.R.T. himself, without relying on the "verbal" evaluation of programs.

Although S.M.A.R.T. and works, hard drives and the concept of "reliability" are so incompatible that it is customary to consider them simply consumables. Well, like ink cartridges in a printer. Therefore, in order to avoid losing valuable data, make them periodically backup to another medium (for example, another hard drive). It is optimal to make two backups on two different media, not counting the hard drive with the original data. Yes, this leads to additional costs, but believe me: the cost of restoring information from a broken HDD will cost you many times - if not an order of magnitude or two - more. But the data is not always able to recover even professionals. That is, the only way to ensure reliable storage of your data is to backup them.

Finally, I will mention some programs that are well suited for the analysis of S.M.A.R.T. and testing hard drives: HDDScan (Windows, DOS, free), MHDD (DOS, free).

Hi all! In the last article, we reviewed . And today we will look at how to view the health of a hard drive, for example, in order to know that nothing will happen to it in the near future. Well, or it happened and you still have time to save the data.

To get started, download the free program:

We also run:

Select the disk whose health you want to check
Next, click on the magnifying glass
And press SMART

In the Attribute Name cell, the name of the smart test. You can find more detailed information in the file by clicking on the download button. This is information from Wikipedia. The file will also contain critical names and non-essential ones. If your critical titles have exceeded the norm, then think about changing the hard drive.

She is Russian and less functional.

We also pay attention to temperature. I did an experiment about this, I have an ssd on the side wall (the zalman case has a special mount), and the second hard drive is in its place, and there is also a cooler in front, which additionally cools it. So, with and without a cooler, the difference is 4 degrees. So I will move the ssd closer to the cooler. After all, when a hard drive fails, the first reason is temperature.

Critical values

Pay special attention to the following parameters:

01 (01) Raw Read Error Rate- how often errors occur when reading from a data disk.
03 (03) Spin-Up Time- how fast the plate will unwind from the state of rest to the working state.
05 (05) Reallocated Sectors Count- the number of reassigned sectors. If the number of reassigned sectors ends, then will appear.
07 (07) Seek Error Rate- if the head is not exactly on the track, this indicates damage to the mechanics. This may be due to overheating. The more often the head misses a track, the higher the value.
10 (0A) Spin-Up Retry Count- also in case of mechanical failure. The error appears when the disk cannot spin up to operating speed.
196 (C4) Reallocation Event Count- how much was the reassignment of bad sectors to reserve ones.
197(C5)Current Pending Sector Count (unstable sectors)- How many sectors are applicants for reassignment. These sectors are not yet broken, but they have a weak response.
198 (C6) Uncorrectable Sector Count- due to corrupted mechanics, shows the number of failed times to read sectors.
220 (DC) Disk Shift- due to impact, the plates can be knocked off the axis.

That's all. You will find non-critical errors and a description by downloading the document above. This is how you can check the health of your hard drive using these 2 programs. Which one to use is up to you.