Best free tool to test a HDD?

[Edward78]

Think one of my drives might be on the way out, my SMART util in Linux says 6 bad sectors, I need to run a test again though.

[Faisal A]

https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/check-hard-drive-health-on-linux/#targetText=Step%201%3A%20Open%20up%20a,with%20su%20or%20sudo%20%2Ds.&targetText=Step%202%3A%20List%20the%20hard,%2FsdX%23%20means%20partition%20number.&targetText=Step%203%3A%20Look%20through%20your,you'd%20like%20to%20check.

[dalekphalm]

10 minutes ago, Edward78 said:

Think one of my drives might be on the way out, my SMART util in Linux says 6 bad sectors, I need to run a test again though.

What's the manufacturer of the HDD? Seagate? WD? Something else?

 

I would use the manufacturer provided diagnostics tool (They usually have both a Windows installable version, and a Bootable version). Run the Short test, followed by the long test, and see what it says.

 

Though, if SMART is reporting 6 bad sectors, your drive is already dying. At that point, I would only bother with the manufacturer diagnostics tools if the drive is still under warranty (so you can pull an official error code to streamline the RMA process).

 

Backup any important data on the drive, and replace it.

[Edward78]

Sirry, had to leave shots the icould find a way to save the report/

 

Hmmm, same drive is cheap on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IZN492/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this is drive 2 in sys, my Windows drive is 1 TB.

[dalekphalm]

So you've got 8 bad sectors - the good news is that the drive was able to reallocate them (Every HDD has "spare" sectors that are put in use to replace bad sectors).

 

This means your data is likely fine, and the risk of the drive having immediate catastrophic failure is limited.

 

But, in my experience, once a drive starts to get bad sectors, it only gets worse over time. I'd personally move anything important off of it, and replace it. I would then maybe keep it around for use in non-critical situations if you really needed to keep it.

 

How old is the HDD? If it's under warranty, you can get it replaced for free.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

While drive reliability is higly desirable, anyone who depends on it to protect their data is a fool. For starters, any drive, no matter its agge or condition, including new drives, is subjecto sudden, irrecoverable failure with no warning. Also, drive failure is not the only way to lose data. Viruses and other malware, fire, flood, theft, user error, etc. all can (and often do) cause data loss.

 

The only way to reasonably ensure that data will be safe is for it to exist in at least three separate places. For most people, this is on the drive, on an onsite external backup drive, and on an offsite external backup backup drive. For a drive to be a true backup drive, it must be kept powered down, disconnected from the computer, and stored out of sight of the computer except while updating the backup.

 

If you keep your data properly backed up, then there is no need to worry if a drive may or may not fail since your data will still be intact on your backups. If a drive starts to show signs of failing, you will have plenty of time to get it replaced without having to go into omigosh panic mode.

 

I don't worry about the health of my drives because they are backed up. My backups have saved my bacon data more than once.

[Edward78]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

So you've got 8 bad sectors - the good news is that the drive was able to reallocate them (Every HDD has "spare" sectors that are put in use to replace bad sectors).

 

This means your data is likely fine, and the risk of the drive having immediate catastrophic failure is limited.

 

But, in my experience, once a drive starts to get bad sectors, it only gets worse over time. I'd personally move anything important off of it, and replace it. I would then maybe keep it around for use in non-critical situations if you really needed to keep it.

 

How old is the HDD? If it's under warranty, you can get it replaced for free.

Got it in 2015, just a home user no ctit. data on here.

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Edward78 said:

Got it in 2015, just a home user no ctit. data on here.

Well - what you want to do at this point is up to you. If it were me, I'd buy a replacement. But the drive may hang in there for a while before it finally dies.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

41 minutes ago, Edward78 said:

Got it in 2015, just a home user no ctit. data on here.

What the heck is ctit.? I looked it up and got umpteen possible definitions, none of which would apply here.

[Pickles von Brine]

The free version of HD Tune is pretty good. If you are unsure if a drive is okay, check smart, then run a read benchmark. Any wild swings in disk speed or dips in the speed, the drive is bad or going bad. Should be consistant and slowly trending toward a slower speed in a downward slope. Not jumpy everywhere. 

[Edward78]

9 hours ago, Lord Xeb said:

The free version of HD Tune is pretty good. If you are unsure if a drive is okay, check smart, then run a read benchmark. Any wild swings in disk speed or dips in the speed, the drive is bad or going bad. Should be consistant and slowly trending toward a slower speed in a downward slope. Not jumpy everywhere. 

Windows 10, so no go.

[Pickles von Brine]

Oh my bad. Didn't realize you were running linux. 
@Edward78

https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-fast-is-linux-sata-hard-disk.html

Check this out

[Edward78]

Downloaded the seagate checker, it says I pass, no issues. Odd the Linux disk util paints another picture. Crystaldiskinfo seems good, will test later.

[dalekphalm]

14 hours ago, Edward78 said:

Downloaded the seagate checker, it says I pass, no issues. Odd the Linux disk util paints another picture. Crystaldiskinfo seems good, will test later.

Your SMART stats say that there were bad sectors - but because they were reallocated by spare sectors, it's considered "okay".

 

We've given you the information - up to you to decide if you want to replace the drive or keep using it. If nothing important is ever on the drive, you can always just use it until it drops dead.