hard disk diagnosics tool

[Profquast]

for some reason my hard disk performs really poor some times, and the dell support center thingy told me that the smart test timed out - so i wondered does anyone know of a software to test if there is anything wrong with it?

[GoodBytes]

HDTune free edition (or the trial Pro edition, both are fine).

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

[Profquast]

error scan didn't see anything. It did find 56 bad sectors though. Also it is really noisy.

[GoodBytes]

If it's noisier than normal, and have bad sectors, then it's life is ticking. You should replace that HDD, and not trust it. If you have no backup.. BACKUP NOW!!!!

[Ddm5]

error scan didn't see anything. It did find 56 bad sectors though. Also it is really noisy.

As GoodBytes said, it's the beginning of the end for that HDD, It will die, not sure when but it's nearly there.

[Profquast]

hmm, great. it's less than 2 years old :/ I have 9 harddisks over 10 years old still working fine... I have everything backed up 2 times so I think my data is safe.