A hard drive is a repository of all information on a computer. Of course, for different users the information is of different value, but hardly anyone wants to lose it entirely. In order to prevent this unpleasant situation when the hard disk drive (HDD) fails due to the presence of bad sectors or accumulated errors, it is necessary to constantly check its condition.
HDD is a very “tender” part of a computer for the reason that inside it disks rotate with great speed, and reading heads move above them. By and large, the
hard drive can work for years while keeping it in the correct temperature mode. In addition, hard drives are “afraid” of vibration and sudden shaking. Therefore, the most susceptible to destruction of HDD laptops and netbooks. They most often need to check the disk for bad sectors.
There are a lot of damage to hard drives: from physical wear to problems with microcontrollers. Writing about them in this article does not make sense. We confine ourselves to warnings and what constitutes a disk check for errors.
HDD records information on special tracks - sectors. If any of them is damaged, then the information contained in it is lost. And, most likely, this track in the future will be unable to store information. It is a check of the surface of the disk that identifies bad sectors. There are two ways to damage them: by improperly formatting or by writing incorrect information. This type of error is called logical corruption. And you can drop the disk - this will be a physical damage to the sectors. The second option is the most dangerous, since it can cause the entire HDD to become unusable. Laptops are subject to constant vibration and shaking during transfer, this negatively affects the surface condition of the drives.
A disk check can be carried out using standard Windows tools. To do this, go to "My Computer", select the required HDD with the right mouse button, go to "Properties". Next, go to the "Service" tab, select "Run Scan" and check the necessary items. This utility also allows you to restore sectors. By the way, physical damage is unlikely to be repaired. To check the system drive (on which the operating system is installed), you will need to reboot. At the end of the work, you can see the number of bad sectors and the amount that was restored.
For a visual view of the status of the hard disk, the HDD Scan utility is perfect. The time it takes to check the hard drive depends on its volume and the power of your computer. In the program window you will see graphic marks of whole tracks in green and red - broken. Checking the disk for bad sectors will allow you to estimate the percentage of corrupted tracks as a percentage. Also in many utilities it is possible to see the status of disks in graphical form. Some programs have the function of recovering bad sectors.
I would like to note that checking the disk for errors will determine the current status of your HDD. If it is critical, then you need to worry about replacing the drive.