Hard Disk Checking - any good programs ?

Hello, everyone,

I'm looking for a good harddisk-checking program, since chkdsk seems to be so

1. awfully slow
2. requires the hard disk to be exclusively locked for it.

Is there another way of checking the harddisk ?

If so, do you know any both serious and hood programs which can perform this task ?

I'd like to know about this.

Alrik

Because of the size of many drives today any checking program is going to be slow. And to do a thorough check the tool will need exclusive access to the drive.

The best tool to use is probably going to be one provided by whoever made the drive. Check the manufacturer's web site.

One of the best Tools to get the SMART Info of your harddiscs:

CrystalDiscInfo

What is the make of your hard drive?

The Device Manager says it's a Maxtor harddisk.

I think that I'll just download & use the so-calles "Sea-Tools" for it, since it belongs to Sea-Gate now.

Perhaps I should even buy a new disk.

Yes, SeaTools is a great program. Run not only the S.M.A.R.T. test but the Short Self Drive Test and especially the Long Self Drive Test. The last one requires significant time but well worth it. All three will require you to walk away from your PC and do something else for awhile.

Can you describe what the symptoms are?

I had 2 times the message that temporary files were damaged, that's all.

Perhaps my main harddisk has just grown too small ?

I run chkdsk two or three times now, just to be sure, but it needs a looong time for that.

The Seatools … first required .Net 4.0 , and then they STILL refused to install …
And I was so stupid to accept the "uninstall" of an earlier version of that on my HD, which I had forgotten to exist !

What percentage of your disk is filled?

Uh, quite a lot … I used to install far too many tiny tools when I was rather an enthusiast.

When a disk gets anywhere from 50% to 75% filled or beyond, depending on the manufacture and age, issues begin to happen. The ability for the hard drive to access information becomes muddled. I hope you have periodically checked to see how much of your disk is fragmented and if need be run the Windows defragmenting tool.

I strongly advise that you go through the items you really don't need and either delete or back-up via DVD or external hard drive. In fact, I suggest that you back up everything that is important even those items you are going to retain on this hard drive.

* Bottom line it sounds like hard drive is in desperate need of freed up space.