Windows 10: Checking hard drive for errors

Hello,

I have a 3 yr old Samsung laptop which I thought was behaving properly. Today, Outlook froze and then as I tried to open other programs, each thing froze as well. I left it alone and things eventually sorted themselves out and the computer became functional again.

I looked in Event Viewer and I am seeing a LOT of disk warnings and errors, going all the way back to March. That's as far back as it goes, to the date when I installed Windows 10. (Laptop came with Windows 8 installed, I upgraded to 8.1 and then to 10.) This is in Hard Disk 0, which contains Drive C and several recovery drives.

The errors are mentioning ominous things such as "bad block", so the first thing I would like to do is actually see if the physical hard drive itself is failing. In looking at Settings, I see no indication that it is, it says the drive is healthy.

I've seen reference to software called CrystalDisk, but I would like to be assured of a safe download site for that, or is there other software someone here can recommend?

Thanks.

:)

 

Hard Drive error checking

 

Hard Drive error checking

Open File Explorer and right click the drive you want to check. Go to properties, select the Tools tab and select Error Checking.

 

Hi.
The first thing you should do is run CHKDSK on your drive.
Drive Error Checking in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Then you can download and install PassMark DiskCheckup, to see the values of the SMART attributes. Let it run for a bit so the numbers can settle in.

I've used Crystal Disk Info, and it's good, but it tends to install other garbage, so you have to be cautious.

Finally, SeaTools is good for testing drives. Use the long test.
SeaTools | Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/files/staticf...-dos-guide.pdf

Hope that helps.

 

Thank you.

The first two options--Security and Maintenance and the Properties Drive Tools don't show any errors.

I don't want to do anything other than look and report right now. Would doing Chkdsk from a command prompt just look and report only?

 

I would move on to DiskCheckup at this point.
Let the program run for a while - at least 20 minutes, and "refresh" to see settled-in values. If any of the SMART attributes are moving, DiskCheckup will show them in red, with an estimated TEC (Threshold Exceed Date) listed. Then you can see if anything is failing, but not failed yet.

EDIT: Is this a spinner or SSD?

 

I don't know if it's a spinner or SSD. How can I find that out?

Edit:

I went to the Optimize Drive setting and it lists all the drives as being "Hard Disk" drives. Does that mean SSD? Sorry if that's a silly question, I really know very little about hardware.

 

A "spinner" is a nickname for a mechanical drive - the platters spin and the head reads the data.





A Solid State Drive is like flash memory - no moving parts. It is about the size of a 2.5" spinner that you find in laptops, as opposed to the 3.5" you find in desktops.

Solid State vs. Hard Disk: Differences Between SSD and HDD

 

Performing CHKDSK at startup would attempt to repair the drive, unless you omit the switch (/r or /f). Please run DiskCheckup and view the SMART data. Post a screenshot for us if anything is not "OK".

 

I've been running DiskCheckup and everything is showing as "OK". Short test has completed without error. I'll run the long one and see what happens.

 

This is the tab we're most interested in:









The "tests" in DiskCheckup aren't very reliable - especially the long one; you may find it stalls or errors out.

The "tests" to run are with SeaTools - DOS - long test. That is the best one.

 

You're right about that extended test in DiskCheckup. It got stuck at 10% and wouldn't abort. I shut down the laptop and powered it back up. It now shows that a test was aborted by the host, it seems to be on the short test and still stalled out at 10%. The other short tests run earlier today showed no errors.

I just have a column of "N/A" 's under 'predicted TEC date'.

 

Okay, so it sounds to me like your drive needs CHKDSK run on it to correct errors (it's not uncommon). But you can run the Seagate long test if you like first. It will take quite a while.

 

Disks can get "bad blocks" over time. CHKDSK /r will identify those blocks as unusable, quarant them off, and move any data in them to healthy blocks (if possible). Sounds to me like you need to do this, before any data in them is irrevocably lost.

 

Well, I'm embarrassed and I am offering an apology. I have an external hard drive I leave connected to the laptop and File History is backed up to that. I also use the external storage device to backup our business financial software records. The disk errors reference Hard Disk 1, and in checking my storage management, I see that my computer is calling this external hard drive Hard Disk 1. My internal drive is Hard Disk 0. I powered down the laptop and disconnected the drive, then powered the laptop up and checked Event Viewer. No disk errors listed.

I think I do need to be concerned about the health of the external drive, but that's an easy replacement.

Thanks for your advice and patience, Simrick. I've learned a lot here. I'll mark this thread 'solved', with a huge sigh of relief. And I think I should replace that external hard drive.