All electronic devices have a limited life span after which their life begins to shorten. The same thing applies to computers too. If you find that your computer hangs or freezes often, behaves erratically, or crashes with Stop Errors too frequently, then your computer may be in imminent danger. All these symptoms represent mechanical or physical defects and are signs of a possible Hard Disk Failure. It is therefore imperative that you keep a watch on your Hard Disk health.
Regular monitoring of hard disks with the help of effective tools can not only prevent potential failure but also extend the life of a hard disk. Today, in this post we will cover 3 freeware that will help you monitor hard disks for potential failure, even before you can hear the ‘Click of Death Anthem’. These tools will help in checking the health status, performance, and temperature of your hard drive.
Monitor & Check Hard Disk Health for failure
Here are some free software to monitor & check Hard Disk Health for potential failure:
- PassMark
- Acronis Drive Monitor
- HDD Scan
- Seagate SeaTools
- Crystal Disk Mark
- HD Tune
- Windows Surface Scanner
- Open Hardware Monitor
- HDDlife
- HDD Expert
- GSmartControl
- IsMyHdOK.
Let us take a look at them.
1] PassMark
SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a computer hard disk feature that provides valuable information on the hard disk reliability of a computer. PassMark DiskCheckup allows a user to monitor this SMART feature and its attributes of a particular hard disk drive.
The attributes change slowly over time and therefore help the tool in estimating the life span of a particular drive. The tool predicts the Threshold Exceed Condition by monitoring the changes over a long period and displays them in the main window.
Unlike other programs, this free desktop application for Windows is very small in size (only 1 MB).
TIP: This post will show you how to test Hard Drive speed on a Windows computer.
2] Acronis Drive Monitor
Acronis Drive Monitor can help predict when a hard drive is about to fail, giving you the chance to back up your data and make immediate arrangements for their replacements.
The program requires you to complete a registration form first to download the free Acronis Drive Monitor.
The program prepares weekly status reports that show the electromechanical health of all your drives in one report. Apart from this, Acronis forum share certain scripts with its users which allows them to monitor RAID controllers not using S.M.A.R.T. monitoring technology. Disk-related warnings are displayed in the notification area. Acronis Drive Monitor requires 256 MB RAM space.
3] HDD Scan
HSS Scan is a free tool for diagnosing the health status of a hard dis drive (RAID arrays, Flash USB and SSD drives are also supported). The program works best in diagnosing hard drive for bad blocks and bad sectors and predicting their degradation. Additionally, it can display S.M.A.R.T. attributes and modify certain HDD parameters, such as AAM and APM.
HDD Scan’s Storage device test, such as verification in linear mode, helps to determine whether your drive needs data rescue or not. The program even has command-line support. It is portable and hence, does not require any installation.
More Hard Disk Health analyzer tools
Apart from these, there are a few other related Hard Disk Health analyzer tools that you may want to check out:
Seagate SeaTools | Crystal Disk Mark | HD Tune | Windows Surface Scanner | Open Hardware Monitor | HDDlife | HDD Expert | GSmartControl | IsMyHdOK.
If you have any favorites you’d like to recommend, please do so in the comments section.
