How to Check Hard Drive Health?

How to Check Hard Drive Health?Stellar Smart provide an option to monitor the hard
As told by every one that, we never know that whendrive temperature.
would our hard drive fail! However this is not true, weYou can set the warning temperature & shut down
actually do not know this because we don’t wanttemperature. If the temperature of your hard drive
to know it! We have taken our hard drive as taken forreaches the preset warning temperature value then
granted. Today there are many tools present in thethe software will give you the alert messages. And if it
market which can easily act as shield for your driveattains the shut down temperature then system will
and provide early information about the hidden problemautomatically shut down.
of your hard drive.According to me this is very important tool, because
Let me ask you some basic question:you come to know about the temperature of your
Which processor you are using?drive. Usually temperature doesn’t go above a limit,
Which is the speed of the processor?however if it goes that means that there is some
What is the size of the RAM?problem with your drive and you better start taking
I am sure most of you would have answered them,backups of your important file Or get you drive
lets me ask some other question.properly diagnosis.
What is your hard Drive Version?Some common hard disk attributes which Stellar
What is the ideal temperature of your hard drive?Smart makes you aware with are:
How many Bad Sectors are there in your hard drive?Raw Read Error Rate
So, how many questions are answered? You must beIndicates the rate at which read retries is requested.
thinking that there is no need to know all these, I wouldLower values indicate that there is a problem with
say that you are right, till your hard drive doesn’teither the disk surface or the read/write heads.
crash. It’s better to start taking care of our HardSpin Up Time
Drive Health. From my past experience I wouldDescribes the amount of time it takes to spin the disk
suggest Stellar Smart is a very good Hard Driveplatters up to their rated rotation speed (usually 5400
Monitor Tool.or 7200 Revolutions per minute). Values above 80
You can download the demo version from here Youshould be considered good. Values between 70 and
can also try other software present in the market. As I80 are acceptable.
have used the above mentioned software, I would beStart/Stop Count
using this software to make you know how toIndicates the total number of drive start/stop cycles
become the doctor of your hard drive. Now let’s(including both power on/off switching and suspend
give little time to our hard drive as this little time canwakeup switching).
save us from losing all our critical data.Reallocated Sectors Count:
Stellar Smart gives you the basic information aboutIndicates the amount of the spare sector pool that is
your hard drive, likeavailable. Spare sectors are used to replace sectors
• Hard Drive Versionthat become bad for some reason. A value of 100
• SMART Feature (Self-Monitoring Analysis andmeans that no sectors have been replaced so far and
Reporting Technology)a value of 1 means that spare sectors have been
• Model Numberexhausted due to many replacements.
• Serial NumberPower On Hours Count:
• Firmware RevisionIndicates how long the disk was working (powered on).
Other Advanced Information about your hard drive:Spin Retry Count:
• Total SectorsIndicates the number of times the disk was unable to
• Number of Cylindersspin its platters up on the first attempt (lower values
• Number of headsmean more retries).
• Total Sector per TrackTemperature:
• Disk SizeIndicates the temperature of disks equipped with
• Physical Buffer Sizethermal sensors.
These information are basic information of your hardUltra ATA CRC Error Count:
drive which you normally do not require it however,The UDMA controller performs error checking on the
sometimes knowing this information can help you indata it receives from the Hard Disk, ensuring that the
solving other issues related to your hard drive.data was not damaged while being transmitted over
Bad Sectors in your hard Drivethe cable. Each time an error is detected, the controller
Knowing the bad sector in your hard drive is veryrequests a retransmission, thus slowing down the
important is really important, by checking the amount ofoverall transfer speed. Lower values of 'Ultra ATA
Bad sector you can conclude how much vulnerableCRC Error Count' correspond to a higher number of
your drive is..errors, usually indicating a cabling problem
Stellar Smart: Scan Hard diskWrite Error Count:
This feature helps you to know the number of badIndicates the rate at which write retries are requested.
sectors in your hard drive, if you find lots of BadLower values indicate that there is a problem with
sector, then better take the backup and change youreither the disk surface or the read/write heads.
hard drive.Recalibration Retries:
Monitor your hard drive temperatureIndicates the number of times recalibration was
High temperature can harm your hard drive so yourequested. A low value (multiple recalibration) usually
should always monitor your hard drive temperature, orindicates some head positioning problem.
you can set some temperature such that you’reI am sure all these information about you hard drive will
your hard temp goes above it, you receive an alarmhelp you to identify the basic problem with your drive
for that. Some times dust enters the hard drive motorand you can save your self from losing your important
and hinders the motor to run smoothly and thedata. However if you loose your critical data you can
temperature rises and this can lead to hard drivetry some data recovery software or data recovery
failure. However if you are using some temperatureservice.
alert then you can save yourself from losing data.