How to See if Your Hard Drive is Dying-gctid71876

[Ajamu]

How to See if Your Hard Drive is Dying - How-To Geek

                                                                             

 Hard drives use S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting  Technology) to gauge their own reliability and determine if they’re  failing.  You can view your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. data and see if it  has started to develop problems.

 Unfortunately, Windows doesn’t have an easy-to-use built-in tool that  shows your hard disk’s S.M.A.R.T. data.  We will need a third-party  tool to view this information, though there is a way to check your  S.M.A.R.T. status from the command prompt.

 Image Credit: wonderferret on Flickr

Use CrystalDiskInfo

 CrystalDiskInfo is an easy-to-use, open-source program that can  quickly display the S.M.A.R.T. status reported by your hard drive in  Windows.  You can download it for free – however, be sure to uncheck the browser widget when installing it.



 Once it is installed, all you have to do is launch the  CrystalDiskInfo application to view the S.M.A.R.T. status information  for your hard drives.  If everything is working properly, you should see  the status Good displayed.

 CrystalDiskInfo also displays other information about your hard  drive, including its current temperature and hardware specifications.   If there is a problem, you can identify what exactly is wrong with the  hard drive.



 If you are particularly paranoid, you can enable the Function –>  Resident (to keep CrystalDiskInfo running in your system tray) and  Function –> Startup (to have CrystalDiskInfo automatically start with  your computer) options to leave CrystalDiskInfo always running in the  background.  If your S.M.A.R.T. status changes, CrystalDiskInfo will pop  up and alert you.

Checking S.M.A.R.T. Without Third-Party Tools

 To do a quick S.M.A.R.T. check without installing any third-party  software, you can use a few commands included with Windows.  First, open  a Command Prompt window.  (Press the Windows key, type Command Prompt,  and press Enter.)

In the Command Prompt window, type the following commands, pressing Enter after each:
wmic
 diskdrive get status




 If everything is working properly, you should see the status OK  displayed.  Other statuses can indicate problems or errors retrieving  S.M.A.R.T. information.

Help, My Hard Drive Is Dying!

 If you have used either of these tools – or another reputable program  – and have seen an error, this does not mean your hard drive is going  to fail immediately.  However, if there’s a S.M.A.R.T. error, you should  assume that your hard drive is in the process of failing.  A complete  failure could come in a few minutes, a few months, or – in some cases —  even a few years.  However long it takes, you should not trust the hard  drive with your data in the meantime.

 Ensure you have up-to-date backups of all your files stored on  another media, such as an external hard drive or burned discs.  You  should always have up-to-date backups anyway, as hard drives can fail at  any time.

 Read More: What Files Should You Backup On Your Windows PC?

With your files properly backed up, you should look into replacing  your hard drive as soon as possible.  A hard drive that fails a  S.M.A.R.T. test should not be considered reliable.  Even if your hard  drive doesn’t die completely, it could corrupt portions of your data.
  Of course, hardware isn’t perfect – hard drives can fail without any  S.M.A.R.T. warnings.  However, S.M.A.R.T. often gives you some advance  warning when your hard drive is starting to fail.