Hard drive check tools?

[piginspring]

Could anyone recommend some tools (not M$ chkdsk) for checking the HDs? My two WD HD's have served me for almost four years. Just wanna make sure they are still "heathy".

Thanks!

 

[daniel49]

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Western Digital has their own stuff too.

 

[piginspring]

Many thanks!

Another question, my MSI KT3-ultra2R board has a feature called SMART. It's now disabled based on an article I read at amdmb forum. Should I turn this feature on?

 

[Zepper]

SMART isn't particularly useful on stand-alone systems. I always disable it in the BIOS.

The Hitachi Drive Fitness Test is also good and it is supposed to test just about all brands and types of drives.

But the best was and is SpinRite from Gibson Research. It aint cheap, just the best: http://www.grc.com . He has lots of free downloadable utilities there. And can test that your firewall is actually protecting you. Shields UP!

.bh.